Wednesday, August 18, 2010

First Post From Korea: Shower Time

Hello all! I'm in Korea, at orientation for my teaching job with EPIK. Orientation is at Jeonju University, in the southern part of the country. After this week I'll head out to my job in Gyeongsangbuk-do, but until then, the dorms here are my home.

The dorm itself isn't all that special (even though it is nice) but what is worth mentioning is the shower. Korean showers do not have doors or curtains; there's nothing separating the water from the rest of the bathroom. You get wet, the toilet gets wet and the floor gets really wet. There's a drain in the floor to let the water out but not all of the water goes at once, so you have to use the supplied bathroom slippers other times so your feet don't get soaked.

You may be able to see in the picture that the roll of toilet paper is covered with a metal plate. The wall sockets are also similarly covered. There's even a lid for the garbage can. Of course, all of this could be alleviated by just partitioning off the shower space.

But hey, who am I to tell the Koreans how to bathe themselves?

Lastly, here's a bonus photo of our shampoo.

6 comments:

  1. Well, at least the microorganisms are effective!

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  2. i keep forgetting to set it to faucet water after showering so my roommate's been getting soaked :\

    p.s. you were given shampoo?! we weren't, and i'm afraid i might run out...

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  3. Hey, sounds like you're doing well.
    Showers in South East Asia are like that too.
    I see that the magic "next tag" ad below on your blog is advertising a "swimline shower cabana". Maybe they ship to Korea?

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  4. Those pictures really take me back to when I was at orientation.

    I'm slowly getting used to the shower arangement but I still get caught out now and then.

    Good luck with the year ahead.

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  5. Welcome to the Land of the Morning Calm. Thanks for the kind mention in your previous post!

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  6. Middle class Korean apartments ($100,000 and up) have bathtubs and shower curtains. I guess the type of 'wet' bathroom you have is the norm among small flats for students, but I didn't even know such arrangement existed before I began reading expat blogs. ^^

    Ken from Seoul

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