Today marked my first exam in Korea, and also the beginning of a four-week vacation. I realized that I have made a lousy job of showing you details from my life in Seoul so far, with school and travels filling all of my time the last 2 months. That will change now that I have time to brush the dust of my camera and take it for a spin or two. This weekend we’re traveling up North to the DMZ (the Korean Demilitarized Zone), the border between North and South Korea, so stay tuned for photos and some words about the experience.
For now I wanted to show you some photos of my hotel room-sized studio in Sinchon. It’s not big, the bed is hard as stone, but it’s home.
As mentioned in previous posts, Korea is obsessed with anything cute. This tea infuser shaped like a bird is one of the things that were allowed into my somewhat less cute apartment. I bought the chair in the furniture district in Ahyeon.
A new addition to my wall decor. I decided it was time to map out all the countries I’ve visited so far, and start planning for my next great adventure. Africa and most of Asia is far to bleak for my taste, so hopefully I’ll be able to add some more color to those areas in the coming years.
Breakfast-essentials: cereal with banana milk. Korea is obsessed with banana milk (banana-flavored milk), and it took me two days to realize why. It’s delicious!
My very compact and compartmentalized kitchen. Most of Korean food is made on a stovetop, so you rarely see ovens in Korean kitchens. In my apartment they’ve switched it out with a washing machine to save space. They do however love microwaves, so I’m planning on investing in one as a present for myself if I get accepted into the master’s program I’m applying for.
One of the things I hate about Seoul (the only thing I hate about the city so far really) is the sheer amount of mosquitos they have here. Plants are a breeding ground for mosquitos, they lay their eggs in still puddles of water, so I don’t want live plants in my apartment. Enter succulents. They require little water, but still give my apartment some illusion of green.
Coffee is ridiculously expensive in Seoul compared to everything else, the average price of a cappuccino (4500 KRW = $4.2 = 28 NOK) is the same as the average prize for a meal at a café or restaurant. To cut down on my coffee budget I gifted myself a moka pot. A lot less expensive than an espresso machine, but still makes great coffee.
If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that I have recently taken up knitting again, and it’s turned into this manic obsession that will probably ruin my hands and leave my apartment looking like Husfliden. It does give me something to do while I’m listening to audio clips from my Korean class, in addition to my favorite podcasts.
It took me over 5 weeks to locate one, but I finally found a silicon keyboard mat at Artbox the other day. This means that I can now write my Korean homework on my computer. It conveniently displays both the Korean and Western-styled letters on the keyboard, which means that when I change the internal keyboard to Korean I can now see where I need to type.
Essential Korean words.
My bathroom.
My non-ebook books. Thinking of rebinding them to make them look pretty. The different colors clashing with the orange background is driving me crazy.
Is there anything specific you want to know or see pictures of from Korea?
And do you have any tips for what I should do with my free time in November?
This was such a lovely post to read. I didn’t know all these things about life in Korea, so interesting! x
Hopefully I’ll be able to give you a new insight into Korea, Daria. And inspire you to put it on the top of your list of travel destinations!
Så fint du har det!
Får virkelig ikke lov til å klage! ^-^
Hello. Wel,l my question is not particularly about Korea but your Mac. Mine fell down from our library some weeks ago and now there is a sort of dent/scratch on the cover. I would like to cover it with something but could not find something so far to may taste until I saw your beautiful mint colour. Is it a skin or sticker, and where did you get it if you do not mind my asking? Thanks!
It’s a skin! I bought it here in Seoul at a store called Artbox. That being said, there are plenty of them available online. Mine just covers my keyboard, so if you want something to cover your cover I would try search for “macbook covers” on Etsy! They’ve got some really pretty ones that will cover the damage in addition to making your laptop look cute!