As you may or may not have guessed, I've been staying with my aunt and uncle on the west side of Seoul. For those of you who are not familiar with housing in Seoul, the city is characterized by apartment villages. Basically, there are about 10 apartment buildings, 14-20 stories high and about 2,000 families living in those buildings. And funny enough, if you are pretty well off, you live in an apartment and not in a house. Unless you're baller status ...then you live in a nice private house.
So I'm in one of those apartment villages and it is incredible to think of the number of people living in these buildings. And in the evening, all the kids come out and play...it must be so much fun having so many kids to play with!
Oh, and here the "It Takes a Village" mentality is pretty strong ...the neighboring dads and mom will yell at kids who are making a raucous and the security guard comes by and tells the kids to go home when it's too late.
And grandma's and grandpa's will yell at you for not giving up your seat on the subway or if you do something rude. Gotta love it. Haha .. :)
Today I'm finally moving in to my new place!! I'll have to put up pictures soon ...I keep saying I will but I never seem to have time to take pictures of anything. I'm always walking around or cleaning or something. Having my own place makes things so much more official. I love it! Maybe if I get a job I'll stay a little longer than a year after all.....or perhaps it's too early to tell.
Yesterday I went to this place called Tescos Home Plus (for my London buddies, yes it's the same Tescos that we went to from time to time) and it was probably around 9:00 p.m. but it looked like it was 5:00 p.m. because there were SOOO many people!!! And not just young people ...I'm talking families too! You think New York City is the city that never sleeps? Forget it ...it's Seoul for sure.
I can't wait to get started with school. I'm getting so restless!!
***obSerVatIons:
1. Seoul is SO fast-paced ...much more so than LA or NYC.
2. I miss Epoch and Grace ....a lot!
3. God has been so gracious as to provide decent weather the past week ...otherwise I would have probably wanted to go home.
