Moving to a Villa in Seoul

A Korean removal van 

We’ve had to move again (after less than a year at our old apartment) and with the chaos of stuff lying around the floor I haven’t had a chance to do any Dong Yi posts at all. Last time we moved, it all went so smoothly so I wasn’t so worried this time. But …

…last time we had a dream team of 4 people who packed up all our stuff and put it all away carefully in the new flat – even the books on the bookshelf were placed back in EXACTLY  the same order as before! This time was a different story. But partly the problem was that this place is a lot smaller than the old flat, so I guess it was harder to find a place for everything and after the team left us the inside of the flat looked like a rubbish dump – piles of clothes and futons and kitchen utensils lying around everywhere.

Part of me wanted to complain about that (the other team would at least have left things neatly folded and piled up) not to mention the broken glass in the large picture frame and the bent curtain rail amongst other things. But  when I saw the sweat dripping down their faces in the hot summer sun with no air conditioning carting our stuff over the balcony to be sent down to the truck, I couldn’t say anything. 🙁

Anyway, we’ve moved out of a tall blocks of flats which are called apartu (apartments) here. Apartments are usually built in a large complex. Here’s our old view…

and we’ve moved into  a “villa” which sounds (to me at least) quite swanky, but it isn’t. It’s a low block of flats usually with no more than 4 or 5 floors.  Apartments are the most popular but are more expensive than villas. Here’s our new view…

I like it. It’s got atmosphere and to be honest I don’t understand the obsession with living in apartments. But maybe I will, in time? Maybe there is something dreadful about villas that I haven’t discovered yet.

I suppose security is better in apartments since there are security guards on duty 24 hours a day and I bet apartments are warmer in winter too.  But on the other hand, they are not the friendliest places to live with neighbours often not greeting each other when they see each other.

One of the strange things I found about living in the apartment block was that the flats also have speakers inside built into the walls connecting to the caretaker’s office. So I could be sitting watching TV and suddenly a loud voice booms out around the room telling me that someone has not parked their car properly in the car park or that the meat van has arrived outside building number 132, if anyone wants to go and buy some pork or whatever. Useful information I suppose but I never got used to all those messages at all times of the day.

The villa is fine and near the shops and from the window I can hear sounds of life below. I don’t feel as removed as I did before. So it’s all good, although I’m still rummaging through our stuff but will still find time to watch Dong Yi tonight.