Our apartment!

As we mentioned, we are in Chungju, the second largest city in Chungbuk province in South Korea.  Chungju has a population of about 220,000 people, and is host to a World Martial Arts Festival, an awesome Peach festival, and as of September an Apple Festival.  They like their fruit here.  It is also the childhood home of Ban Ki-Moon, secretary general of the United Nations. The population density over here, even in this relatively small town, is crazy.  To give an idea, Cheongju, the capital of Chungbuk province, is home to about 660,000 people.  That puts it on par with Milwaukee.  Milwaukee has a population density of about 6000 people per square mile.  Cheongju has a population density nearly twice that, mainly because it takes up an area half the size.  Everywhere you go in South Korea you will see high rise residential towers ringing the downtown commercial districts.  People are literally stacked and packed in as tightly as they can manage it.

And they need to.  Not one square inch of this land is wasted.  If it can be put to some use, then it is being used.  There are no empty lots in Chungju.  It is either high rise residences, multilevel commercial buildings, or farm plots.  Seriously.  The PC Bang across from our apartment building is neighbors with a cabbage patch.

And speaking of apartments, ours is small.  From what we understand, no one at Erin's school realized that she was married, so they went with a typical studio apartment designed for a single, unmarried person.  We have about 260 square feet.  Roughly.

But what we do have is beautiful.  Lovely hardwood flooring, beautiful decoration, and aesthetically lovely furniture.  We feel lucky, really.  Even if we are a bit cramped.

Anyway.  Here's a photo tour of our apartment.  Enjoy!

-Sam