There are no bars on my prison here, but I'd hazard a guess that the view from a Strangeways prison cell is better than the one I am faced with. There is also precious little sunlight at times given my present surroundings, leaving my home here dark quite often and making me feel like someone in the Taliban hiding in a cave in Pakistan or Afghanistan. The pictures here contradict those thoughts but are taken at noon in Summer with sunlight especially strong.
The view from my bedroom window. A delicious shade of faded grey/white with the added bonus of being able to see someone else's window
A side view from my bedroom window. Can you see how close four buildings are together?
Different side view from my bedroom window, with more buildings.
Here is the view from my kitchen window, much better than from my bedroom. As you can see I am facing another apartment, this time with the added bonus of seeing someone else's room - they can see me too.
A side view from the kitchen. not too much to see.
Finally something to actually see. Some remnants of plant life (a rarity in Korean surroundings) and also the street.
The walls in my apartment building here appear to be paper thin. You can hear almost anything. Other buildings where I live are so close together that you can here what everyone else is doing too. Right now we are in the midst of Summer heat so most people leave their windows open which exacerbates the problem. I often listen to music on my computer which to me is not loud at all but when heard from outside is clearly audible. I haven't had any complaints so far but that's probably because of the noise coming from everywhere else.
Babies screaming, doors slamming, children yelling, people jumping up and down the stairs of the apartment building, people having showers, people crying, drunken men shouting at their wives, pianos and recorders playing in the day time, men hoiking up phlegm and spitting, grown men shouting over alcohol, airplanes flying overhead, sirens that sound like the four minute warning and continue to disturb me, vans selling fruit and vegetables that carry loudspeakers blaring out messages and many many more sounds that I hear at various times of the day and night in my apartment. My current 'favourite' is the religious types who knock on peoples doors and then ask for some water, then try to stay in the apartment. This is life in Korea.
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