Things I’ll Miss: #10 Ondol

I’ve been working on a Top 10 list of the things I’ll miss most when we leave Korea and since I’m having trouble narrowing it down, I thought I’d just give each thing it’s own post, and then add in several ‘honorable mentions’ as needed.

Coming it at number 10 (ironically not because it’s tenth in importance, but because I thought of it first) is the ondol floor heat. We just cranked on our ondol system about a week ago. It just makes winter seem much more bearable if you can get up in the morning and step on a warm floor. It sometimes makes me wish we’d gone more traditional with our furnishings when we moved here. A lot of families still eat at low tables, sitting on the floor, and sleep on the floor using a sleeping mat, yo, and ibul, Korean-style quilts. The yo and ibul fold so you can put them away during the day, as do the dining tables.

We have a platform bed that is lower than a typical Western bed, but still off the floor. This morning, I picked up one of the pillows I’d discarded beside the bed overnight and it felt as warm as an electric blanket, just from sitting on the floor. Since heat rises, the whole room does eventually get warm, and, unlike forced-air heat, doesn’t seem to dry out the air in the apartment as much. It would just have been a lot more efficient, plus save a lot of space, if we’d learned to sleep and eat on the floor.