The New Place!!!

So here is my new 옥탑방 (rooftop apartment) in 신림동, 서울 (Shillim, or Sillim-dong, Seoul). As you can see there aren't really any pictures of the actual inside- once I get a bed and it looks a little nicer, I will have some, but the real special thing about this place is the roof and the view all around. The apartment itself is quite small, smaller than my old place, but that doesn't bother me. One room is all I need. We looked at many places, and for the same amount of money I could have lived in a much larger two bedroom place with windows that looked out at brick walls. We also a lot of terrible one room places that were more expensive than this one. I can't imagine who would choose those places.
I decided a while ago that this is probably what I wanted, as soon as Hye told me what an 옥탑방 was. I had seen the word in many of the apartment ads I had been reading religiously for months, but didn't know what it meant. 옥 sounds like "oak" so I thought it meant an oak-paneled room. Hye was not thrilled about my sudden obsession with the idea. Rooftop aparments are seen as places for poor people. Many are very cheap, maybe 250,000 won (220 dollars or so) a month plus deposit. We saw a couple that I liked, but Hye convinced me not to take them. They are known for being too hot in summer and too cold in winter, and the other ones we looked at might have been pretty uncomforable. The other one I liked had a bathroom that had no heating and the walls were just clouded windows. It would have been an unpleasnt chore to wake up in January and go take a shower in a room that was 20 degrees!
But this one is more like regular one room apartment that happens to be on a roof. It is well made and should be comfortable all year. It is the nicest building I have lived in in Korea and landlord lives below me and she is a very nice older lady. Walking up the hill to the place and then up 5 flights of stairs is a bit of a pain, but it is worth it.

Picture 1- The view to the left out my front window
Picture 2- More or less straight out my front window
Picture 3- Out my door onto the roof, which is in the back of the building
Picture 4- In my door from the roof
Picture 5- The roof

I really love the view. It is great at night too, but I can't seem to get any good pics of that. I will keep trying.