Prospect Of Three Apartments

I met up with Matt last night and pieced together more of my forgotten Wednesday evening. As well as going to a Norebang and phoning Kristi to shout abuse at her, I also yelled abuse at some Koreans who were fighting outside Matt's apartment - insulting their mothers, it seems - and hurled abuse at Matt the whole evening before physically attacking him in his apartment. Apparently the actual fight took place durng the call to Kristi, and she expressed a degree of bemusement and amusement at the whole thing. Also, I passed out in the Norebang but only after the dentist, and another two people joined me later. Matt says that one of the dentists, married, was also cavorting with a dental nurse with a boyfriend.

I remember nothing.

Last night was possibly a very significant night however. I met with Matt and Kristi and we went out to her place. She lives quite far away, at the very end of the subway line in Ansim and has to commute to work - up to two hours daily. I think she finds this very inconvenient, as you can imagine, especially as most other English teachers live 5 minutes walk away.

But on the other hand, her apartment is fantastic. Better than anywhere else I've seen in Korea - certainly for an English teacher. A massive main room and joined kitchen, with three bedrooms leading off it, each room with a balcony (4th floor). It's a beautiful place, peaceful and relaxing, and just so big for just her. It's the kind of place you can work for 20 years before living in.

And still, she's considering moving somewhere closer to work. She feels it's too distant and makes it harder to meet up with people. Me and Matt are having none of this. The place is fabulous, no way is she leaving.

So we're moving in. It'd only be a 15 minute commute for me and the extra time is more than worth it. Most English teachers live in small studio apartments, like me. I don't mind my place, I've made it seem quite homely, but it's next to a busy road, is never quiet, and Kristi's place is 100 times better. I wouldn't move out of my place entirely, just keep it as a second home.

With Matt's apartment as a 3rd. We're all going to be flatmates in Kristi's place, and have two other apartments shared between us. An ideal arrangement - effectively we'll have three residences.

Kristi's still toying with the idea but I think the prospect of having flatmates may sway her. Even bad, bad men like myself and Matt. With three of us there, in fabulous accomodation as it is, more people would come to visit anyway and it would quite a social centre. We could have excellent parties but it's also an excellent place just to relax.

Me and Matt are moving in on Tuesday, whether Kristi likes it or not.

Ok, just the afternoon of teaching to go, and then it's to Cheonan with Matt to see H, and then on Saturday we're all going to the DMZ. Demilitarized zone, the border between North and South Korea. One of the tensest in the world. We're going to get raging drunk and defect to the North.