Hey, wanna come over?

Here it is! Sorry for the long delay. Our brand new home in all it's square footage. It may be small, but it's got spunk, and class.

This is an apartment for one person, but Brian gets paid a housing stipend (about 300 USD) to live in it instead of his own apartment. The place is free for us, we just have to pay utilities and a 30 USD maintenance fee for 2 in a 1 person. It's well worth it for the setup we have. Our landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, live in the floor above us and they're such honey pies. Our washing machine broke down when we first got here, so we were walking around with our laundry when Mr. Lee saw us and showed us the laundry machine in the garage of our building. He explained how to use it and we told him we'd try it another day because we were spending the night at David and Duck's. But he wouldn't hear of it. He told us to go ahead and do the laundry (he speaks a little English, but we sherade a lot with each other) and that he'd hang it up on the lines on the roof for us. What landlord have you ever known to do something like that for a tennant? They take great pride in the cleanliness of their building too, which is very nice for us because the buildings nearby are sick. There's recycling and food waste all over the entrance ways.

We're also in an ideal location. It's about a 20 minute bus ride for Brian and I to get to our schools - a necessary buffer judging from what we've heard about kids following teachers home (not in a creepy way, just because they LOVE their English teachers, which depending on your disposition, could still be creepy). The area near our apartment is a lot of fun. We're about a 5 minute walk from 2 universities (where there's a subway stop), so there's a ton of cheap, delicious restaurants and bars and kareoke rooms nearby. There's always a party if you want it, but we're just far enough away from the relentless nightlife that it's quiet. 5 minutes walking in the other direction there's the UN Peace Park, a large green area where we can run and people watch. The UN cemetary is also there. There's also the Busan Cultural Center (ballets, symphonies, etc.) and Busan Metropolitan Museum (30 cents fee, haven't been in yet but we hear it's good). Near the universities there's a street market where we buy all our produce, including the best dubu (tofu) I've ever tasted. I feel that I could say more, but I think I've tantalized you all enough into coming to visit. You can get an idea of the lay out from these google earth images. If you want the interactive version, email me (jessbartels@gmail.com) and I'll send it to you. I couldn't figure out how to embed it here.


Here's the grand view.

Zoomed in on our apartment, Kyungsung area, and our schools.


A close up of the house and park.

Same view scooted up to the Kyungsung area.

A close up of our schools.

And one of David and Duck's place.

Jess