new apartment
In older news, I moved to a different apartment two weeks ago. Same building, but from the first floor up to the sixth. It's really nice not hearing everyone as they type in the security code on the outer door and walk over to the stairs or elevator. Oh yeah, and my new place is twice as large as the old one. This also means having a decent view -- and not one that includes employees from the restaurant next door wandering around in front of my bedroom window.
[Photos taken one week apart. I had no idea the first one would turn out so dark. As always, click to enlarge]
While moving into the new apartment I noticed an unusual smell that was hard to place. It took most of the day before I realized that it was the smell of red ginseng (홍삼; 紅蔘). The scent of ginseng isn't bad but it is a bit different from what I'm used to smelling. I hung a wooden air freshener from one of the walls; my apartment still smells like ginseng after I come home after a hot day, but running the air conditioner for a bit leaves the scent of coconut permeating the room. It's a great feeling to be in a cool room that smells of coconut (코코넛) as I'm falling asleep. In fact, I may have to put that into practice now ...
And in case I don't mention it before the weekend, I'll be flying out to Taiwan again on Friday for the Chuseok (추석) holiday. One day in Taipei (臺北) and two and a half more in Taichung (臺中) visiting 林佩琪. There's an aboriginal village and a particular temple that I want to visit, but we'll see how that goes.