Hhhhhhhhhh

That's the sound you make when you realize how different your surroundings are from what you're used to, and from how you would like things to be.

Last week Carmen discovered a bit of mold on the wall behind our bed. Yeah, we know, that's sick. The summer humidity is still lingering in our apartment and now that it's cooling down, we can't have the windows open much. Seeing as our bathroom is our shower, it's difficult to air the place out, hence the mold growing just outside the bathroom door. We cleaned the wall and hoped we'd taken care of the problem.

Today as we were cleaning Cate's room/laundry room/storage room, we noticed it on the walls in there as well. Probably the worst case scenario. Our daughter is being exposed to some contaminable growth 12 hours a day, and we don't even realize it. We've cleaned it off and will be getting a bunch of Thirsty Hippos, which are little dehumidifiers, to put around the house. We'll also need to buy some spray to clean the walls. After doing a bit of research, I've learned this is a very common problem in Korea. There are a couple of obvious contributing factors.

First of all, pretty much no one uses dryers here. Clothes are all hang-dried. Not only does this make your underwear and towels stiff and crusty, it makes it difficult to get things completely dry when the air is so humid - and usually takes a couple of days for an entire load to dry. A lot of people complain of mold growing on their clothes. The second problem is that most villas, including ours, don't have a lot of natural ventilation because the buildings are so close together. Thirdly, our villa has at least a few layers of wallpaper that have been slabbed onto the concrete walls over the years. In short, we live in a bloody breeding ground for mold. Luckily, the problem has just come up after more than eight months, and the humidity will only disappear now. It seems manageable, but it also seems like an unnecessary issue. I suppose it's just an example of taking the bad with the good. Hopefully we've seen the worst.

Also, if anyone would like to send me a Slingbox so I can follow the NFL this season, send me an email and I'll give you my address.