Busan - Heather's Birthday

I will start off by apologizing.

I appear to have neglected my blog for a long time, so I will try to bring myself up to date. If I may say anything for myself, I actually haven't completely neglected this blog: I had written a 10 pages long entry over a few weeks, and when I decided to post it, it never ended up online, and I lost everything. Didn't really feel like writing after having lost this much time. It was a long entry on Korea, from last August, to now, with a brief story for each months that went by. 

The other day I was telling a friend that when writing a blog entry, you have to keep a good picture/text ratio, and never make it too long, if you want to keep people reading. Serves me right not to have followed my own advice. This just adds up one more reason to keep my entries short: if you lose it, you won't feel like throwing your computer off the 9th floor of your building (which I did NOT do... but you know. not that I didn't feel like it).

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It had been our plan since a while ago, to go to Pusan for Heather's birthday. Who was going didn't matter, we just thought that'd be a nice place to hang out and visit. I think we made the reservations like a week before, and in the end 4 of us ended up going. We realized that 4 people is a magical number, as it's cheaper and more practical for cab rides, and just enough to be silly and fun. Not that I will always restrict the number to 4, but anyways, that was an amazing trip. Save a stupid phone call form my boss, screwing the end of my Saturday night, it went without any problem. The weather was perfect and not too hot, but sunny. Wen got to go to the beach, visit an aquarium, try some bars and visit a temple on the way. Pretty amazing if you ask me, as we only had one day and half :)

Amy booked a super nice guest house in the middle of the bar/cafe district, 2 minutes walk from the beach.

4 hours train ride. We rocked it.

Because Pusan has it's own brand of soju that tastes like water. Amazing.

Haeundae Beach!

Our amazing guest house!

On Saturday night, we went to a European Tapas place, that got us amazingness in small portions. Had a beer with the mix. Drinks were really expensive, but the food was really good so in the end, whatever, I was happy. Let us not forget that this was before my boss called to ruin my evening. Bitter, me? Naaaaaah.

Next morning, I woke up a few hours before the 3 others did (because I had been too pissed to go out, afraid I'd be a party pooper, or drink too much since I was pissed, and make it awkward) so I made myself some cuteness to eat for breakfast. Have to thank my brother for the volcano egg recipe, and Japan for the strawberry jam drawing ( I actually got the idea from those Japanese Maid coffee places, so it's almost embarrassing to mention. Pride? What is that?).

We went to a temple by the sea on the second day (yup, it's a temple. And no, don't ask me the name, I don't know. Ask Heather. She'd know)

Here is me, posing beside my Chinese sign. Not realizing that it says that this year,
disaster will happen.... Whatever, I went through it a few times already....

On the way back, we passed by this amazing coffee shop with fake grass and garden benches. Oh, and flowers. And pinwheels. And teddy bears? What could we ask? Amazing coffee? Yup. Amazing coffee we had. Life was good.

Heather and I wanted to see the aquarium and Amy/C.J. wanted to relax at the beach so we let them have their moment while we had ours under the sea ;)

5.5 - Children's Day

Last Friday, we celebrated an early Children's Day with NGLOW and played with the kids instead of having class. It was an amazingly warm day with a shiny sun and some 23 degrees out. We had the kids make pinwheels and went on the rooftop of a building nearby where there was a soccer field to play game with the Korean gym teacher. The kids had a blast, running all over the place. They really love that gym teacher. He has the knack to get every single kid to listen, and even to make games out of  the cleaning parts...

In the afternoon the vice-president (Eileen <3) made miracles out of face paint while the kids were watching a movie (and the teachers got a little rest...). I never know how to help in those activity days, because they mostly speak in Korean and I feel like I should stick to speak English to the kids most of the time. Kids are everywhere and it's pretty eclectic. 

Korean Jackets/Coats

While I'm at it I'll just let myself go to a fashion blog. Why not?

I haven't blogged about fashion in so long, and over the last few months I've spent in Korea I have bought a couple of nice pieces of clothing, some by necessity, other - most of them - for sheer pleasure.

I bought this yellow jacket with Monica in MyeongDong. She dealt it off for me and it's one of the jackets I bought that I am the most satisfied with. It allows me to wear long skirts without looking awkward because it is quite short, the color is nice and matches with a lot of my outfits, and it is doubled so I can wear it when it gets chilly outside.

I bought this jacket/spring coat a time I was a bit depressed, had no money and thus, shouldn't have been shopping. At first, I regretted buying it because I thought I had no use for one more jacket, but with the weird springy humid weather, it proved to be exactly what I needed: my winter coats being too hot with the weather, and my jackets being too cold or too short to wear with most of my outfits. It doesn't look that nice on the hanger, but it has a nice skirt-like back side and there is a nice mix of material and style. I love the cut.

You probably saw this one before, it's the very first thing I bought in Korea. When I just got here, I had a sleeveless very ample coat with a hoodie that I had brought from Canada, but winter was much colder than I expected so I found myself freezing when I went out. I decided to get a warm coat with sleeves. And I found this orange one. I was always told that orange did not fit anyone. 

They were wrong. 

I love this color on me. and I am really happy with this coat. It was the first of a long serie of random orange stuff I bought in Korea. It has a detachable fur collar that is not on the picture (lazy me).

By an unfortunate turn of event (Korean new year) I got this coat dirty and gross and was to sick to bother when I wanted to clean it and put it in the washing machine. Result: it looks all wrinkled now and I am sad T__T

BLUE. Not only is this jacket blue, it is an intense blue. I have only worn pale baby colors in the last years and as I got here, I got this crazy craving for intense colors. I actually like the look they have on me. Love the cut of this jacket.

Got this jacket in the first weeks I've been to Korea, and this one has the look of many jackets I have a home. I bought it anyways because it was really pretty with the beige dress I bought at the same time. Thought it might have been a bad bought, but in the end, with the chilly spring we had I wore it as a coat many times with a light scarf (it is much warmer than the regular sweaters I had brought here).

The last jacket I got here. I am literally in love with it. The mix of color is amazing and the cut beautiful. I love the look it has with stripes. I got that one in a small store near my workplace in Dongtan. 

Have a Good Day ~~ <3

New Apartment : Take 3

I feel like my whole life in Korea has basically been a lot of moving around. A succession of in-betweens where I am put in a place, that is not my own place, and basically just live out of my suitcases (spread all over the place) for a while before getting what is supposed to be my definite apartment. It happened in Sanbon. It happened in Dongtan. I still do not have Internet in my apartment actually and am writing from a coffee shop I like near my workplace - Internet is just fine but the wifi is not working properly and I can't set it right. 

The apartment I had before last week was a big 2 rooms and 1 big living room with huge windows that could set your gaze diving into the city, with a beautiful sunrise and sunset. It had that feeling of the apartment you see in Korean dramas, with special wallpapers and door framing that looked amazing without the slightest decoration. It was the apartment my boss had bought to use when he or one of his associates needed to stay in Dongtan. Obviously the apartment was not going to be mine. Way too big, and probably way too expensive to heat with the kind of pay I make. As a matter of fact, for the one month I stayed there the heating/gaz/light/maintenance fees came up to $450. Needless to say I refused to pay this much (the pay I had recieved so far did not even exceed $420). I haven't gotten to talk about it in details with my boss yet, but my next pay is this Friday so I suppose I'll see what's coming for me at that time. Thing is, I know they had that apartment even if I had not been there so I wouldn't appreciate if they were to make me pay this bill, as technically I did not need such a huge place and it was more inconvenient than anything, since there was nothing in it.

But I am straying away from the topic.

DONGTAN: Apartment 1

The apartment was really nice, with a lot of different lighting options and had a cool refrigerator with the little door that made it easy for lazy people to just grab a drink without having to open the actual fridge door. 

I really liked how the closet was set, with the drawers for accessories and - you can't see it on this picture but wtv... - the pants hanger that you can pull to see all the pants you have. I secretly hoped to either get the cool fridge or this kind of closet in my new apartment...

DONGTAN: Apartment 2

Last week I finally moved to my new apartment. My own apartment. I had been dreading the fact that, having literally no money right now (living with my credit card) I wouldn't be able to furnish the apartment and even buy pans and food in the fridge. However, the apartment will not need much. It is TINY! It is probably a 3rd of the apartment I had in Sanbon, though the pictures make it look bigger than what it is, and the pictures I put of my apartment in Sanbon make it look smaller. 

I used my credit card to buy a minimum and not, ideally, I would need a small couch to have a cozy place to sit on, and maybe a bookshelf, to make a sort of separation between what is the "living room" part and the "bedroom" part of the one room apartment. 

The way the bed stand is made makes it possible to just lift one side and pull it into the wall to make it disappear (however, since my bedding is actually pretty thick, as in includes a sort of mat that I put on top of the mattress I doubt it would fit in...). All the shelves/drawers/closets were cleverly designed to optimize the space on the apartment so while it is indeed tiny as......, I actually love it much more than all the other apartments I've been in. I love the size, it feels perfect for a person living alone. I yet need to get used to just be in my apartment again, because in the previous one, I kept going out so I wouldn't feel the emptiness of the room set into me. 

So far, the only thing I dislike about this apartment is that while it has an amazing view for a 9th floor, the window is tiny and right by the bed so I both get direct sunlight during the day, and have to stand on my bed to actually look outside. Same with showing people the view: I have people walking on my bed to look outside, but there is no other way to do it...

A sort of table can be pulled out of the cupboard. I haven't really used it so far but I'll probably get a second stool to sit by it, or have people sit there when they come over.

I didn't get to take many pictures of the bathroom, because space-wise, it always looks quite weird and it's hard to get good angles... but it looks great. Most Korean bathrooms have the shower right by the toilet and everything gets wet when you shower, but this one has a glass separation that blocks the water. There is also a lot of shelves and space to put things out without looking messy so I just love it. If only I did not lose that much hair everyday and didn't have to pick it up at all times it would look amazing... ah ha.

I can either choose the normal shower head or use what I call the "strong rain" shower style (is there even a name for that thing?).

Is it a bit OCD of me, to just want to throw away my suitcases because they can never fit anywhere and always make the room I stay in look messy? I hate suitcases. They should come in a physically-disappear-when-not-in-use type. 

We can see the small window on this picture.

I got my wish! The closet is amazing. The space is really well thought and every corner of it is used and looks clean and nice. I am really happy to have gotten a new apartment (no one ever lived there before) because it looks modern and sparkling.

There is a huge mirror right in front of this shoe closet right by the entrance door, but I did not take a picture, cuz it'd just look like a mirror, and it's hard to get a general idea of what it is without being in the room. However, this shoe closet.... yay <3