The Good ol' Switcheroo

There are a few notable differences between Korean apartments and Canadian ones and unfortunately, the two most challenging ones (for me, at least) have to do with switches.  Now, none of this is really a big deal… unless you're me.  Some of my friends at home enjoy reminiscing about one cold, winter night when I succeeded in turning off the heating system in the basement as I was helpfully turning off the lights before going to bed.  Apparently, in my mind, if I find a switch who function is unknown to me, I should logically switch it off and leave it like that. Needless to say, my friend and her family were not overly please when they woke up to a bone chilling house and came downstairs to discover my mistake… Keeping this in mind, let's look at the few fore-boding differences between Korean apartments and Canadian ones.

Funnily enough, the first difference has to do with the water heater.  In order to save gas, the water heater is not kept on 24/7 but is instead controlled by a switch on the wall that I can turn on and off at any time.  Now, in general, this isn't a big deal as long as you can remember to turn it on and off, which I have failed to do on many occasions thus far. Before I can forget to turn if off, however, I do have to remember to turn it on in the first place.  I spent a pretty long time yesterday waiting for the shower to warm up before realizing that in order for this to occur, I would have to turn on the hot water. I did the same thing when I was doing my dishes.  Though I have so far been slow on the up-take in turning it on, I'm having no better luck at remembering to turn it back off afterwards! The switch is no where near any water source and is, therefore, out of sight, out of mind.  Luckily, it is in the main room right over my bed and beside the light switch, so I have, so far, noticed my mistake fairly quickly!  There are also some other buttons that go along with the water heater that someone has graciously translated and labelled.  Apparently the same switch also controls the floor heater in the winter.  Can't wait to mess up that one!

The next abnormality also has to do with the water system… In fact, the three things I'll be talking about in this post are about water.  This next one is to do with the shower.  Here I am yet again faces with another switch.  In Korea, they don't have a separate shower stall or bath tub.  Instead, they have a drain in the floor and a shower head connected to the sink.  It's actually pretty cool and quite convenience when it comes to cleaning the washroom; you just spray down the walls, floor, toilet, etc., and all the dirt magically disappears down the drain (Half way through my first shower, the metal hood that mysteriously covers the toilet paper role suddenly didn't seem so strange)! 

The down side to this shower arrangement, however, is (I’m sure you've guessed it), you have to remember to switch the water back over to the tap in the sink when you're finished showering… I have yet to forget this crucial last step, but I know from personal experience that it's only a matter of time before I end up spraying myself in the face when I go to wash my hands. In the meantime, all I can do is wait.

The last difference that I'll talk about right now is that the tap water isn't safe to drink.  Instead, I have a water cooler. Not big deal. I get the water jugs delivered to my apartment through the Hagwon for 10,000 w (that's just over $10), which is pretty cheap.  Bottled water in general is dirt cheap over here.  In stores I can usually buy a half litre for 1,000 w (just over a dollar).