Family Ties

We've been living with my cousins Haekgyung and Hyunjun for the last week and a half or so. Most of the time it's just us four -- my aunt and uncle live and work a few hours from here and aren't home much. Most mornings, Haekgyung's out the door by 7:30, which leaves the house to Nissa, Hyunjun and me for a few hours. Usually Nissa and I get up around 9, cereal and OJ close at hand, and go online to check e-mails, look for jobs and see what happened on the other side of the world while we were asleep. Hyunjun gets up anywhere from that same time to a couple hours later, depending on when his classes start that day at Hongik University. When he's got some time to kill he slays orcs and demons in World of Warcraft.

When Nissa and I finally get out of the house, it always seems to be for something different. One day it was going out to get my alien identification card. Another day we went book hunting and walked around Gyeongbukgung Palace. We've taken a couple strolls alongside the Chungyechung, a beautifully designed stream that cuts through central Seoul. I've had a couple job interviews. Last night, we went looking for a bindaeduk (seafood/meat cakes) place we found in a Lonely Planet guide -- the restaurant was packed and the food turned out to be great. And at the end of every night, we've come back to this house and usually gotten to spend some time with Haekgyung and Hyunjun, either watching some TV together, teaching each other some English/Korean, or cleaning up a horrific bug infestation in the kitchen. It's been a pretty fun time. That's why I think I'll be a little sad to move out on Monday.

Hyunjun helped Nissa and me find an apartment today near the Korean language school we'll be attending in a couple weeks. It also happens to be right down the street from a job I got writing an English textbook for a business language school. The apartment is fantastic -- not very large but large by Seoul standards, it has a living room and a loft, kitchen with a bar and chairs, and a great view of the city. The signing of the lease was a little harrowing, though. Or, I should say, Hyunjun's signing of the lease was. We decided it would be safer for him to sign it because he's a Korean citizen, and the 10 million won ($8,000) deposit would have a better chance of being returned to him in full at the end of the lease. Still, we couldn't have done any of it without him. He talked to the agent and the building manager through the whole deal, translated for us, and ultimately signed the papers for the apartment in his name. It was his first time signing a Korean lease. I told him we owed him a nice, big meal somewhere. But we were all so hungry after the experience, we just got lunch at a McDonald's nearby. I think I still owe him that meal.