Only in Korea part 1

Washing machine mystery:

It is a mystery what the washing machine buttons mean. Living in a foreign country is always a challenge, but the language barrier is generally the most exciting or most frustrating depending on your perspective. Our method for washing clothes now consists of pressing buttons randomly, hoping that what we have selected does not translate to “shred” in Korean. And of course, washing clothes is made even more entertaining by the lack of dryers. Dryers are a rarity outside of the U.S. So our mode of drying consists of hanging clothes on any and every surface in the house, including the heated floor.

The heated floors:

It is a beautiful thing, heated floors. I find that I prefer it to our method of blowing hot air out of a vent. But we have discovered something of interest happens when the heated floor is left on high while we lay our head to rest at night. The bed, even one that is raised high above the floor, towards the middle of the night, no longer feels like a mattress of cushion, but a bed of fire laden coals. Our first night in our floor- heated apartment, we woke up a blaze. Upon placing our bare feet on the floor, we also ascertained that walking on the wood of a heated floor left too high for too long, might cause burning. It is a mistake we are sure not to make again. This video of Kyle gives you an idea of our love for this heating system.

The voice of God:

It turns out that privacy in Korea is not as important as it is to Westerners. One afternoon, as were lounging in our apartment, the dongs of a harmonious bell graced our ears. I recognized the sound of the beginning of an announcement immediately, for it was the same notes used at our old school. And then the voice spoke. Looking around for the source of God, we discovered a speaker above our television. The intrusive Korean voice spoke for nearly two minutes before relinquishing the microphone, and leaving us in peace. Since then, we have beheld this occurrence at least three more times and each time we search for some way of disconnecting this invasive voice from entering our apartment, and each time we find no means to shut it out. I now have a greater understanding and appreciation of privacy, which is evidently highly undervalued here in Korea.