you belong to crimson house!!

this is room 304. it ain't much but for the next 6 months, it's home. when you enter the room, the first things you see are my bed and the curtains above it. it's not as bad as looks. so come on in...


you will then notice the other window on the left. if you're lucky, the sun will be out and the room will be flooded with sunlight. i always feel grateful for the toasty warmth of the room after the windchill that follows me everywhere the moment i step outside. like all my workspaces, the one below is already cluttered. that's my trash bag hanging on the upper left of the photo. my towels are draped on the swivel chair; the heat from the central heating dries them really quickly. just imagine what havoc that does on my already aging skin.


from my bed, you see the heating vent above my door and below that, the OMF calendar cousin A gave me, along with random talismans: tiny mounted japanese paper dolls from my japanese friend S, a favorite necklace from R, a necklace with tiny picture frame from my discipler R, a jade rabbit charm from P. that's my trash in the black bag hanging from a hook; i empty the contents every day into various bins in the garage for recycling & whatnot.


the top shelf is my garde-manger (snooty term for where i stash my food). i have barley tea, marks & spencer black tea from B, organic earl grey & green teas, barquillos with mint chocolate filling, microwave rice, occasional baked munchies from paris baguette (a chain like french baker or le coeur de france), leftover lemon booze from the corner ministop, sugarfree strawberry jam and a tiny jar of aligue. if you love me and know someone going to seoul, please send over some bottled gourmet tuyo and/or bangus and/or sardines and/or fish roe in olive oil and/or more crabfat. please?

below that, you see my bookshelf. that area is a mess now because i keep taking stuff out. more books stashed at the foot of my bed. and as you can see, i have no use for the cable TV that comes with the room; every channel is in korean. i basically get all my entertainment from my laptop (which i refuse to name), my palm (which sicko siege insists on calling mary), and the various people around me. with my dorm and my classroom looking like a bennetton ad come to life, who needs TV? i do love having free broadband. i think i'd go bonkers here without it.

the same way i'd go crazy without my Post-it (c) notes and my lip balm. the other day, siege was surprised to see me pull out three different lip balms from the pocket of my bag during one shiyoyo (break time) in class. i had to explain that the one in a tin is flavored with green tea and mint, and is used as a base. the other two that come in tubes are colored lip balms from burt's bees (got them at beauty bar). they're made from beeswax, mint and other good stuff, and come in shades of coffee and burgundy. i also had to explain that the burgundy lip balm, having a bluish undertone, is for my outfits that are predominantly in that color family. the coffee, being brownish, are for my more neutral or paler outfits. his reply: "and you think i'm weird???"

let me introduce you now to my overhead light source, the corner of my tiny closet and my smoke detector. i don't know how i can live without them. below are my storage space and the foot of my bed. in the 10 days i've been here, i've had to go on various shopping expeditions to get needed items i had no idea i needed, like those pink plastic bathroom slippers. i had totally forgotten that i'd be sharing a bathroom with people of various countries. best not to go into detail.


the basket you see on my bed is for carrying all the stuff i need when i go to the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth or take a shower. i got tired of dropping various embarrassing articles in the corridor so i went and bought what i think is a laundry basket from some convenience store somewhere (apparently their equivalent of our sari-sari store). now, having seen the inside of my room, please enjoy the view that greets me whenever i pull the curtains aside to let in the bit of sunlight that reaches this cold cold city. pretty, eh? heh heh.




nothing else to see, folks. it is a tiny room. i stashed my luggage under the workdesk and my bags in the drawers under my bed. toiletries and other unmentionables are stashed in a drawer and a compartment roughly the size of a mini-fridge, under the workdesk where a mini-fridge would be if this were a bigger, more expensive room. just like the one i had last week.