House Hunting: Complete

This week has been a very busy one for us: we commuted into Seoul 3 days looking for a new apartment. Monday we looked at over 10 places, and Tuesday 7. The last place we saw on Tuesday was a loft in a newer building, and we told the real estate agent that we wanted it. There was a slight problem in that we need to be the last week in August, but these poeple couldn't be out until the 10th of September. We left Seoul with the impression that the place was ours and that the broker would negotiate the dates for us. Wednesday we stayed in Wonju; B packed a lot of our stuff and I headed to the beach for a bit with Roxanne for some much needed rays! On Thursday we headed into Seoul thinking that we would meet with our broker, sign the papers, and be done. When we arrived at his office, he informed us that the original one we had wanted had been leased to another couple the day before, but that we shouldn't worry as he had another one available. We looked at this new one, and were disappointed to see that it was smaller than the 1st one...we discussed it and decided that, even though it was smaller, we should take it since it came with a few appliances including a washer, a fridge, and AC. When we attempted to sign the papers, we hit another snag: the owner of the apartment wanted to keep it in his name for tax purposes which meant that we wouldn't be able to have our name on the city records. This didn't sit well with us since we have to fork over $10,000 as a deposit (which we'll get back when our lesase is up). We told the broker that we need a place where our name can be on the lease, and in turn he showed us this small, one room studio and said that was the best he could do.

In the meantime, Seoul was scorching yesterday so we were sweating (literally & figuratevly) while deciding what to do. We returned to an apartment that we had seen earlier; the place itself was great but the nieghborhood was old and rundown and it was the last stop on the subway (far from everything). We almost took that one but hemmed and hawed our way out of it since there was another one in a great part of town that we wanted to see one more time. This one is in a quiet, clean part of Seoul but the major stores are just 15 minutes away by foot. The apartment complex itself is old and seems a bit on the rundown side, but the apartment itself is clean and spacious. It's similar to our current apartment except that it's a bit smaller. It's on the 1st floor, and it overlooks a small wooded area (almost unheard of in Seoul). We signed the papers last night at 8pm and will be moving in on August 27th. It's a bit daunting as this place doesn't come with any appliances, so we'll have to start hunting for those soon. Other than that, it'll be a good place for us to live!!

In other news, we come home for a visit in 3 days!! We leave on Monday morning (our time) and arrive at MSP on Monday afternoon at 1:20pm!! We're so excited to see family and friends!!!

Seoul

You can see how densely urban it is just a few blocks away (bottom left corner)