#7. Cheap Utilities

Weather is starting to heat up over here. The forecast has the temperature in the 70s all week, which means that soon we are going to have an onslaught of heat and humidity that will have me longing for the frigid days of winter. At least I'm moving to a place with dry, hot summers instead of wet hot ones....

#7. Cheap Utilities

I love how little it costs to have an apartment here. Now obviously my school pays for my rent each month, but the cost of utilities like water, power, internet and cable are all the responsibility of the teachers. I'm lucky to be employed by a school that takes my monthly bills and deducts them from my paycheck each month rather than relying on me to remember to pay these things on time. Even so, I know I'm even more lucky to be living in a country where these things cost so little that I don't even really have to worry about them .

This is an actual copy of my paystub--with certain sections omitted of course. I can tell you, these amounts are pretty much the same every month. The only one that changes is the power bill, which goes up in the summer because I absolutely cannot tolerate humidity. An easy way to convert these prices from Korean won to dollars is to just think that every 1000 won is roughly equivalent to $1--though in reality its less. If you want to do the real math, as of today, one USD equals about 1087 Korean won. So the 30,000 won gas and water bill you see there actually costs me $27.42 in the States. And how many of you want to tell me that your power bill for this month was anywhere near $10? Yeah, didn't think so...

The only thing not represented on my paystub is my cell phone bill, which is deducted directly from my checking account. It still only costs me $30 a month, which isn't bad at all considering that it comes with internet, TV, and email messaging (this is all non-smartphone, btw).

Yes, I am afraid that South Korea is kicking our buts when it comes to the cost of utilities. As sure as I am that I will not miss the impending humidity and misery that comes with summer on the peninsula, I am equally sure that I will miss being able to turn on my AC to the highest setting and not have to mentally calculate how much I have to earn that month to offset the cost.