So this is where I live.

One of the perks of the job, and what makes saving money a whole heap easier than in previous jobs, is an apartment provided by the school. When I arrived I was given a choice of a one bedroom apartment building just behind the house of the parents of my boss, or a room in a 3 bed apartment in an apartment block "Sam Jin", sharing with the other English teacher at the school. While the single apartment had its appeal - a traditional style Korean design, for one, it was further out from the centre of town than Sam-Jin and I decided I didn't much like the idea of living on my own, just incase I got too lonely..!!

So Sam-Jin it is. Rent free with only the bills to pay each month. The apartment is ample size for two single girls. Any more than that and it would become too much of a squeeze with no breathing space. As it is, we can leave worksheets and lesson plans and songbooks all over the place and it bothers neither of us. Next door to us there is a family with two children and I wouldn't like to think how to manage four people in this space.

Everyone knows who we are, which is disconcerting when you have no idea about them.

It's interesting to compare the style of living though with its equivalent in the UK. From the photos I bet you can form an impression of the building and I bet you're thinking high rise council estates. It couldn't be more different in atmosphere. There are lots of young families here and the kids run around inside and out, day and night with no sense at all of any danger or anything untoward happening to them. Having had the unpleasant experience of being burgled twice in the space of a year in London, its such a lovely feeling to be off the ground floor and therefore not vulnerable to break-ins, but during the summer when the heat became unbearable we noticed everyone propped open their front doors to allow the draft through leaving their homes and such like to observation from all and sundry (Especially nosey weigooks keen to see how Koreans live...) The Koreans must value their private space as much as anyone, especially in the smaller apartments, but I have to admit it's lovely to not worry about who might be prowling around your front door waiting for an opportunity to sneak in.

Everyone knows who we are, which is disconcerting when you have no idea about them. But over the few years that the school has been open and foreign teachers been staying in Sam-Jin, people must have come to know that the English-teachers-who-speak-no-Korean live in Apt 705, Building 102. Taxi drivers.. Pizza delivery.. The Man in the Bank... its quite comforting really.