Not everyone in Korean universities has a dormitory, and undergraduates are not enough to live in, let alone master's and doctoral students. Contrary to the domestic situation, the infrastructure of Korean universities tends to be undergraduate, and no accommodation facilities are provided at the master's and doctoral levels. For most people, renting a house around the campus is a very common thing. On the wall outside the back door of Sungkyunkwan University, all kinds of small advertisements such as renting a house, looking for a house and transferring schools are overwhelming. When holidays come, it is often crowded. Of course, different student conditions, the style and dignity of the house are also different. When I first went to Sungkyunkwan University for my Ph.D., I didn't understand many rules, so I went directly to the housing agency next to the campus. The boss asked me about my situation and thought it was more appropriate for me to rent a "host family" that I shared with my host family.
"Host family" means family accommodation, a special kind of family accommodation. Guests and hosts are separated, and everyone has a single room. The area is very small, and its main function is to sleep. Boarding aunts usually provide two meals in the morning and evening, and there is a special canteen, which is served at a fixed point like a canteen; Washing is common. Depending on the scale, there are 5 ~ 6 people on the first floor, and there are also large-scale ones. The whole building 100 people is possible. This form is mainly used by ordinary students with low expenses and average income. There is also a kind of accommodation in temporary home. There may be a vacant room for guests at home for the time being. The intermediary company introduced me to this kind of temporary accommodation, which is more expensive.
The landlord's family is an old couple, and their two sons are married and have children to move out. A little daughter has just been admitted to study abroad and is about to go to America. The room she vacated was useless for a while, only enough to earn some daily expenses. It used to be the end of the year when I was looking at the house. The landlord's daughter has not left yet. In addition to her bedroom, there is a vacant room, the room area is not large, more than 20 square meters. Because there are not many ordinary household furniture in Korea, and there are no beds, all bedding and clothes are stuffed in a large wardrobe on the wall, which can be taken out when sleeping, so most rooms are simple and spacious. The landlord told me that her daughter's room and the vacant room next to it could be used after I came. Her family is a three-story single-family house, and she lives on the second floor. The layout of the whole house is similar to that of the three-bedroom apartment building in China. The first floor is a storage room where sundries are piled up, and the third floor is rented to nearby students as a "reading room" to alleviate the urgency of the library being overcrowded during the exam.
two
The landlord's daughter left the ocean in June 5438+0. I moved into her original room at the end of February, but the other room I saw before has been rented out, and there is a freshman law boy living there. That is to say, in the three-bedroom apartment, an old couple, one me and one freshman boy are equivalent to three families sharing a house, with a living room, dining room, kitchen and a small bathroom in the middle. I rent 400,000 won a month, which was equivalent to 2,500 yuan at that time, providing two meals in the morning and evening. If you can rent two rooms in Beijing, you can only rent one room in Seoul.
This kind of renting style is often the first choice for freshman boys, because Korean boys are generally not good at housework, some mothers are full-time housewives, or their sisters do all the housework, and boys rarely go into the kitchen before marriage. Generally, Koreans think that Korean boys can only be called men after joining the army, and they can only understand human feelings and things. Therefore, boys who have just entered the first year of college often "transplant" from their mothers to their landlords and aunts. After a semester of training, they changed to "cooking by themselves", that is, renting a house by themselves, having three meals a day and washing clothes by themselves. When I was a sophomore, I often dropped out of school to recruit people to leave and receive more difficult training. After more than two years of military career, this boy who just returned to class from the barracks is like a living person. He has lost his lazy and delicate state, and stood upright and courteous in answering the teacher's questions, with a Hong Zhong voice. All that is needed is a ceremony.
The freshman who lives next door to me can only be considered a boy. On the day I first moved in, just like the only child in China went to school, my family was so crowded with my parents, brothers and sisters that I didn't even dare to open the door, let alone speak. The boy's family is not in Seoul, and it is indeed a gratifying thing for the locals to be admitted to a prestigious school in Seoul. After unloading the luggage and settling down, his family retreated somewhere except his mother, so I opened the door and went out for some air. The landlord put the small round table on the table, told me to sit down with the boy and his mother and had a short tea party. I provided China tea, the landlord took out some snacks, and the boy and mother brought some hometown specialties. Even if we met, we exchanged some pleasantries. My aunt and I are the elders of boys. Boys call me "teacher" and aunts and uncles call me "grandma" and "grandpa". His mother was relieved to see my aunt-level neighbor next to her son, so she was busy catching the train home that day. So, three generations of us, old and young, began a semester of family-style tenant life.
three
The landlord's uncle and aunt are a couple in their 60s, and their relationship is typical of Korean elderly couples: the husband runs away for a long time, supports the family, and is an absolute authority at home. Now children and grandchildren are around their knees and their temper is getting better and better; The old lady worked hard all her life, took care of the children, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. When she met an old man who had nothing to do with retirement, she lost the forbearance spirit of her youth and scolded whenever she wanted. Anyway, the old man has no capital and strength to show off. When I first arrived at the landlord's house, my aunt introduced her home to me. Everyone else told me in words. She used sign language when introducing the old man. My aunt pointed to her wife in the room, pointed to the sky, and then gave me a thumbs-up, meaning that this old man is the best person in the world.
When I saw my aunt introducing my uncle in sign language, I never heard him speak. I thought he was deaf. Every time I meet him, he just smiles at me stupidly. Until one time, as soon as I entered the door, my uncle told me that there was an emergency call for me, which was actually a normal call for dinner and appointment. There is nothing to worry about, but my uncle was shocked by his ability to speak.
Once my aunt told me that she would go back to her hometown Busan during the holiday and told me where the food in the freezer was. Only then did I know that she was from Gyeongsangnam-do. Women in gyeongsangnam-do are famous for their pungent and capable skills in Korea, especially those by the sea. They are not as gentle and delicate as the little women in Seoul.
Uncle and aunt almost never stay at home together during the day, and uncle can't see aunt at home during the day; If aunt is at home, it is estimated that uncle will be exiled to the bathhouse or something. Usually, when we leave, my uncle goes out with us. My aunt is the only one in the family. Three times five divided by two, a day's food is ready. When I eat it, I will be able to serve it in a short time. The traditional Korean breakfast is also Tonga's rice with various small side dishes. The side dishes are prepared in advance and put in the fresh-keeping box in the refrigerator. When you eat, you can get something ready in each box in an instant. There are two kinds of kitchens in Korea. One is a large refrigerator, most housewives like double doors, plus a freezer dedicated to kimchi. Second, the rice cooker is big. With the opening of the lid of the pressure rice cooker, the freshly cooked rice immediately smells like glutinous rice all over the house. I think my aunt's rice cooker is plugged in all day, and there is always ready-made rice in it. What I really need to do is actually a soup. What I drink most is bean sprout soup. There are a few bean sprouts floating in the clear soup, and everything will be fine when served.
The landlord's dining table can be used for two people at ordinary times. Generally, freshmen and I eat first, and then uncles. My aunt never goes to the table, nor does she sit at the same table with my uncle. Even if menstruation nagged to the extreme, the family pattern remained unchanged. Uncle didn't reach out when he saw the oil bottle. Every day, my aunt cooks the rice, fills the rice, and puts away the spoons and chopsticks. It was not until the dining table was properly placed that Uncle slowly moved from the room to the main table. When the uncle finished eating, the aunt sat on the ground with her rice bowl. At this time, food can stop aunt's words. By the time all the dishes were finished, my uncle had shouted himself to sleep. Aunt, the hero is useless and has to leave again.
four
If aunt has always been cold to uncle, it can be said that she is absolutely gentle to children. Granddaughters of four or five years old, grandchildren of several months old and daughter-in-law can't get away from activities and send their children at any time. The aunt always smiles and looks after the children at home for a few days without complaining. I don't want to pursue my uncle's unintentional gossip. When the child came, my uncle's language function quickly recovered.
The landlord's two sons come to their parents' house almost every two weeks. As long as my aunt doesn't go out on Friday and stays at home all day to choose vegetables, wash vegetables, cut meat and plate, I know my son, daughter-in-law, grandson and granddaughter will come tomorrow. Two sons, a family of four, plus an old couple 10, sat in the small living room and blocked my door tightly.
According to the general rules of renting this kind of house, the guests will solve their own meals on Saturday and Sunday. This is common sense. Korean students either go home or get together with their classmates on weekends. No one can rent a house on weekends. The freshman boy next to me sometimes goes home on Friday night, which is usually nothing, but at this time, as soon as he leaves, I feel even more stressed. At that time, the weather was still very cold in early spring, and where to escape on weekends was often my first day's problem. Not going out to reunite with my family always stimulated my sensitive and fragile psychology at that time, especially eating the meal cooked by my aunt for the first time on weekends, which made me feel uncomfortable. In normal times, the food I eat at menstruation's house is just like the food in a restaurant, but the weekend is a delicious meal carefully prepared by a mother for her children, but I am not. At this time, the status quo of relying on others often makes me feel helpless and embarrassed, and I feel particularly painful on weekends.
Later, I found a good place, the Seoul History Museum, which is three or four stops away from where I live. Every weekend, I will put a dictionary in it for a day. The audio-visual equipment and written materials in the museum are rare tools for me to learn Korean and understand Korea. Moreover, the museum is very quiet, and there is no crowding except for occasional parents taking their children to visit. I regard it as my private "reading room". At that time, the restoration project was being carried out in Cheonggyecheon, Seoul, and there were construction sites everywhere along the way. After I came back, I went around to Qingxi Palace to have a rest. This is an ancient palace built in 16 17, with lush trees and high negative ion content. When I came out of the "study room" and entered the back garden, I felt better than the fairy, so I spent another happy day in this way.
I have to prepare all kinds of reports on professional courses on Sunday, so I have to go to school early in the morning to find information and read books. This still stems from my boarding life, because there is nothing to worry about in life. My aunt used to only wash clothes for freshmen. Later, when she saw that my clothes were either jeans or jackets, she offered to leave them behind. The biggest advantage of being a student is that you don't have to pay attention to clothes and makeup. You can clean every day. If you don't pay attention to hygiene, it's style. You should keep the habit of changing clothes every day, but how to change them is a casual dress of jeans and jackets. The schoolbag also contains 10 kg of rice and a spare shoulder. When I was a teacher, I was worried about how to match clothes early every morning. Now I wake up every day thinking about how to occupy my seat early. Sungkyunkwan University's campus is located on the mountain, and travel shoes are essential. After coming to Seoul, the most expensive thing is shoes. Leather shoes won't last long, so I changed my travel shoes in time to conquer the world.
At the end of a hard day, sometimes you are really exhausted. If you live alone, you are probably very untidy. Eat if you want and sleep if you want, but living in the landlord's house still has a "home" constraint, which can make your life regular and relieve some hardships and loneliness of going out alone. For example, how late is it to open the door for you to see; When I got home, the clothes scattered with the smell of washing powder were neatly stacked in front of my house, and the sudden surge of emotion suppressed the simple unhappiness with food.