Apartment hunting Korea style

There are a fair share of disgusting apartments in Toronto; God knows I have seen them, but Korea takes the cake. The older homes are a bit like Iran (hate to sound like a broken record ut its true). We saw two hideous apartments that I wouldnt let Oscar sleep in. Let me tell you about the first winner we saw that left me in tears.

Yang Dong is the old area of Gwangju and there is an old style market there called- you guessed it Yang Dong market. There you can buy everything from fabric, to seafood, to clothing, to veggies and much to my surprise, cats, dogs, frogs, chickens, ducks, and any other living thing that has "medicinal purposes".

The house we saw which was in a back alley of YD market was about 450 square feet on 2 floors. It was dirty, oddly shaped, gross, painted dark blue and dark green, and gross. Did I mention this place was gross??? It had no tub, no fridge, no A/C and no staircase. That's right folks, it was a metal ladder up to the second floor. AND the bathroom was on the first floor, so every time you nedded to go "make water" (as they used to say), you'd be risking your life.

We then walked out and into the market. I saw the "animal" stand a few hundred feet from the place and saw about 10 cats stuffed inside a cage on top of each other ALIVE! and a couple of dogs in another. Chris saw live frogs in plastic bags, and the smell, OH THE SMELL was overwhelming. I broke down and started sobbing and we had to get the F*#@ out of there PRONTO!

The second place was a little better. At least it was clean, and empty. It was however an extension of a house and the loo was outside- the squatty kind- and the shower was in the kitchen! I couldnt go there!

This morning my Korean friend Kevin took me apartment hunting. He made a few calls and we went to see a place a few minutes from here. It is a brand new building with large bachelor apartments. Here you require key money and in return the rent is very cheap, so we talked the guy down from 5 K to 3 K for key money and took up the rent 50 bucks to 350 a month. A place like this would be about 800 dollars in TO, especially the location being where it is. It still doesnt have a fridge but it has AC and cable is included. So there you have it folks, its all good. We get the place Friday and I am taking the ceaning lady there to clean it, and then Wed. we move.

It still isnt as nice as this place but it is new and clean and central. That is all that matters.

Will post pics of the place once we have settled in.