Day 10 - Teaching an Old Dog

While I love my new apartment, it does present me with some peculiar challenges. The heat is in the floor. Hot water is circulated through the floor. From my understanding, heating the floor has always been the way here. Perhaps this is why they sit on the floor at restaurants and why beds are so low to the ground. You want to be where the heat is. I really like this especially on cold days. Putting your feet on a warm floor in the morning is priceless. But it is posing a problem. I have yet to figure out what is the right temperature. It is not too hard to figure out Celsius. The hard part is knowing how hot the water should be in the pipes to make things comfortable in the apartment. As the weather outside warms, things get a little toasty inside.

Eventually, I will have to figure out how to heat the water without heating the apartment. Yesterday, there was a blackout for maintenance purposes. Just as I got in the shower, the electricity went out. I thought this was perfect timing because I was about to go explore some more of Seoul. Ten seconds later there was no more hot water. I do not understand how that happened. Water doesn't instantaneously return to room temperature. Besides, I would have been happy with room temperature. This water was ice cold!

Another problem I'm having relates to the Asian culture of not wearing shoes in the house. In the guidelines given to me by the housing manager, shoes are strictly forbidden. When I first visited the Institute, I was not aware of this rule as the housing manager was letting me into the efficiency I would be staying in. Whoa! His reaction to my not taking off my shoes was intense. "Shoes! Shoes! Shoes! Dr. Bradley! Shoes!". Oops, my bad. Anyway, breaking that rule could get you kicked out of the apartment. Ok, so it is not that hard to get in the habit of taking off your shoes (I am now shopping for slip on shoes by the way). The problem comes from the shower. Both bathrooms have a shower head and a drain in the floor. The entire bathroom is a shower. I like this. I hate shower curtains. But a result of no shower curtain is that the floor is wet. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit to the number of times I have had to change my socks because I forget this. My morning routine is so set that I actually have to put my hairbrush, toothbrush and deodorant in the other bathroom. I have tried to remember to put my socks on last, but I often forget. Those that know me are about to say, "Duh!", but I am truly a creature of habit.