Home, Sweet Home... Part Two.(Wednesday 5th of Mar 2014)

Dear Sal, 

After finishing my first day of work, I waited patiently to be taken to my new abode. My branch manager, Joanne, drove the short distance from the school to my apartment, which is located at the end of a long and winding back alley. She entered the code which I frantically wrote down on the back of my hand. Another code was entered to my apartment door and I was in. A hand written note awaited my arrival, informing me of how to work the oven, washing machine and heating. But not much else.

Ok, so here is what I think of my new home...

The Pros:

I have a massive double bed, win. A sofa which looks like it came straight out the 1980's. The kitchen is pretty big, decent sized fridge freezer and a microwave. I has a big round table, like the one I abandoned in England. A fairly big wardrobe, big enough for all my clothes anyway. Oh, and it was clean, which is a plus.

The Cons:

No TV and no internet makes Sam a dull boy. Without the company of David, TV had been my only friend on the lonely nights alone. Here I am without it and without internet. I don't even have a router; my friend Thomas lent me a cable to connect directly to the outlet. I think I found the the right one, but am unable to use it since I haven't been left the password... brilliant.

After only a few moments of being inside, Joanne looked around. "Oh, you have no TV, sorry" 

"But there is internet here, right?" I replied.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, of course."

"Well that's ok, I can always watch things on my laptop."

"Ah, that's ok then." she said, with a reassuring smile.

She lied. Just to top things off, in the rush to leave the school, she had forgotten to remind me that my bed sheets were in the main office. I actually moved them off one of my bags to retrieve them. My first night in my new home I would be sheet less. Wonderful news. 

I had arranged to meet Thomas after work to grab a bite to eat and a drink. Thank god I had. After my branch manager left, I unpacked a little before stepping outside to test my door code. The door to my apartment worked fine, opening with ease. The door to the building however did not. I put in the code written on my hand and nothing happened. I tried again to no avail. In that moment I panicked.

What if I can't get in? I'd have to sleep on the street... maybe Thomas was let me stay at his? What if he forgets to meet me? I don't have a phone, I have no way of contacting anyone, what the bloody hell was I going to do? I tried again without any luck so then I tried using different buttons and accidentally called my own apartment. After about five minutes of my flushed fingers punching numbers, I gave up. I decided to go meet Thomas, use his phone to call Joanne and solve this problem right away. After waiting nervously for about ten minutes, and smoking more than I should, he arrived. I called Joanne and she told me where I was going wrong, problem solved. Thank God. 

With that weight lifted off me, I relaxed and had a well deserved drink. That turned in to "just one more", then another, then "shall we?"And then a "let's do this!" I got home about five and passed out in multiple layers of clothes with a bath towel as my duvet. I'm not going to lie, I've had better sleeps.

The morning came too soon. The bright sun is very unforgiving in Korea. Especially with hangovers. Laying in the silence of my new abode, my mind wandered. I begun to think of home. Our old bed room, the safe, warm cosy feeling I'd get from just laying there with David, watching a film together. For the first time since being here, I stopped and realized I missed home, I miss my friends, I miss my family, I miss Holly. Through the remainder of this week, I never been able to shake this blue feeling when I'm alone and I'm alone a surprising amount. 

Love, hugs and wishing you were here.

Samuel James.