Sometimes living in a foreign country is like living in an Alanis Morissette song. "It's like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife." Nowhere has this been more clear than setting up our house.
In India, there are no fitted sheets. Just top sheets. So this means needing to use a top sheet to cover the mattress, which you can imagine does not necessarily work that well for large mattresses that are essentially the same size as the top sheet itself. With no extra fabric to tuck under the mattress, it means finding yourself waking up on the bare mattress itself, with sheets all around you in disarray.
In Korea, however, there are no top sheets (isn't it ironic, don't cha think?). People sleep with the fitted sheet over the mattress, and then the duvet comforter above you. Our solution to this? Sleep with a fitted sheet as our top sheet. For the first week, we shared one fitted sheet. As you can imagine, this did not go very well. Then we upgraded and for the last month or so, have been sleeping with one fitted sheet each, which felt a bit like going camping every night.
The flip side of a sub-par situation, however, is the joy of the resolution! And so it was when we received a package from my parents last Friday, with (drumroll...) two top sheets! -- and American king size for our Korean (smaller) king size bed, which means we can each be as selfish as we'd like with the sheets!
Feeling on a roll with our bedroom situation, we decide to venture out and get a bed frame. Last week, we discovered one of the few places to buy an American king mattress (across the street from us, no less) and ordered one on the spot (hooray sales!) Of course, since American king mattresses are nearly impossible to find in Seoul, so are bed frames.
So this past weekend, we head an hour northwest to Hongik University, which we later learn is dubbed the "SoHo" of Seoul -- a bit avant-garde... and home to many small furniture makers in Seoul. We find Lee, who a friend had recommended to us. We realize we probably should have brought a photo of what we envisioned (and, um, probably should have spoken to each other about what we each envisioned!), but Tyler finds a photo on the spot by googling "Japanese beds" (and thankfully we agree on design). This is what we show him:
We look at what he currently has and together draw up a design of what we're looking for. It's pricey, but we're not sure what else to do. He says he'll draw it up and we use this extra time to think about it some more.
On the way back, we stumble upon a smaller furniture maker. No showroom this time, just one guy working on a bench, whose name is Addie. We talk to him about what we're looking for. His English is amazing and it's really fun to chat with him about the design. We start talking prices, and to our delight, it's half as expensive as the first shop, and half the time to produce! I think we've found our guy!
Of course, as we learn, often living in a foreign country is two steps forward and one step back (or in the case of India, oftentimes felt like two steps forward and two steps back). Riding our productive weekend high, I wake up to find a package from Amazon, which I was super excited to receive... Alas, the incredible duvet they sent turned out to be a full/queen size, instead of a king... And I'm not even sure how to send it back as a return from here...
Alas, at this point, all I can do is laugh. Laugh when things don't go our way, and be grateful and celebrate when they do. My "twin", Giselle, sent me this quote over WhatsApp last week. There's nothing like living in a foreign country to practice living this each day:
PS: After all that, I just got a text from Addie to say that they actually can't make that bed frame for us... It's too big and they can't design what we want. I'd be frustrated as heck right now... except that he ends his text with an emoticon of big tears... All I can do is laugh (again).
In India, there are no fitted sheets. Just top sheets. So this means needing to use a top sheet to cover the mattress, which you can imagine does not necessarily work that well for large mattresses that are essentially the same size as the top sheet itself. With no extra fabric to tuck under the mattress, it means finding yourself waking up on the bare mattress itself, with sheets all around you in disarray.
In Korea, however, there are no top sheets (isn't it ironic, don't cha think?). People sleep with the fitted sheet over the mattress, and then the duvet comforter above you. Our solution to this? Sleep with a fitted sheet as our top sheet. For the first week, we shared one fitted sheet. As you can imagine, this did not go very well. Then we upgraded and for the last month or so, have been sleeping with one fitted sheet each, which felt a bit like going camping every night.
The flip side of a sub-par situation, however, is the joy of the resolution! And so it was when we received a package from my parents last Friday, with (drumroll...) two top sheets! -- and American king size for our Korean (smaller) king size bed, which means we can each be as selfish as we'd like with the sheets!
Feeling on a roll with our bedroom situation, we decide to venture out and get a bed frame. Last week, we discovered one of the few places to buy an American king mattress (across the street from us, no less) and ordered one on the spot (hooray sales!) Of course, since American king mattresses are nearly impossible to find in Seoul, so are bed frames.
So this past weekend, we head an hour northwest to Hongik University, which we later learn is dubbed the "SoHo" of Seoul -- a bit avant-garde... and home to many small furniture makers in Seoul. We find Lee, who a friend had recommended to us. We realize we probably should have brought a photo of what we envisioned (and, um, probably should have spoken to each other about what we each envisioned!), but Tyler finds a photo on the spot by googling "Japanese beds" (and thankfully we agree on design). This is what we show him:
We look at what he currently has and together draw up a design of what we're looking for. It's pricey, but we're not sure what else to do. He says he'll draw it up and we use this extra time to think about it some more.
On the way back, we stumble upon a smaller furniture maker. No showroom this time, just one guy working on a bench, whose name is Addie. We talk to him about what we're looking for. His English is amazing and it's really fun to chat with him about the design. We start talking prices, and to our delight, it's half as expensive as the first shop, and half the time to produce! I think we've found our guy!
Of course, as we learn, often living in a foreign country is two steps forward and one step back (or in the case of India, oftentimes felt like two steps forward and two steps back). Riding our productive weekend high, I wake up to find a package from Amazon, which I was super excited to receive... Alas, the incredible duvet they sent turned out to be a full/queen size, instead of a king... And I'm not even sure how to send it back as a return from here...
Alas, at this point, all I can do is laugh. Laugh when things don't go our way, and be grateful and celebrate when they do. My "twin", Giselle, sent me this quote over WhatsApp last week. There's nothing like living in a foreign country to practice living this each day:
PS: After all that, I just got a text from Addie to say that they actually can't make that bed frame for us... It's too big and they can't design what we want. I'd be frustrated as heck right now... except that he ends his text with an emoticon of big tears... All I can do is laugh (again).
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