Brownies, Refrigerators, Hulu

Well, it's been a roller coaster end of 2011, and here we are going through another breath-taking corkscrew and 2012 is only a couple weeks in.

On Friday, I discovered that my refrigerator had broken, and that the inside of my refrigerator was no longer cold. I also discovered that the chicken breasts in my freezer had dethawed and spilled chicken juice all about my freezer's insides.

It was then I went down to my landlord and, all in Korean mind you, expressed that a problem had arisen in my apartment, involving my refrigerator. And when my landlord remained unmoved, I knew I was in for a treat. It was at that moment that I realized the refrigerator was in fact my refrigerator, which I bought along with all the furniture in my apartment (including a dresser, microwave, sofa, dresser, t.v., water dispenser and the fridge, apparently) for 200 US dollars.


After showing a bit more desperation as I explained that I didn't know what to do about my refrigerator, my landlord conceded to coming to check out the refrigerator. However, he didn't do much except ask if I had unplugged it and plugged it back in (what, do I look like I'm a five year old? Come on) and then he got a worker from the second hand furniture and appliance store across the street.

Friendly as the worker was, he was not a repairman, and did nothing except check the plug (for the 5th time) and put his ear to the fridge. However, he did call LG to set up a repairman appointment for later that afternoon.

About an hour later, the repairman came and pulled the refrigerator back off the wall, revealing a dozen hair accessories which Nova and Baram pushed into the depths underneath the refrigerator, and which I embarrassedly tidied while he inspected my refrigerator. After finishing his inspection, he said, all in Korean mind you, that that whatchamacallit was broken and needed to be replaced. I say whatchamacallit because he tried to explain to me it's location and purpose, but even had he been speaking English I'm fairly certain it would have gotten no where. The new part would cost 50,000 won, about 45 US Dollars. However, he added, my refrigerator being nearly 20 years old, he couldn't guarantee that it would last, and that some people would opt to simply buy a new refrigerator at this point.

He then proceeded to tell me we needed to wait 10 minutes, for some reason that was not entirely clear. After the 10 minutes my refrigerator was turned back on. I didn't, at the time, understand how this happened since he replaced nothing and said nothing regarding the situation. He then said I should call him tomorrow or later today after consulting with a male (Hoon) regarding the part replacement vs. refrigerator replacement decision. He then left after telling me I owed him nothing since he fixed nothing (in spite of my refrigerator becoming cooler by the moment).

Hoon arrived home from sports academy at about 6:30 to a barrage of text messages from me. Yes, they have sports education academies in Korea; Hoon attends his approximately 40 hours per week during his vacation from school. I'm not a fan. After consultation with the repairman, Jong Hoon told me to opt for the part replacement, but that he wanted to research the correct price for the part to make sure I wasn't getting hosed.

So Saturday morning came and I discovered that my refrigerator had, again, shut off, overnight.

This time the refrigerator warmed up extremely quickly and I ended up throwing away about 80% of the food that remained in my fridge. Hooray. Hoon was unreachable the entirety of Saturday, something I don't wish to speak about as it irritates me beyond words. Finally Saturday at 11 pm he called apologizing, and swearing he'd set a repair appointment the very next morning.

And so he did set an appointment, which came on Monday afternoon.

And the same repairman came and he replaced the timer and sensor in about 10 minutes flat and was out of my apartment in under 20 minutes. I'm pretty sure I could have just bought the parts and installed them myself. It was actually that easy.

But regardless, I now have a working fridge and cold food once more.

So to celebrate, I've been watching Gossip Girl and Glee nonstop and I made chocolate chip-almond brownie cupcakes.

And now I just have to hope that it doesn't break again before my first paycheck comes in March 25th. If it does break again, well, then, looks like I've got a few months of ramen in the forecast.

And that is how I fell victim to and overcame refrigerated tragedy in the nation of South Korea.