In spite of my many travels, I find that I have difficulty finding my way around. My ability to navigate in a new place would score somewhere in the vicinity of 2 out of 10. Here in Suwon another navigation hindrance is the fact so many buildings look alike. Jonathan, Robin & Win live in a veritable forest of high rise apartment buildings. Government regulations require a certain percentage of the land be left "green", so there are playgrounds and landscaped areas, but 18 story buildings still take up lots of space. I think there are 40 or more high rises in the place where J R & W live. They are all exactly alike except for the numbers on the outside of the buildings. One afternoon I walked over to to the school to observe Jonathan in action in his classroom. On the way back I took a wrong turn and although I was very near home it took me a while to find the right building.
At last I found 303 and put in the code to open the door- after each number a female Korean voice softly murmurs the number you punched in-- in Korean. After a short pause the door opened. I took the elevator to the 13th floor, eager to get inside and use the bathroom. The code for the door did not open it. I tried again and then again. The need for a bathroom intensified. Finally a red light around the keypad came on and an alarm bell buzzed. At that point I decided to exit the building and try another way home.
When I came out the door I saw Win coming out another door in the building. I had not noticed that 303 had two towers and I had gone up the wrong tower. We think the guard saw me and opened the outer door for me. I had been trying to get into the wrong apartment.
How great my relief was when I put in the code for the outside door and it worked and then the code for the apartment worked as well so I made it to the bathroom without an embarrassing incident. I'm here to take care of Win, but he may be taking care of me instead--at least in the walking around town part!
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