메리 크리스마스

Merry Christmas! We hope that however you are celebrating this year, that you have a wonderful and blessed day. We are so fortunate to spend Christmas with our families this year.
May you find joy in Him, who is our only reason to celebrate.

This is what passes for Christmas spirit here in Korea. :)

I'll Be Home for Christmas....

We have officially begun our journey home for Christmas! About 20 hours from now we will be eating Christmas goodies and hanging out with family. Wahoo!!
Posts will be scarce in the next two weeks as we focus on seeing us much of our families and friends as we can, but you can be sure, we will post pictures when we get back. :) 

You Know You're In Korea When....(pt.3)

• your toothpaste is green tea flavor.
• people only chew with their mouths open (lip smacking can be heard across the land.) 
• nobody cares if you shove them (or get shoved) on the street. 
• you can buy a pre-made hamburger in a bag at the local convenience store.
• a crazy dictatorial nation to your north threatens to attack and kill you, is just another day in the news.
• asking strangers blunt personal questions is perfectly normal.
• you frequently see swastikas on buildings because they are Buddhist temples. 
• air raid drills happen every 15th of the month (it took us a long time to figure out what those sirens meant :) )
• you get "servicee" at some stores where they give you a free gift or a special discount with your purchase.
• calling someone a "dog baby" is EXTREMELY offensive.  :)

Silver Bells, Silver Bells....

Well it's official, it's Christmas time in the city....and it's freezing! On a whole Korea doesn't really celebrate Christmas, but I have seen more Christmas trees and decorations around than I did last year. Also, the temperature has dropped to the point where your hands ache from the cold if you forget your mittens at home. I went Christmas shopping last Wednesday morning before work. I had just left Starbucks, where I got my dose of coffee and Christmas cheer, when it started snowing like crazy! Could it be better? Christmas shopping, coffee and snow? I think not. :)


We are particularly excited this year because we are going home for Christmas!! It will be our first time home in 18+ months. We are SO ready for some lovin' from the homeland. For those of you who live in Portland or Las Cruces, we'll be seeing many of you in the next few weeks and we can hardly wait!!

Hangul Rap

Korean, locally known as "Hangul" was created by King Sejong in the mid 1400s. It was created in order to give all Korean people a simple and logical writing system, so that more people could learn to read and write. Up until this time they had been using Chinese characters which had become very confusing.

Students in school today still have to learn Chinese characters, as well as study Korean in depth so that they will always understand the history of their language and the pride that comes with it. Here is a little video from Youtube that gives you everything you need to know to start learning Korean in 4 minutes flat. Check it out :)

Koreans are so Helpful :)

Today I grabbed my trusty green bike, my mittens and toque and set out to look for a store rumored to be across the river. I needed to buy some mats for our apartment and this place was the best one to find them at. I had to ride my bike in freezing weather for 30 minutes and ask for directions in broken Korean 3 times....but I made it.

I found what I needed at the store and ended up leaving with 4 large mats, among some other things.  I had brought a backpack along to help carry them home but had left it in a locker, since I wasn't allowed to take it into the store. I took my purchases to the locker area, which was thankfully out a side door, so I was out of the way of most of the store traffic. I then decided to see if I could roll the mats up tight and put them in the backpack. As I was on the floor, looking ridiculous and trying to squish these mats up tight I noticed a security guard staring at  this crazy foreigner. Soon he hollered something in Korean and an older Korean woman who had been sweeping the floor came over. She started ranting in Korean and pushed me away. She was basically telling me that I wasn't doing it right and that I should let her do it.

So she laid out the mats again and rolled them up really tight. By this time I had come to realize that they were never going to fit in the backpack and still have it close, but I was simply not able to communicate that to the woman. Finally the two of us got the bottom half of the mats into the bag. Then the security guard came over and was trying to help close the bag around the mats. I'm sure the three of us looked a wild sight to the passers by. Finally, the old woman took my bag (which had other breakable items in the front) and kneels/sits on it to try to squish it closed. By this time I'm dying laughing and trying to hide it because it was such a ridiculous scene.

When the woman finally realized that the backpack was never going to close she started taking all the straps and buckling them across each other to try to "secure" the mats. At this point she noticed the other items in my cart and started shoving them into the open crevasses in the bag. I finally stopped her before she shoved the yogurt in and told her it was okay.

I grabbed the bag and my other items and headed out the door. I just dropped the extra items in the basket on the front of my bike. I now had a giant mass of mats mostly hanging out of my backpack, but still relatively secure. I decided not to try to reorganize and strap the mats to the back of my bike....it was just too cold. So I rode home on my little green bike with a giant mass on my back and still laughing about the scene I caused back at the store. :) Thankfully I got it all home safe and it really was nice of them to try to help.

Word Mix-up

Today I walked into class and started talking to my students about Christmas. Then some of my girls sang the chorus to "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." As I listened to them I cringed more and more. They were singing "We wishy a merry Christmas." I was like "wishy??" really? I then did a short lesson on why we shouldn't add the "-ee-" sound to the end of English words. Finally, I gave them the real lyrics and they broke into song again....heeheehee.

New Sport Jacket

We decided to get Jordan a new sport jacket before went home for Christmas. I use the word "new" lightly as Jordan doesn't even have an old sport jacket. You can get them tailor made at a fairly decent price here in Seoul. We had a little trouble with our tailor trying to swindle us, but after we made it clear that we wanted it done right and for a good price, he did a great job. Here is Jord in his new threads. :)

What Does That Say???

Sometimes our students wear shirts that have hilarious sayings on them. Often they are names of universities or cities in the States, but when asked the student has no idea  what their shirt says or means. One of my most shy and timid teenage girls has a shirt that says "Looking for Loving"...I can't help but smile. Another students shirt screams English swear words...and yet the student is so sweet in class....she really has no idea what her shirt says. A boy student of mine wore a shirt to class the other day that was bright yellow....in the middle of the shirt it had two big cartoon eyes and underneath the phrase...."popduck".....what is that supposed to mean??
One of my favorites though I saw today, it was a Mickey Mouse shirt that said "Mickey Mouse....the friend who is eternal."  How creepy is that? :)

Christmas Baking

I had a friend over this weekend and we did some Christmas baking. It was fun to enjoy a little Christmas cheer in the middle of a city that doesn't really celebrate it. We made gingersnaps, peanut butter, and shortbread cookies. We also put up our tree! Now we are ready for the holidays....even though we're going home for them this year! :)

Jordan's Birthday

Jordan celebrated his 29th birthday on Saturday. The day started with a beautiful snowfall. Then Jordan opened his presents and got pancakes and bacon in bed. We then went to see a show called "Nanta". It's a live comedic rhythm show.

The story goes like this; three chefs must prepare food for 6 weddings in only 1 hour. They amuse the audience with lots of humor and an incredible display of rhythmic beats using kitchen utensils. Jordan wanted to sit close, so we sat in the front row and I unfortunately got called on stage at one point to try to pull a guy out of a garbage can, who had amusingly got himself stuck. :) It was quite hilarious.

We then went to a Brazilian Steakhouse with some friends, which was incredible! We were pleasantly surprised by how authentic it seemed to be. We finally finished off the night with Starbucks and cupcakes and ice cream at our apartment.

What a great day!

The Bombing of Yeonpyeong

As most of you probably know by now North Korea attacked the island of Yeonpyeong in the west sea on Tuesday, November 23rd. South Korea immediately returned fire and began evacuating the island. At least 24 people were injured, including two Korean marines and  two civilians who were killed.

This is one of the most aggressive attacks since the "end" of the Korean war in 1953. It is also the second major attack on South Korea this year. Is this North Korea vying for the world's attention or is it connected with the succession of Kim Jong-il's son, Kim Jong-un? The answer seems no more clear in South Korea than anywhere else in the world. There is also some frustration in South Korea that the military's response wasn't strong enough. This is being blamed on how long it took to get approval to fire back.

North Korea is claiming that the South fired first. The SK military was holding live-round drills in the waters of the West Sea during the time of the attack. NK apparently faxed the SK government Tuesday morning saying they would not stand for those drills near the DeMiliterized Zone. This is a common move for NK, who really didn't have a say-so because the SK military was in South Korean waters. It was a surprise to all when North Korea fired at the island.

Many people in South Korea are frustrated and angered by the news. They are monitoring the situation with the rest of the world, but going on with a "life as usual" mentality. I can only imagine how upsetting it must be to have a neighboring country who keeps launching senseless attacks against you.

We will see how things play out in the next few days. I side with the general opinion in that, war is highly unlikely. North Korea will likely be reprimanded and the US and SK will use diplomatic means to coax NK into compliance once again. Another attack at this time is highly unlikely, much less anywhere near Seoul. (The island is about 85miles west of us) For those of you who are concerned, we are safe and sound in our little NE corner of Seoul.  :)

Ooblick

Jordan does science in one of his classes every week. Today they learned the wonders of "Ooblick". The kids had a great time playing with it, but had a tough time realizing that it wasn't something they should eat. :)

The Pantsless Wonder

We spent Sunday afternoon doing some much needed Christmas shopping. As we rode the subway home, we saw something rather unique. About ten minutes into our ride a woman got on. As she walked the length of the train looking for a seat, nearly everyone on the train turned to stare. She had forgotten to wear pants! She had on a nice shirt and coat and was listening casually to her MP3 player. She eventually found a seat and sat down as though everything was perfectly normal. A few stops later she got up and left the train. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen. It was like a this girl was living that nightmare we've all had about forgetting to wear pants.

Our Thanksgiving Day

 

We celebrated Canadian/American Thanksgiving this weekend with our good friends, Peter and Cindy.  The best part was that we got delicious food without having to cook anything. :) A hotel on the US Army Base cooks up all the fixings and boxes them up to go, so you just have to pay and pick it up...it's great! We really enjoyed our day and afterward we watched a Christmas movie.....now it's time to put up the tree. :)

Seeing Color

This is a totally crazy optical illusion.....I promise nothing scary will jump out and scare you! :) Just stare at the dot and see what happens.

Autumn Leaves

Korea finally experienced a "normal" Fall this year and we are LOVING it! The weather and trees have been BEAUTIFUL. Here are some pictures from the park near our house.

Perscriptions Korea-style

I managed to catch myself yet another cold this week. It must be from all my students who don't wash their hands and don't think I can see them picking their noses in class. :) Anyway, this one seemed to be worse than usual so I went to see the doctor. He gave me a prescription for basic cold medicine. Here's a picture of my drugs. All separated nicely and labeled "morning" "afternoon" and "evening". It may be bulkier than a bottle, but they sure are in convenient little packages.....they even split a pill in half and added it to each pack. :)

G20 Summit

The G20 is here and everyone's talking about it. Over that past six months Korea has gotten more and more excited about hosting this event. We have seen the area and it's quite expansive....it's also right next to a giant shopping center. :) Korea has gone all out with their preparations, including updating their subway system and making public transit more English friendly. Seoul will have over 60,000  military personnel and riot police patrolling the streets around the G20 and the public transit system. This is three times the number ever deployed for a G20 summit. They have even canceled subway trains and buses that run within a 2km radius of the summit until 5pm every day. When Seoul hosts a global event, they don't mess around.

Pepero (빼빼로) Day!

Once upon a time a major Korean company decided to make a treat called "Pepero". (This treat is a little wafer stick with chocolate on it. It's actually copied from a similar treat in Japan.) Suddenly, "Pepero Day" was born. This is a day to give Pepero to everyone you know. Thankfully it only costs about 5cents per stick. :) While we celebrate chocolate wafer treats here, other countries, such as the US and Canada, celebrate more sober holidays today. Holidays such as Remembrance Day and Veteran's Day. So to all of you outside of Korea, happy November 11th and may you enjoy your day as you remember those who have fought to keep us free.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I met lots of new kids last week, teaching at another school and they said some hilarious stuff. Here's a few quotes.

"Excuse me teacher, but are you planning to use the book today, because we don't have much time left."
  hahaha, my student just came out with this towards the end of class....I said "thanks for minding the time, but we are doing other things today."

As I was eating lunch one day a student walked up to me and said "Teacher, I have an ant farm in my pocket!" and he totally did.....he had collected 3 ants at recess and put them in a box. 

Monday morning I was just sitting down to my desk when a student walked in a says, "Teacher, did you know that sloths move so slowly that they grow moss on their fur." I just took a sip of coffee and said, "Good morning Jacob, that's cool." What does this kid do on the weekend that this is the first thing on his mind on Monday?

These are just a few quotes from the awesome kids I met this week. :) Some days I love teaching ESL to kids.

Sang Myeong

This week has been an interesting one. I have been teaching at a new school in the morning and my usual school in the afternoon. I've logged a total of 45 teaching hours. Needless to say...it's good to finally reach the weekend :). As busy as I've been it has been a blessing in more ways than one.

The school is a private English immersion school, complete with uniforms, a swimming pool and all the fixings of a prestigious private school. It's been an exciting change from our school. I taught the 5th grade classes conversational English.

Not only have I been able to earn some extra cash but I've also found some fresh perspective. Even though I've been teaching more, I've found myself being more prepared and being more creative in my teaching at our usual school. It's so easy to slip into a mundane routine, even when teaching a variety of classes, so it was nice to experience a totally new environment.

Emoticons :)

It's funny how something as small as emoticons change from culture to culture. My students use these little symbols for everything, especially in the diaries I have them write. In the US we use this symbol :( to express sadness when we are sending a text message. In Korea they use this symbol ( T T ), to express sadness and lots of crying. For a long time I interpreted this as fangs...so when I'd get this in a text message I would think they were mad about something. Finally, I realized that they weren't fangs....they were just tears. :) :)

Happy Halloween

We didn't do too much for Halloween this year. Our friends came over to watch a not so scary movie and we gorged ourselves on delicious snacks and candy.
Halloween isn't really celebrated much in Korea but our kids have found out about this holiday and the fact that it includes candy. This means that they have demanded their own Halloween parties. So we will play games and give out candy in most of our classes tomorrow.
Happy Hallooooweeeen to all of you!

"Orangee teacher!"

 

They're here! Just this week the local fruit stands have started selling mandarin oranges. This is very exciting because we can usually get 6 or 7 for about 85cents. I will confess that I've already eaten at least 15 oranges....I can't stop....I need help!
Anyway, the oranges will stick around until February or so. I love that we can get lots for cheap, it's my favorite winter fruit!

Lost in Translation

I was giving one of my students a speaking test today. He had to look at a bunch of Korean words and sentences on a page, and then tell me the English words.
When he got to the word "medicine" he looks up and says "marshmellow!"  I tried not to smile as I told him to try again. Then he got to the word "pepper"...he  stared at it for a while and finally he looks up and says "pooper?"....this time I couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Red sky at night....sailors delight."

This greeted us when we came home the other night. Sometimes I just love living on the 15th floor! :)

Hey! That's mine!

I had an interesting experience today on the subway. My friend Cindy and I decided to go out looking for English books and a Starbucks in an area of town called "Itaewon". We found some good books and had lunch and decided to grab our Starbucks for the ride home.

I had been sitting on the subway with my iced latte for about 5 minutes when a man came up. He mumbled something and then tapped my Starbucks cup. I moved it away and said "no, thanks"; thinking that he was offering to throw it away for me (as has occurred once before). He then started grabbing at it. I kept saying "no" and moving my cup away. He stepped away for a minute and then came back. This time I thought ahead and moved my cup out of reach. He still managed to get it though and this time he gripped it tight and started pulling. As we were involved in this "tug-of-war" I realized the cup was about to explode....so I let go. The man then went to the corner and drank the rest of my latte!!!

I looked around and all eyes were on me and my friend. I just sat there looking sad and half glaring at the man who stole my latte; realizing by this point that he was probably 'a few fruit loops shy of a full bowl'. The whole time the woman next to me was tsk tsk-ing in disapproval. The old man across from me made a crazy sign and pointed at him. They just wanted me to know that something was off and they didn't approve. It was still rather uncomfortable on that train.

After the man had finished my latte he then walked back over to me and chucked the cup in my lap.....despite my protests. As if it wasn't bad enough that he stole my really expensive latte and drank it! As much as I wanted to leave the cup there, I had to pick it up and take it with me so that I didn't look (to other people who didn't witness the incident) like the crusty American who doesn't pick up her trash.

In the end as grumpy and embarrassed as I was, I realized....I probably didn't really need that coffee anyway, and at least I have another crazy subway story. :)

Korean Specialties.....

Korea, like any country, has it's array of odd foods which are considered delicacies. Recently the Korea Herald (a local English newspaper) put out a list of some of the best ones. I am happy to say that we have only tried the first one. :) Here are some excerpts from the article, you can click on the link for more.


Silk Worm Larva
"Silkworm larva, a unique Korean snack called “beondaegi,” is one street snack our foreign staff thinks is too exotic. The cooked caterpillar is served in a paper cup and sold cheaply on streets."


Live Octopus
"The squirming tentacles of live octopus, called “sannakji” in Korean, scare those who try it for the first time. For our foreign staff, it is the “vilest food they have ever had,” with one describing it as a suction cup. “I suffered badly from the stickiness of sannakji. I will never try it again,” said one foreign staff member who asked not to be named."

Sundae
"Sundae is a sausage-like dish favored by many in Korea. But it is a culture shock to many foreigners. The pig intestine stuffed with blood clot from the animal, cellophane noodles, vegetables and spices makes foreigners hesitant to try."

This dish is not pronounce "sun-day" it's pronounced "soon-day".

Dog Soup
"Bosintang" is a soup which features dog meat as its primary ingredient. It is traditionally considered a healthy dish in Korea, but has become the subject of controversy with many inside and outside of Korea because of concerns over animal rights. Dog meat is also consumed by some Asian countries such as the Philippines, China and Vietnam."


http://www.koreaherald.com/englishcafe/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101003000286

Love for Women

This is a local pizza chain that has a hilarious motto. Here's one of their commercials! :)

Kung Fu!

This weekend we were invited to a Kung Fu Exhibition by a fellow Korean teacher. It was pretty fun to see some serious kung fu and our friend Theresa did a great job! We ended up going out to lunch with Theresa and her fellow Kung Fu experts...it turns out she is the 3rd strongest woman in Korea. Pretty wild! :) Here is a video and some pics of the event.

Hearing Voices

We were sitting in our living room this morning with our patio door open, enjoying the cool Fall air. Suddenly out of nowhere we hear this woman's voice sounding like it's coming from the clouds. I went outside to look and saw nothing.
Frequently we'll have trucks drive by with a giant loudspeaker announcing the latest sales at their particular store....it usually sounds more like a warning of impending doom rather than a sales pitch.
I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary so I just went back inside. About 5 minutes later I hear it again. So I go outside and look around and still nothing, but this time I listened to the voice. It said something along the lines of..."Please come to our store. We have Air Conditioners on sale as well as pianos. Come and see our big sale!" What strange words to be coming from the clouds.....

GUT!

Every time we buy milk we always get a little treat taped to it, like yogurt. Korea has an incredible number of yogurt drinks. They're usually marketed to help with digestion and there's all kinds of crazy flavors. This is the latest one we got with our milk....what a name!

Bicycle Ride

We bought bicycles last Fall and have used them regularly. It's so convenient to get around on a bike. It makes the larger "walmart" type store (called HomePlus) much more accessible. We have had many bicycle adventures. We just strap our purchases to the back of the bike or load them into the basket. It can be more than a little hilarious and awkward to ride a bike home with a giant fan or chair strapped to the back and a mound of groceries in the basket...heehee. It's been fun to learn how to ride a bike again and get a little exercise.

Oh ya and my bike has a little quote that says "Blooming moment in my life with you".....hilarious!

Korean Banking

Korea has a very advanced banking system particularly in comparison to that of the US. We can do just about anything through the ATMs including depositing and transferring money to other local banks (like when we buy something on Craigslist we can pay the person that way). Recently a new feature has been added to the ATMs. We can now transfer money into our US bank accounts using the ATM. It' totally crazy! We used to have to go to a special branch and go inside the bank, which is always very HOT, and wait in a long line, hoping that we would get someone who speaks a little English or that someone would take pity on us foreigners and walk us over to a special agent who strictly works with loans and the like, but who happens to speak English. Now it's so easy we can just go up to almost any ATM with our bank and transfer our money wherever it needs to go. It takes 5 min instead of an hour and the fee is 1/3 of what it was before. We love it!

On another note, the bank always seems to have a "theme" of the month and so every time we go in there, the tellers are wearing special shirts or outfits. This months' theme is apparently 'Mickey Mouse' and all the men had on little red bow ties and the women wore Minnie Mouse ears.....totally awesome!

Fall in in the Air....

I hope you like the new design....it's still a work in progress, but it's fun to change things up a bit. Jordan's says it's better than re-arranging the house! haha :)

Yo Quiero Taco Bell! :)

It's incredible...we just got a Taco Bell in Seoul! Actually it was a couple months ago...but the lines have been around the block so we waited until things calmed down. This weekend was our first taste of this delicious fast food in a year and a half...and it was delicious!

Greetings from the Police

Yesterday when we checked our mailbox we found this little note inside....we were happy to see that everyone seemed to have gotten this little note. This is essentially what it says:




GREETING FROM THE POLICE. WE WISH YOU HAPPINESS AND WELL-BEING!

Please do not drink too much. Drinking is bad for your health

Drinking causes many problems, be careful how much you drink.

If you get into a taxi and you are drunk do not argue with the taxi driver or other people in the taxi.

Make sure that you do not drink and drive. It is very bad.

Do not litter with your bottles and cans.

Do not swear at people it is very offensive.

If you steal,rob or hurt someone accidentally it can be very bad and it may be hard to find a job.

Wishing you good health,
the police


Then when I left the building I saw lots of police outside our building and the surrounding buildings....apparently they are trying to build awareness to common issues and drunkenness is a MAJOR problem here. So nice of the police to give us helpful reminders....but I really don't know how you can "accidentally" rob someone.

Mom and Dad E visit Seoul

We had SUCH a good time showing Jordan's parents around Korea. We did lots in Seoul and we also had time to fit in the DMZ and take a few days hiking at the beach. Here are some of the highlights from our week.

Please let's go playground!

One day I walked into class and this is what I found...my students had left me a note. :) heehee....they're awesome!

And these are the messengers...
Everyday I start class by asking my students the date and then writing it on the board. They tried to earn extra favor by writing it themselves before class. :)

Chuseok

Today is Korea's national holiday called...."Chuseok". It would be most similar to the holiday North Americans call "Thanksgiving". During this holiday people travel to their families tombs and bow to their ancestors. They also get together and have a big feast. They eat things like 'dduck' which is a compressed rice cake kind of treat. Typically many people wear the traditional Korean clothes called a "hanbok". It's a fun holiday...and we like it all the more because we have vacation from school :).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok

Seoraksan National Park

We're having a blast with Jordan's parents here! Tomorrow we head to Sokcho for a few days to do some hiking and see the ocean. Here's a picture of where we are headed....more to follow....

Fan Death

It is an urban legend in Korea that if you sleep with a fan or air conditioner on in a closed room...you will die...this is why fans, particularly sold in Korea, are equipped with timers. Many of our fellow teachers marvel that we sleep with our fans or AC on. To us it seems totally normal...but to them it's suicidal.
You decide....can you really die from a fan blowing on you in a closed room?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

Why Korea? Why?

We went to this coffee shop the other day....and as this is what I saw as I walked into the bathroom. Thanks for letting us know how it is Korea.... ;)

Jubilee!

This weekend was more eventful than usual, we spent most of it getting to know some people from church. We went to an American-style BBQ on the Army base on Saturday.It was to celebrate our church's 4th anniversary. It was VERY wet and rainy, but that was more than made-up for by the DELICIOUS food!
Then on Sunday we started going to a small group bible study. It was fun to meet some new faces and get a little more involved with the church here. We will be going through the book of Luke over the next few months. All in all, it was a great weekend! :)
www.jubileeseoul.org

what???

So we were shopping in a local mall and saw this clothing boutique.....what the what?

Misunderstood

Needless to say that when you are teaching a second language to students and you don't speak their native language, it can be difficult to be understood. Our students understand little of what we say and sometimes that leads to major frustrations and other times it leads to a hilarious moment.
Every class I start by asking "What is the date today?". The students then have to tell me the date and how to spell it. I asked my students today, "How do you spell Tuesday?" and one of my students just looked at me and exclaimed "November!" I tried not to smile as I explained again that I wanted the spelling of 'tuesday'.....heehee...so funny :)

Just another day at the office....

This is the building where we work...our school is on the 3rd and 4th floor.

Daily life

Here are some pictures from our little neighborhood...

this is how we do it....

In Korea, when someone wants to move out of their apartment, they call a company who brings an "elevator". They then move all their stuff down and put it into a truck and take it to the new apartment. Also, unlike in the States when you move out, it's perfectly okay to leave your place a disaster. It is expected that when you move into a new apartment, you will spend a few days to a week cleaning and fixing up your new place. I think I prefer cleaning up my own dirt instead of someone elses .... :)