Life in Happy Plus Apartments

Although I'm sad to be missing a friend's wedding today, it has been an exciting day for me as well -- my first day with a load of clean clothes!

Yesterday, the landlord was scheduled to come by around 4 to install bars on my windows. Since I share a balcony with a neighbor, the Vice Principal and Principal of my school insist that I get bars put on my windows. (I checked, my neighbor has them, so it must be a common thing...) Despite my assurances that I would rather live bar-free, the appointment was set up. Okay, but will someone come to fix my washer? Not yet, we'll need to reschedule that.

Around 4 p.m. yesterday, the landlord and Samsung repairman show up to fix my washer. I have no idea what happened, but gift horse, eh? Anyway, the repairman got right down into his Korean squat and got to work pushing buttons, to no avail. He left and came back with what looked like a computer motherboard. He took off the front panels and door of the washer, swapped out the motherboard, and put everything back in its proper place. He pushed buttons again and then left. This time, he came back with a rubber loop of some kind. He pulled the washer out of its cubby, took off the top panel, then flipped it on its front and took off the bottom panel. He pulled a bunch of frayed material out, put the loop in, and reversed his actions. This time, he turned on the washer, pushed some buttons, and said "Okay."

While all this was happening, the repairman and the landlord were heatedly discussing something that warranted a few frantic phone calls, bouts of laughter, and a GPS map pulled up on the guy's cell phone. The only time they acknowledged me was when the landlord mimed to me that I need to clean my floors and asked me a bunch of questions that I think were if I've been to Korea before or how long I've been here, if I have friends, and if anyone else sleeps in my smaller-than-twin bed with me. Or maybe it was all about the floors; I'll never know. Either way, when she left, I went to the store and got a stupid broom.

All's well that ends well: Last night, I sat down with my laptop as translator and a notepad and did a load of laundry.

Luckily, I already have a drying rack, so I'm not going to make a big deal about the error message that pops up when I try to run the dryer function.