Happy Halloween

These are not Halloween decorations. These are real spiders that we see everywhere lurking around our neighbourhood. They are massive and they spin enormous webs. We don't see them as much now that the weather is chillier, but they have freaked us out a number of times and we let them get us in the Halloween spirit. But for now, we're all Halloween'd out. For the past week, we've been doing activities and games to celebrate Halloween, with carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating and painting faces, and now that October 31st is actually here we have nothing left to do except eat the candy we kept from the kids. And we're doing that with no trouble at all. We keep reminding ourselves that we wouldn't eat 4 chocolate bars in a row without barfing or having cramps or having a sugar rush that leaves our heads spinning. So why do we think it's okay with Halloween candy? We have no problem wolfing down the equivalent of 5 or 6 bars as an after-dinner snack when those same chocolate bars are put into bite-sized pieces.

The jack o' lanterns at the school are starting to stink and their teeth are rotting out of their mouths, but here is a display of some of the carvings we did before they began deteriorating.









I know that day light savings time ended in Canada and the clocks were set back one hour on Saturday (everyone else mentioned this in their blogs, so I guess it's mandatory). We didn't have that luxury. There is no daylight to save in Korea and we will desperately be awaiting our one hour of extra sleep until we return back home, because it just isn't happening here. Until then, we will continue to gorge ourselves on candy. And if anyone has pictures of their little trick-or-treaters, Jenn would gladly accept them to add to her wall o' pictures.

Our Simple Life

We like to pick one day of the week to do nothing. Well, not nothing, just a day without set plans. Laundry and house cleaning don't do themselves so spending the day at home, getting things done interspersed with reading, writing, cooking, and tons of laughing makes for very much fun (we'd let you in on the jokes, but half the time we don't even know what we're laughing at). For the time being, Jenn has given up on the hunt for shoes, but we found an electronics store down the road, which led to our purchase of a vacuum. It's really just a dustbuster with attachments to reach the floor, but it's just what we need to keep the floors relatively clean from Korean dust (not to mention a lot of stray, long, red hairs). This dust seems to settle in only hours after being thoroughly cleaned, and by thoroughly I mean sweep, dry Swifter, wet Swifter. Now we've replaced sweeping with vacuuming and it's working better. I didn't know it was possible for a woman to get so excited about a home appliance, but I haven't seen Jenn this thrilled since she got her Kitchen Aide.
We also rearranged "the great room" as we've started calling the dining room/living room/kitchen. It's not hard to rearrange when you have two pieces of furniture, so this entire renovation included switching the couch and the dining table. (If anyone cares to notice, I am wearing the same outfit as the picture when my pants and my leg mysteriously disappeared.) We like the setup better because we can use the table as a computer desk now, instead of sitting on the floor.
To top off our simple day, we are going to play a ferocious game of gin rummy and do a reflexology treatment on each other before heading to bed.

The Pirate and The Kitty Cat

Halloween Day started out cute and fun, like every morning when only the kindergartens are at school. Then, as more students arrived, it grew into a chaotic frenzy. When the day ended, Jenn and I collapsed in our chairs. It was madness, but we both agree it was the best day we've had so far at Wonderland. A note about our costumes: We awarded ourselves first place for the cheapest Halloween costumes in history. Aside from wearing clothes we had around the apartment, we made the defining part of each of our costumes - cat ears for Jenn and a pirate eye patch for me - from one piece of black construction paper that cost 10 cents.












First of all, before we get into the activities of the day, I must confess we did a bad thing. We bought two large bags of candy - Mini Snickers and Assorted Tootsie Rolls - from Costco to hand out at school. We bought it 2 weeks in advance and everyone knows that buying trick-or-treat candy too early can be dangerous. We did an excellent job of not having any for 11 days. Three days before Halloween Day, however, Jenn had a bad day at school, so I broke open the Tootsie Rolls to console her. It worked, so the bag of Snickers was next. We then proceeded to convince ourselves that the kids at school are brats and they don't deserve the candy, but we have to put up with the brats, so we deserve it much more. Thus, our kids didn't get any candy from us and we don't feel bad about it at all.
The good thing is that we didn't eat it all in one sitting; we still have a bowl of goodies on our table to nibble on and to remind ourselves that we aren't good teachers because we deprived our students of Halloween treats.

First on the agenda was trick-or-treating with the little ones. We arrived in our costumes ready to go, but the kids were in normal clothes. As usual, it was unclear to us what was going on, then the Korean teachers dressed them in costumes the school had rented. Apparently, the kids were dressing up at school, then going to each of their homes to show their moms the "surprise" costumes. Most families live in the same type of apartment building as ours, so for each trick-or-treat episode the bus driver dropped us off and the moms met us on the front steps of the building. The other feature of the trick-or-treating was 5 Little Pumpkins. This is a song Jenn has been teaching them for the past 2 weeks. They lined up, bowed to the moms, and sang the song. And then got loads of candy from the moms. They performed very well and Jenn was gushingly proud. It was so cute, you all would have died. Here is the proud teacher watching her class get their first treats after singing the song.
The next part of the day (when the chaos began) was for the afternoon classes. But first a note about how the school is set up: There are 4 teachers for the ESL classes - 2 English-speaking Korean teachers (Brian & Cindy) and 2 Foriegn teachers (us). We each have our own classroom and between 2:30 and 6:30 teach 5 classes each, and for that 4-hour period there are students coming and going and generally making a huge rukus. For Halloween Day, each classroom had a theme. Brian's was a Halloween Game. Cindy's was Best Halloween Costume. Jenn's was Ghost Story. Darin's was Face Painting. Theoretically, each class was supposed to make its way to each room over the length of the 45-minute class.

Yeah, right.

What ended up happening was this. Being the senior teacher, Brian seemed to be absent for most of the day, and after the morning classes left, Jenn and I were the only ones in costume, so that made Cindy's room useless (we're still waiting for our prize, we had to win by default because there was no competition). But most importantly, as soon as the kids saw Face Painting on my door that's where they congregated in hordes. Jenn abandonned her Ghost Story room and for the next 4 hours, we painted hundreds of faces together. If you thought we were talented carving pumpkins, you should have seen us in action while whipping up Halloween art on the chubby cheeks of our students. We weren't pros by any stretch, but we had fun creating spiders, bats, flowers, butterflies, rainbows, pumpkins, black cats, scars, ghosts, skeletons, hearts, spiders, spiderwebs, scorpions (we had to be creative with that one), and one request for Mickey Mouse. After painting each face, we gave out candy (the school provided tons, another reason we didn't feel bad about keeping our own stash). It was one kid after another, and sometimes we gave them a painting on each cheek. They were their usual boisterous selves, so it was very hectic, but we had a blast.

We didn't get too many pictures in the afternoon, because we didn't get a break once the kids started pouring in, but here are a few examples of our handiwork. In general, Halloween isn't practiced in Korea, and it showed with the lack of costumes at school. It seems to be brought up only because we work at a private school that puts effort into making activity days for the kids. So we aren't expecting any trick-or-treaters at our door, but we had these kids all to ourselves this morning and it was very much fun.

Jack O' Lantern Assembly Line

Teachers wear many hats. Today Jenn and I were the official pumpkin carvers atWonderland as the school prepared itself for Halloween Day tomorrow. All day we carried around a big knife which should have led to our arrest for possession of an illegal weapon, but in a Korean school it didn't seem to bother anyone. It probably went unnoticed, because all the other teachers (including the front desk secretary) carry around big sticks which are used in extreme cases of disciplinary action. Korean kids have no fear and they aren't very cautious about anything, so we were extra careful (and quite nervous actually) as we wielded this large knife around a few hundred reckless kids; there were no mishaps, except for Michael who took it upon himself to smear pumpkin innards all over his face.
The pumpkin guts were actually the kids' favourite part. Some brought spoons, but most just dug in with their hands. You can imagine the messes that were made. We had to clean up after each class and do it all over again as the next round of students came in. It was a Jack o' Lantern assembly line.
Jenn's artistic creations were fabulous, but I have to shamelessly take credit for doing the bulk of the work: she was responsible for 2 Jack o' Lanterns and I pumped out 8 masterpieces. This is all just practice, of course, for when we settle down and start our own Halloween family traditions. All in a day's work: carving smiles in rotund, orange vegetables to put smiles on the faces of our students. Plus it made for a less strenuous day than the usual studies, so we can rest up for our big day tomorrow of telling ghost stories and painting faces.

Don't Forget "The Plan"!

This morning, while getting ready for work, the ipod chose to play numerous U2 songs in a row. Again, this is strange since the thing is set at random. I think the ipod knows it is keeping us connected to home and reminding me that tonight my best friend will be going to the U2 concert without me (and her loving boyfriend has taken my ticket!)
Paul, we weren't kidding when we said that this is going to be the best concert of your life. I hope you have practiced pretending.
Michelle, you should be close enough to follow through on the plan. I'm sorry I am missing it!
By the way, Mich, I checked U2.com and at the show last night they played some oldies, some b-sides and the best of the new stuff, you are in for a great show. I'm still holding my breath for an Asian tour!

Chopsticks or Fork?

This is still a question that pops up for us when we eat at home. It's Day 56 but we aren't thinking like Koreans yet and we don't automatically reach for the chopsticks at dinner time. Sometimes a fork is nice to help us make it through a meal without getting finger cramps. We do, however, use them occasionally with our rice and noodle dishes (not the soup or pasta), but it's more for practice so we don't look inept when in public. The chopsticks we have at home are wooden so we're getting along fine with them. But when we go to restaurants, we aren't given a choice and they give us stainless steel ones. These things take all the fun out of it. They slip around and become unruly in your hands. Your hands start feeling like some dysfunctional part of your body being manipulated by a 2 thin pieces of metal. It's beyond frustrating. The travel writer, Bill Bryson, once wrote that it's amazing how Asian cultures are responsible for so many advancements in technology and still think that eating with two sticks is civilized. I agree. We have found other uses for these steel chopsticks. Jenn uses them to hold her hair in place. They are good for digging hair and grime from clogged tub drains. And they are perfect for prying gum off the sole of a shoe. As for eating, give me the wooden ones or give me a fork. While eating at The Marche on Thanksgiving, we noticed that nobody was using chopsticks. This was unusual to see in a restaurant in Korea, but it was quite a welcome change. And, of course, last weekend we went The Outback and again not a chopstick to be seen. Now, eating that 8 ounce steak without a knife and fork would have been tricky. Below is just a random collection of pictures taken at some restaurants we've been to in the past 2 months.

Shilluksa Temple

Saturday was a gorgeous fall day. A bit of nip in the air, but nothing a warm fleecy and the radiating sun couldn't fix. We went for a long walk. Yeoju is classified as a very small town, or to some people is just known as the countryside. Even though it's small, it covers a lot of ground (this isn't Blenheim we're talking about). We haven't yet figured out where the city boundaries lie. There is a downtown core and there are several small communities that radiate out from that, all connected by mini-highways. For example, our school is downtown and our apartment complex is one of the smaller communities 4 kilometres away that is tied into the collective city of Yeoju.
There are many parts of town we haven't yet seen and today we had a particular destination in mind. Apparently so did the other 100,000 inhabitants of Yeoju. There is a historical Buddhist temple 45 minutes from our apartment and we walked through downtown, across a very long bridge over the Han River, and through a lovely park that leads up to the temple. Koreans live to walk through parks, it's a very social event to spend the day walking through the park and we joined right in.
This country is graced with mountainscapes in every direction, even in the middle of Seoul you see mountains between all the skyscrapers. Koreans celebrate the harmony between humans and nature. Pagodas are constructed in natural settings as a way for people to gather, but it is the fresh air and the trees and the streams and the flowers that are the real shrines. Nature is a temple onto itself. The architecture is beautiful also and we spent a few hours looking at the different buildings that make up the temple site.
We had to spend hours because we wanted pictures that showed the pristine setting, without hordes of people swarming around us or the buildings. In these pictures, it looks as if we are the only two people here, but we patiently waited for the right moment for the crowds to part before snapping the photos.
We plan on coming back to this temple to partake in what is known as a temple stay, where visitors stay at the temple for 24 hours. You sleep overnight, get up at 3:00 a.m. to meditate with the monks, eat what the monks eat, clean the temple when the monks clean. When was the last time you paid money for a vacation where you were sleep deprived and you had to do housework? It's more for the cultural experience, I guess. But we weren't ready to shave our heads yet, so we're waiting for another time. And a warmer time, because we saw the living quarters and they don't look very conducive to cold weather.

ESL Fashionista

Here are a few more observations about the fashion choices in Korea. This first picture is an anonymous saleswomen sporting a camouflage mini-skirt and matching baseball cap, which is nicely complemented by a woolen, midriff-revealing hoodie. The outfit is topped off with leather, high-heeled, cowboy boots. (To protect this fashion victim's identity, I did not get a full-frontal, midriff-revealing photo).
Not to be outdone, here is Annie (the most adorable of Jenn's kindergarten students) with her one-piece jean ensemble and mini cowboy boots (too too cute).
But, of course, the most fashionable specimen I've come across yet is the elegant ESL teacher on her way to school. Here she is dressed in business casual slacks and sweater underneath a knee-length, executive, trench coat. Accessories include a brand new Elit purse and a stylish fall-coloured headband. The best accent of all to make this outfit complete is her gorgeous smile.

Bob Marley Magic

Here's a little story to touch your heart. On the phone with my mom last week, she mentioned that at the trailer on Thanksgiving weekend they heard the song "One Love" by Bob Marley on the radio. Hearing it made her break out in song and dance. On a normal day, my mom wouldn't know a Bob Marley song from Liam banging pots and pans, but "One Love" has become the one song in her repetoire of reggae music since it appeared on our wedding CD. While we were talking I had the iPod playing in the background and just as she started telling me this, "One Love" started. No joke. We have 950 songs on the iPod and it's always set on random for the entire playlist, so the odds of that song beginning at that moment are not high, you could say exactly 1 in 950, so hearing it threw me for an emotional loop. I didn't cry, if that's what you're thinking, but I was touched by the heart-warming magic that music can make between a mother and son who are 10,000 kilometres apart. It was just one of those weird moments that only a dead rastaman could produce from beyond the grave. To quote Mr. Marley: "Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright." My mom and dad are leaving for Florida on Wednesday for 4 weeks so this is a send-off blog for them. Have a good trip mom and dad and the blog will only be as far away as your nearest library computer.

What a year...so far

One year ago today Darin and I were in Cleveland, Ohio for what I thought was just going to be a cool concert and a little shopping. Did he ever surprise me. It has only been 1 year since that magic little question was asked and what a year it has been. Most people, after having been engaged for one year, are still in the midst of planning their big day. Not us! That day was exactly 5 months and 3 days ago and it didn't stop there. We decided one day was not enough so we had a few weeks of non-stop parties. And then to cap it off we decided to move to another continent. And what do you do? You throw us another party! We are so lucky to have you all in our lives to share the ride and to support us in our crazy plans. Hang on to your seats, there is plenty more to come! (Come on, think of the parties when we come home. It'll be before you know it!)
{We didn't put any pics of the wedding on the computer so we can't share. This is one that Annie, one of my kindergarten kids, drew of us. Can you see the resemblance? She was very proud.}

In the meantime, we are trying to enjoy every minute of our time here. We spent another day exploring the city of endless possibilities. The goal was to buy new shoes, as my hikers have decided to literally fall apart. In a city that has probably 50 thousand shoe stores, you'd think I could at least find one pair. NOPE! Am I too picky? I'd usually say yes but when you have size 10 feet you can only shop in the mens department for your shoes. They don't think women have feet larger than an 8. We had to give up, at least for now. We are planning a little hiking trip in the next few weeks so here's hoping I find something, somewhere. {This is Myeongdong, where we went shopping today. Can you say busy? Sometimes the crowds can be pretty overwhelming.}

The trip was not a waste, however. We met some friends for lunch (possibly the best Subway sandwich we ever had), grabbed some Halloween loot at Costco for the kids at school (we vowed not to open the bags at home or else there is a good chance of us slipping into sugar-induced comas), and capped of the day with a nice 8oz steak at the Outback. Simple pleasures are a good thing.

John Cougar Springsteen???

One of our saving graces over here has been our music. Darin purchased an ipod about two years ago (right after Chad bought his. Coincidence or younger brother envy? You decide.) It has come with us on several trips and kept Darin (and myself, at times) company on runs. Right before we made this trip we purchased a speaker with a dock for the ipod and made it our principle stereo system. Good thing we did. Having our music to listen to has been wonderful. As a start to our morning or the end of a long day (even just hanging out doing laundry) the music has made us feel somewhat normal in this strange land. Obviously with two people putting their favourite music on one ipod there is quite the mix. I have been introduced to new bands (Lowest of the Low, Ghettobillies and Nine Days) and Darin has been introduced to some new ones as well (Everything But The Girl, Anna Nalick, and Damien Rice, to name a few). It is hard to get bored listening to the mix we have. There is definately something to suit every mood.
One thing I didn't know about Darin is that he is a fan of John Mellancamp (John Cougar, John Cougar Mellancamp... whatever) Now, I was a fan as well at one point, however limited my knowledge of his music was. Jack and Diane was once my favourite song. I could listen to it ad nauseum and not get tired of it. I even owned the tape, (yes, I had tapes, records too - and cool ones, not just Baby Beluga (although it was one of my faves at one time too) although I never listened to it in its entirety. Just that one song (and occasionally Hurt so Good, just because I knew it).

Now the point of this ranting is that somewhere along the line I have been misled. One day a few weeks ago a song came on in random play and I said casually "Oh, I didn't know Bruce Springsteen was on the ipod." I have never received a blanker stare from Darin. It was not Bruce at all. Yup, you guessed it. It was John Mellencamp. I proceeded to do this with several other songs thinking everyone of them was The Boss but alas I was wrong every time. It turns out I know practically every song this guy has ever recorded, at least his greatest hits, and I'm wondering why the popularity of Bruce was once so high. What did that guy sing besides Born in the USA (that was him, wasn't it??) Darin just lowers his head and shakes it wondering, I'm sure, who is this woman I married and what is wrong with her.

My apologies to "The Aunt" and Uncle Merv, who are devout fans of The Boss. I should have paid more attention.

In other music news it was just brought to my attention that a certain friend of ours (who shall remain nameless for his own protection) was lucky enough to attend a U2 concert during the Joshua Tree tour (I'm very jealous, by the way, but seeing as I was only 8 years old I will let it slide) He must have got a little too excited during Bullet the Blue Sky. 100, 200...300??? Too, too funny.

Look What I Found!

I know this isn't a big deal in the whole scheme of world history (nor even in the history of this blog) but small things really do matter in my life. Two weeks ago in Seoul we came across a store that sold Dr. Pepper. This was the first time I'd seen it anywhere in the past 6 weeks and I started salivating over my long-lost favourite soda. So I bought 4 cans. I drank one on the bus ride on the way home (as shown below) and I brought the others home to enjoy in a nice glass of tinkling ice cubes. And enjoy I did.

How Do You Get Used To This??

What does the image you see adorning this temple conjure in your mind? Exactly. You can imagine our surprise when it started popping up everywhere. It has been carved in doors, etched on windows, hung on key rings, you can even get a complete set of jewelry - earings, necklace, bracelet, and ring (in case you were afraid of being subtle). It took awhile to figure out just what this symbol means to Koreans. After a bit of researching (as I was somewhat troubled to see this everywhere in the country I now call home) I learned that at least 25% of the population in Korea is Buddhist. To the ancient culture this symbol is not representing hate and prejudice but love and good fortune. It is the symbol of the Buddha's heart and mind and is quite often found carved on Budda's chest in sculptures, and therefore (to them) very religious and peaceful. We have also seen the symbol on subway and city maps indicating the location of a temple and also on food packaging to signify the product is vegetarian and can be consumed by strict Buddhists. Darin put it best when I was wondering aloud if they knew what it meant to the rest of the world. "It was theirs first and they are just gonna keep on using it!"

Better Than Turkey

This is our apartment door. Yes, it is just a door, but it is endlessly facinating to us. All doors are made of steel here and the point of that is not protection (does this country even have crime?) but advertising. Everyday when we come home there is something new sticking to the door. Junk mail in the form of magnets would completely cover this door if we did not remove them on a regular basis. If only we could let these people know they could save themselves from walking to the sixth floor, because their efforts are wasted on two Canadians who can't read the Korean advertising.
Today we came home and there was something special waiting for us, leaning against the door. Last week on the phone, I mentioned one little thing to my mom such as "I wish we could find hand sanitizer" (with 150 kids a day putting their grubby little hands everywhere and there is only a bar of soap and a thin poor excuse for a towel hanging there, you can see how we would want it) and poof, it magically appears with other little treats from home. More magazines (now I can catch up on the stuff that is already old news to you!), enough candy to sustain Darin for about a week (a normal person, much longer) and gloves (I don't know what prompted my mom to put these in the package, but we were just saying we should buy some for the fall to winter transition as the gloves we brought are far to hot - maybe mothers really do know everything!) Thanks for thinking of us mom (and dad too!) This was our little (unconventional) Thanksgiving treat from home and it is much appreciated! Is it OK to eat a Toblerone before dinner?? Who cares, we just did!!
Our little computer desk is Korean style. We have to sit on the floor. Darin is hard at work on a big idea. All I know is "My accounting days are coming back to haunt me!" I probably spent too much money yesterday.

No turkey for you! Come back 1 year!

Well folks ... one holiday down and how many to go?? Yes, we survived our first holiday all alone (just us and 47 million other people). Not wanting to sit around and mope about missing the festivities back home, we spent our Thanksgiving in the big city. A day of shopping took our minds off missing everyone for a while and this time we actually bought stuff. Dongdaemun Market is the largest shopping district in all of Asia and we decided today was the day to tackle it. There are only 30 malls, hundreds of vendors lining the streets, and a soccer stadium turned flea market so you can imagine how it is lacking in product. Yeah right! We spent 4 hours in one mall and only shopped 3 floors (there are 10 floors in this particular one and it's not even the largest). I had my first "Lady, you like purses, come with me" experience. This guy whipped out a catalogue filled with Louis, Gucci, Prada, etc. and offered me my choice for a mere 250,000 won (that's $300, way more than I was looking to spend, but a darn good price for the goods!) A few trinkets were found here and there and we left in search of our turkey.

It is interesting to learn the traditions of a new country and take part in the festivities, but still being newlyweds, we are trying to start our own holiday traditions to carry on through the years, and it's not easy when the things you would normally want to have and do are not accessible. Finding a turkey dinner in a country that doesn't celebrate the holiday you are trying to have is not an easy task. We decided Marche was our best chance. If there wasn't turkey we knew there was no chance of us going hungry. The best we came up with was rotisserie chicken, squash, salad, and potato soup. I loved the squash (even though Darin didn't) and Thanksgiving isn't complete without it, even when it's called pumpkin, as it is here. We even found pumpkin (squash??) pie for dessert.

No holiday here will even come close to what we have at home with our families and you have to know that we think about you all constantly! The best part is we have each other, our own little family of two, and in a short one year's time we will be able to do it up right with the rest of our family (as holidays should be spent). Happy Thanksgiving everyone ... we love you.

The Penthouse

By popular demand here is a blog about our new apartment. Most of you seem to be very curious about this and on our first day we were just as curious because we had no idea what to expect. Our teaching partner, Brian, picked us up at the bus station and drove us to the apartment and the way he put it was "You're moving into the penthouse." We were sceptical, but it is on the top floor of a 6-floor building, so maybe he was serious. We're not sure yet, although we are told that ours is the nicest in the building - Koreans will say anything to foreigners. The picture on the left is our apartment complex as we approach it from the road. Our building is number 203 and is much shorter, nestled in amongst the giant buildings.
You enter the front door into the largest room in the house which is a combination kitchen, dining room, and living room. This is the room where we have started our wall of pictures to brighten up the place. So far we have plenty of Liam and Evelyn and Audrey. One of: Chad & Carrie, Sarah, Cory. And for some reason a picture of Megan with a very large fly swatter. (Send pictures, people!)
We have a master bedroom which is quite spacious, mostly because a double bed and a night stand don't take up much space. There is no extraneous furniture.
We don't have any closets to hang our clothes, so our spare bedroom has become our changing room/walk-in closet. This room has a hanging rack and a dresser for our clothes. And a single bed. Michelle and Paul be forewarned that if you visit us, you will either (a) sleep crammed together on a small bed, (b) sleep separately with one on the bed and one on the couch, or (c) do it Korean style with a blanket on the fake laminate hardwood floor. This room also has a TV which we have been ignoring; we do have cable but the English stations are apparently through a different cable provider which isn't hooked up to our apartment building. We'll see if that changes.
We have a laundry room that doesn't have a dryer, so our balcony is where we hang clothes to dry. It's a very thin balcony and not much good for anything except hanging clothes and storing umbrellas. It does have a huge sliding screen door to let in plenty of sunshine and fresh air. Our bathroom is, well, a bathroom. A very small bathroom with no shower rod or curtain. For the most part the apartment is nice, but could be nicer if we wanted to spend the money only to leave it behind. There are certain things wrong with it, the types of things that crop up in any rental unit that is leased out to countless tenants over the years. These are the types of things that can be easily fixed or that just as easily can be overlooked because it is only a temporary home. Things such as a dripping faucet, a smelly kitchen cupboard, flickering lightbulbs, a hole in the washing machine hose, an ant infestation problem (seems to be under control now). Nothing worse than the mice we left behind in our apartment in Windsor.