Registering my new address

Since I recently moved I had to go and register my new address at the immigration office. I really don't like dealing with this type of things, but now it's all taken care of. When you change your address in Korea, you have to report it at the immigration office within 14 days or you might end up paying a really high fine. Actually, the date on our contract is about 3 weeks old, so I was worried that they might try to charge me something. But really, people don't usually move on the exact date they sign the contract for the new place, do they? And actually, neither did we. Luckily there were no problems at the office.

The immigration office is located on the opposite part of the city form when I live, so it took me more than an hour to get there by bus, or actually by buses, since I had to transfer too. It's been a while since I took a city bus in Jeonju and I almost forgot how much I hated buses. Not only in Korea, I think it's pretty much the same back in my country. Luckily the only uncomfortable thing this time was when a woman sitting next to me didn't get up or at least move her legs to let me get pass her and exit the bus. I basically had to climb over her which was quite uncomfortable for me since I was wearing a skirt and probably uncomfortable for her as well since my butt was right in her face, but that was really not my fault - better move next time, woman! :P

Anyway, after an hour long bus ride I finally got to the Immigration office. I've been to Jeonju immigration office twice now and I never had to wait for too long. As opposed to the one in Daegu where no matter what time you arrive, there are always at least 20 people ahead of you. I was the first one in line and I would have finished it all in 5 minutes if... I had some cash with me. :( I left home in a hurry and forgot to get some cash. So I had to leave the office, walk 5 minutes (in the rain) to the nearest bank and get some cash. When I got back to the office, there was already a queue of 5 people so I had to wait for a while. My fault. But finally it was my turn.

For a registration of a new address you need the following documents:
-an application form (which you can print out from the internet or get at the immigration office)
-your passport
-your alien registration card
-copy of the new contract
-letter of guarantee from the person who singed the contract if the contract isn't signed under your name

There was no problem with my documents, except that there was no more space for a new address on my alien registration card. So I had to pay to get a new one made. It isn't that cheap. It costs 30.000krw and I had to pay for the delivery cost. It should arrive by mail within 2 or 3 weeks. While getting a new one made I should have asked them to change the photo for me, but I didn't think of it, I just wanted to get back home asap. I really look like a ghost on my alien registration card. >.<

So I'm done and I don't need to worry about this anymore. Our new home is starting to look really nice! Almost all is done now, except for the small room. We need to get a desk and a chair to put in there, some storage boxes for the extra blankets... and I think that's it. ^^ Well, that's it for now, I've got some vacuum cleaning to do. :)

Spring and cherry blossom ^^

Finally spring is really here~ it's already the middle of April and it's usually quite warm at this time. But this year it seems to be a bit colder. We also have a lot of rain. Back in my country, April is known as the 'wet month' because of the amount of rain. But here in Korea, April shouldn't be particularly wet. It's June/July when it should rain the most, because of the rainy season. But maybe Slovenian spring followed me to Korea. :)

Still, last weekend it was really sunny and warm and it would have been a shame not to go out and enjoy the nature a bit. Everything is in bloom and it's also the time for the famous cherry blossom. Cherry blossom usually doesn't last more than two weeks and they started more than a week ago already. However, it's been raining a lot and there's just no fun watching the cherry blossom in the rain. There were a couple of nice warm days last week, but my boyfriend works till late, so we didn't have time till the weekend. I was afraid a lot of it would be gone because of the rain, but luckily it still looked beautiful. ^^

There are so many places to see cherry blossom in Korea and a lot of university campuses have them too, so we decided to visit a university in Iksan. Iksan is a small city only about twenty or thirty minutes away from Jeonju and the university we visited is called WonKwang. There were a lot of couples and families with children walking around, sitting on benches and watching cherry blossom.

I really like how this university has so many benches everywhere. We also walked around a bit, took some photos and then found a nice place to sit beneath the cherry trees. It was so warm, more than 20°C and there was almost no wind either. Every now and then when the wind blew a bit, the white cherry leaves would fly around like snow. It was so nice that we didn't even want to move. I could have fallen asleep right there on that bench. :)

 
Later we decided to have some dinner near the university. Usually next to every university there is this one street that has lots of good restaurants, cafes, norebang (karaoke), dvd rooms etc., where the students hang out. So we were going to eat there. But parking is usually the problem in such areas. After driving around for a while we kind of gave up. It didn't look like we'd be able to park there, so we decided to go back to Jeonju and eat some curry.

It was such a nice Saturday. I was really glad that I was able to see cherry blossom this year after all. I know it's Japan that's most famous for cherry blossom. I mean, who hasn't heard of the word sakura? Hanami is another Japanese word associated with cherry blossom, literally meaning 'flower watching' and means having a picnic under the blooming cherry trees. But in truth, cherry blossom is just as popular in Korea, even though the Korean word for it (bbeotkott) might be much harder to pronounce. There is also a word like hanami, which is bbeotkkotnori, but here it doesn't literally mean 'watching the cherry blossoms' but having fun or playing beneath the cherry blossom. -nori means a game, amusement etc. and it is found in many other words such as bulkkeotnori (fire+flower+amusement = fireworks).

Last time someone on facebook posted this article about where cherry blossom really comes from originally. Apparently China and many other Asian countries enjoy cherry blossom too. And now they are arguing whether it's really Japan that's the real home of cherry blossom or whether they actually came from China. I thought the whole thing couldn't be more ridiculous. Why must people always argue about everything, even about something so beautiful as cherry blossom. I don't care where it comes from, I just want to enjoy it during those two weeks, whether I'm in Korea, Japan, China or any other place that has them.

Can you find cherry blossom in your country? If you can't, I'm sure there are plenty of other beautiful flowers blooming right now. Make sure you take some time to get away from all the stress and observe the nature in spring. Maybe do as Koreans do and open a bottle of soju (Korean alcohol) or beer while you're at it, too. :)

Also, you might enjoy this song from Busker Busker called Cherry Blossom Ending. It's nice and it's perfect for spring. ^^ The music video is cute too.

Black Day

April 14th is known as the Black Day in Korea. It's nothing scary. ;) It's actually similar to Valentine's day and White day. Remember how on Valentine's days girlfriends buy chocolate for their boyfriends and how on White day boyfriends buy candy for their girlfriends? So who buys what and to whom on Black day? Well, there are no presents. Black day is not for couples, it's for single people. :)

February 14th - Valentine's day

March 14th - White day

April 14th - Black day

Yes, finally! It's not always all about couples. I know how annoying it can be when you're single on holidays like this. Even Christmas is more or less for couples in Korea. Then there's Valentine's and White day and Rose day and so on... but at least there is one day for singles too :)

On black day singles or people who didn't receive any gifts on Valentine's and White day get together and eat jajangmyeon. Yes, it's jajangmyeon again. :) The reason people eat jajangmyeon on black day is very simple - it's because of its black color. Jajangmyeon (as you probably know by now) is noodles in black soybean sauce. And even though black sauce might sound or look strange, it is very very yummy! I love jajangmyeon.

So on black day friends gather over some jajangmyeon and then complain about their love lives or the lack of it :) Well either that, or they can just celebrate being single. :)

My boyfriend and I also wanted to go and eat some jajangmyeon for dinner tonight. Even though we're a couple we just both really love jajangmyeon. But then we decided not to go. For one thing, that delicious chinese place near our house might be crowded tonight. The other reason is, we usually eat dinner at home during the week and eat out on weekends. So we'll have some jajangmyeon this Saturday instead. Also, we don't want to upset any singles out there like on the picture below hehe ;)

Well Korea actually has a lot of special days on the 14th day of the month. After Valentine's day, White day and Black day there are others too.

May 14th - Rose day

June 14th - Kiss day

December 14th - Hug day

But these days are not really that popular. I guess Rose day, Kiss day and Hug day are. But other, I've never even heard of. There are also Silver day, Green day, Movie day, Music Day, Whine day and Candle day as I've just discovered online. But I've never heard of them and neither has my boyfriend. I think most people don't really celebrate those. But I guess some might, and why not? It's a fun thing to do as a couple. But it can also be too much. I think my boyfriend and I have enough holidays for now. We've got our anniversary coming up soon too. ^^

Anyway, I hope you have a great day whether you're single or not. If you can't get jajangmyeon then treat yourself to some other type of food that you like and have fun. ^^

We moved! ^^ (Renting a place in Korea)

We've been really busy lately trying to find a bigger place for us, so I didn't have much time to update my blog. We've been living together for a while now and our place was really nice but also really small. It is what the Koreans call a one-room. That means that except for the bathroom and a tiny balcony with the washing machine, we only had one room that was living room, bedroom and kitchen all in one. Well luckily the kitchen was kind of separated a bit from the rest of the room, but still. We made it as nice and cozy as possible, but it's really meant for just one person. And now we decided it was time to move to a bit bigger place.

Similar to one-rooms, there are also two-rooms, three-rooms and four-rooms available to rent. We plan to stay in our new place for a while so we decided to look for a three-room. All the house renting in Korea is done through the real estate agencies that are called budongsan. You can search for places on the internet or through various mobile apps. And when you find the one you like you contact the budongsan and they show you the place.

We've seen several different three-rooms and apartments and while some actually look better than on the photos, some look A LOT worse. We really wanted a clean, rather new place. Sometimes the real estates agents can show you some other rooms they think you might like if you don't like the first one. The good ones are gone within a day, so you have to be lucky too. It's really been stressful running around, looking for something that we'd like... you see something so nice online and then when you see it in person it's all so dirty and old... and you feel so disappointed. But we got lucky. Last week a new three-room add just appeared online and we called in the morning already. We sat up an appointment with the budongsan and went to check it out. This one actually looked better than on the photos and it was quite big compared to most three-rooms. It was perfect for us. It had a big kitchen, which was the most important thing for me, and two bathrooms, one of them quite spacious, which was the most important for my boyfriend. :) So we decided to take it.

There are several ways to pay for the room. You can buy it, but seriously, who can afford to buy an apartment these days? Then you have joensae. This means you pay a large amount of money (probably less than a third of what the place is worth) and then you get that amount back once your contract is done. This is really good if you can afford it. Altogether you pay less than the monthly payments would cost and you get it back in the end. However, this can also be dangerous, because in case that for some reason the owner of the place doesn't give you the money back, the insurance company won't cover all the costs but only a certain amount. I don't really have much experience with it, but this is what my boyfriend told me. And then, there is wolsae, which is a monthly rent. Together with the monthly rents, there is always a key deposit which can also be quite expensive. Usually if you pay more for the key deposit the monthly rent is cheaper, and if the key deposit is cheap, then monthly payments are higher.

For example, an average one-room in Jeonju (prices here are a lot cheaper than in Seoul for example) would costs between 200.000won to 300.000won monthly with a key deposit between one and three million won. There are a lot more expensive one-rooms too, depending on how new/clean it is, the location etc. Jeonsae would be somewhere around 20 million. Some one-rooms are completely empty, others come with air-conditioning, laundry machine, closets etc. So the price also depends on that. Oh, and let's not forget, you have to pay the real-estate agent some money too. The more expensive the place, the more you have to pay.

Some of the one-rooms currently available in Joenju

You might wonder what the difference is between a four-room and an apartment, at least I did. And the truth is, I am not a hundred percent sure, but as far as I know, apartments are usually in large apartment buildings with 10 floors or more. Three and four-rooms on the other hand are located in so called villas that are much smaller and usually don't have more than 4 floors.

So we found our new three-room home in a new villa and we moved in more than a week ago. Our friends were really nice to come and help us move our stuff. I've been packing everything in boxes for about two days and I couldn't believe how much stuff we actually had in that small one-room. :) We called a truck to help us transport our bed, closets and book cases and it cost only 50.000won, since our new place is not far from our old one.

We managed to do everything in just one day. We moved all our stuff to a new place and of course we were dead tired and starving at the end, so we ordered some jajangmyeon for us and our friends who helped us. I've written about jajangmyeon before, so if you don't remember you can check my post on Chinese food in Korea. Koreans almost always order jajangmyeon after they finish moving to a new place. I don't know why, I asked my boyfriend and he also doesn't know. I even googled it in Korean and apparently a lot of Koreans don't know the real reason :) But probably it's because the food usually arrives fast and because after you're done eating, someone from the Chinese place comes back to your home and takes all the dishes and leftovers away, so you don't need to do anything. :) Jajangmyeon is usually quite cheap too.

So after finishing our jajangmyeon, the friends stayed over for a bit to watch our new smart TV :) And I took a short nap, 'cause I was exhausted. Then after the friends left, we went back to the old place and cleaned everything. You're supposed to clean it when you leave, especially if you want to get your key deposit money back. So we did. We could have done it the next day, but we wanted to finish it all on Saturday, so we'd have Sunday to rest.

It wasn't easy and I had no idea moving could be so stressful. But I am so so so happy with our new place. We're slowly buying all the furniture that we need and it looks nicer every day. ^^ I might post some photos later when we're done decorating. ^^