Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Chez Liberace

For the first time since I arrived in Seoul on May 2 I had the inevitable "What am I doing here?" moment. It was fleeting, but definitely was brought on with good reason.

To keep a long story short(-ish), last Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. I found out that I had to move out of my (second) apartment within the next 24 hours. Evidently, the tax laws related to serviced apartments changed and reclassified them with hotels. As best I could understand, serviced residences had previously been allowed to operate similar to US timeshares and with the tax change the owner of my apartment pulled it out of the pool.
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, but here's the synopsis of Tuesday through Thursday.
  • Tuesday - Notified I had to move at 5:30 p.m.
  • Wednesday 2 p.m. told I could move into another unit in my current building
  • Wednesday 2-4 p.m. pack and move two months worth of "settled" living
  • Wednesday 4 p.m. vomit after beginning to move in and inspecting the "new"apartment closely
  • Thursday night I relocate into "Chez Liberace" where I'm perfectly pampered and just fine with the gaudiness that I now call home.
So we'll start with the first option. And trust me, these picture do no justice to just how filthy this very "ultilitarian" apartment was. In fact, the pictures help it out...


Well, the pictures help it out because you can't see how stained and dirty the furniture is.
But you can tell that the bedroom looks like the room Nicolas Cage rented in "Leaving Las Vegas."
In case you didn't see the movie - he went there to die.
This room would probably make you want to speed that along.

And if the bedroom didn't then the bathroom would.
When I found this in a cabinet that's when I really lost it...
I mean, what was this from, who put it in the cabinet and how long had it been there?
At least it coordinated with the shower curtain.
Sooooo, here's where I now call home now.
Chez Liberace. I have no doubt he'd have felt quite comfortable.


It even has an electric bidet toilet...

It's sort of like I went from being on "Good Times" to "The Jeffersons."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM95AwDgask&feature=related