구로의 집들이

구로로 온지 2달이나 됐다.
이상하게 시간이 흘러 흐를수록 점점 빨리 흘러가는 느낌이다.
이사 갔을때 한달동안 내가 많이 아파서 그런가?
아무튼 2달되었는데도 집들이는 저번주 했음.

사본에서 만나게된 오빠랑 동탄에서 살았을때 지내진 오빠 언니랑 같이 밥도 먹고 술도 먹고 다들 우리집에서 자고 갔어요.

사진 많이 없지만 재미는 많았어요 ㅎㅎㅎ

Traffic Lights

One of the first things I bought in Korea was a warm wool jacket. I hadn't thought that winter would be as windy and dreadfully humid and the warm wool/cashmere jacket I had brought with me was like a poncho, which proved to be throughly  inadequate for the place. After a year, I have only had the opportunity to wear it twice, I think, which is really a shame because it's a very nice jacket...

I bought something I didn't have: bright stunning intense colours. 

I have always loved pastel baby colours and most of the clothes I have bought in the last years was following that pattern. Coming to Korea, I got dragged to hot colours, dunno why, maybe because that represented such a strong contrast with my previous colour choice. 

In any case, I noticed that while I still love baby colours, hot pink, red, bright blue and yellow suit me so much better. Goes much better with my hair colour and skin tone. So I mostly buy stuff in those tones.

My very first acquisition in Korea was the first step. A bright orange jacket. Feels so bright it's like almost red, so here is the first of my traffic light jacket collection: Korean Spring 2013 STOP ORANGE!

When winter came again upon Korea after last fall, I realizedI needed to get a jacket with a hoodie. But I was in no rush. I did not want to spend a lot of money. The first jacket I got was a bit over $100 and as I already have a few jackets I didn't feel the need for another one. 

Until I fell in love with this little duckling, $30, yellow hoodie, with hoodie full of soft amazingness. It got me through winter, and I don't know what I'd have done without it. It was perfect for the weather, while being pretty loose so I did not need to worry about the number of layers I had under when I went out in the cold.

So here I introduce you the Korean Fall-Winter 2013-14 jacket collection: SLOW DOWN YELLOW!

I just moved to a really windy part of Korea (or maybe it's just spring. Spring in Korea is windy) and got a bicycle, so I was thinking I'd end up needing some kind of wind-breaker. It was just a thought until after a couple of very hot spring days, I chose to go out with only a thin sweater and scarf to go for work, with a pretty intense cold attacking my vocal chords pretty nastily. I wanted to go see Nexen after work and it had been windy and rainy all day. While the rain had stopped by nightfall, the weather was still pretty windy and cold - enough to kill out the remains of the beautiful cherry flowers in the trees alongside the Yangcheon river. So I resolved to do the detour of going home before going to the game, to get my winter jacket. It was not so cold, really, just REALLY windy.

Then.

In the dark, right behind the place I had parked my bike, I see it illuminating: 

SPRING SALE JACKETS! 

So I got another jacket.

It's a very light large adjustable jacket, with big pockets and a hoodie. Perfect for this spring weather, when I'll be biking by the windy river on my way to and from work, to and from baseball. It's got a really nice shape and the colour is really bright in daylight. Here we are, Korean Spring 2014 collection: GO GREEN!

Moving in Korea - Take 4

I don't know for others, but Korea for me has been a year of moving around. Thinking about it, I have moved 4 times in a year. Sometimes within the same vicinity, sometimes to change completely my surroundings. As I am not a person that like to explore on my own unless I have no obligation at all regarding time or money (if I have absolutely nothing to do on a great sunny day, enough money to pay for a cab if I am lost, a bag that is not too heavy to carry around then ok)....

Says the girl who decided to move to Korea on her own?

Yup. I love seeing myself as a person full of contradictions...

When I re-signed my contract with NGLOWkids, I was glad I wouldn't have to go through another moving spree, so I finally bought two big pieces of furniture: a bookshelf and a coat hanger with a bag compartment at the bottom. Well thet ended up being an extra thing to worry about in moving this time. People always get surprised at how much stuff I end up gathering. Thing is I am slightly OCD when it concerns my living space. It needs to be clean and neat, and practical. 

So even in the smallest apartment, I will find the perfect place to put everything to that it looks clean at all times. Moving however, puts me in the distressing situation where I have to find a new meaning and a new place for every single thing I own. I also am the kind who tries to keep a maximum of things to make crafts and stuff when I wrap gifts and write letters, so I end up with an incredible amount of what I simply call "stuff". People usually disregard "stuff" as being an insignificant detail, but I see it otherwise. When I say I have lots of stuff. I mean I have lots of stuff. When I mean that moving everything with only a SUV will require amazing Tetris skills, I mean it. People should not underestimate the amount of work it requires for me to move. Even from a tiny-ass apartment that looked perfectly clean when everything was set in place.

My ladies ready to go.

My ladies, in their temporary spot on the bookshelf

Making my place into what I want it to be will be a whole process including me buying a couple of sticky hooks to hang things around and a lot of scrubbing, but I know the place will look great eventually, as the frame of the apartment already looks quite nice.

That's a quick overview of the place with stuff less scattered over the floor than on the first day. I got a bad cold with fever on my first night in Guro, and have been pretty knocked down since, but I suppose I am lucky it's the weekend. The weather would have been great to walk around and explore the place but I will have other days...

I walk past the demon's door whenever I go in or out of my apartment. Why does this door intrigues me so? Is there a handsome demon/vampire that lives there? While I am curious, I hope I will never get to meet the owner of this place, because it is much more fun to imagine who could be there than be disappointed my reality.

My building is situated in an area that has lots of buildings giving an "industrial era" feel, with lots of red bricks and traffic. While it looks creepy at night, I like the look by day, it is full of small parks and now all the cherry trees are in bloom in most of the small streets I walked by.

Me walking around with my macbook, trying to find an open coffee shop around the area, that is open on a Sunday. I failed my mission, all that was open were chain coffee shops and I ended up entering into a "Coffee Mama" that had decent tasting coffee but nothing more. I hope I'll find nice coffee shops around, otherwise I'll be missing Dongtan's proximity to amazing small stores and coffee shops...

For those who thought Christianity was not glamour in 2014. Here is a little to ponder about in your free time...