End of Spring Acquisitions...

So I fell in love again.

For what is love, if not a amazing-looking good quality clutch and wallet?

I like to buy stuff made in Korea because it's generally cheaper, and while a lot of stuff is cheap and breaks easily, I find that Korean stuff is generally well-made. The two-tone blue clutch is the size of a 13 inch laptop (sadly a little too tight for my laptop to fit into, but that was not the purpose I bought that clutch for so it's all good) and has got good quality zippers and well spaced compartments inside, as well as a 3 card holder at the front under the flip. It closes with two quite strong magnets at the front (another reason I'm not using this near a computer...) that makes it super practical to flip open and close when looking for stuff as you are walking. There are no external pockets for say a phone, but it wouldn't have looked as neat if it had. However, inside the clutch, there are the usual two small-sized pockets, one for random stuff we regularly use, and the other for a phone. 

Now I like that it's a Korean brand because it also was assumed that people might have a Galaxy-note, which are bigger and usually don't fit in any of the standard pockets. So my phone fits perfectly in it. This is really blissful. Yes, I get excited easily. 

MCM is a pretty common Korean brand. While being pricey (a bit more pricey than GUESS stuff, if you want an idea, but the quality of the material and the space is much more well-thought than GUESS as well) it's super balanced. I don't like the classic MCM monogram pattern of the bags everyone carries around, so I usually don't look much into that brand, but this collection caught my eye because it's not blatantly yelling I AM A BAG FROM XXX BRAND, BUY ONE AND LOOK COOL LIKE ME! I like the subtle brand tag and the refreshing look.

The two shades of blue also make it much more pretty. Depending on the light, one might not even realize it's two-tones as the top part usually appears lighter in general on those types of clutches.

 I also bought a long slim wallet from COURONNE, another brand I am taking a liking to (the computer bag I have bought from them I LOVE. They have neat simplistic designs and the quality of their leather is really good. I chose the hot pink. Because eh, that's just as flashy as I love those things to be. 

Funny how I used to like baby shades so much (I still do, mind you) but since I notice

d that hot colors look much nicer on me I just LOVE those shades that I used to dislike so dearly.

Let's finish with me new pair of sandals. I was looking for a pair of shoes I could wear to go out that I would be able to wear when I have my bandage on on my ankle. I did have one pair of flops til last fall

but now all the shoes I owned were running shoes and heels so nothing I could actually wear out apart from the huge ugly adidas flops I wear when I have to go out to throw trash out and the like...

So I joined the necessity to pleasure by buying a pair I really liked in a store near my school: NAMU. Everything they have there is just simply beautiful.

Outings with Fortis

My feet, in the miniature of the Roman Colosseum at Aiins World, looking if it was worth going into.
Was not. But at least we got one picture out of it so I guess that was a winning adventure...

One thing I really like with teaching kindies is that, since you need to care so much for many other details than teaching - like bathroom, putting clothes on and off in the winter, changing indoor for outdoor shoes, lunchtime etc.- you get much closer with the kids than when teaching older kids. But the best part is when you get to hang out with the kids in a context out of teaching: the monthly outings. I like those kids because they are adorable, they are adorable because they love life and like to play. Of course, when you teach kids, it's precisely those things that make them cute that are the hardest to deal with (the kid needs to behave, but that exact rule-breaking attitude is endearing....).

When you go out with the kids you only get the best parts. You eat yummy foods with them, you keep speaking English, but they are used to the idea and playing in English, is still playing for them so we are all good.

Alexis, the most fluent of our 5 years old... but the most capricious as well.

Here are a few pictures of the outings we did before, taken with the school camera, that I got last week. There are two different places, as you can tell with the difference of clothing: Strawberry picking, and Aiins World.

 Me, derping near the (?) Buckingham Palace... in one of the hottest days of spring we have had. We had an early taste of summer at that time. Which was all good, really, taken that I was really looking forward to hang out in the sun. Yes, even if I was fully covered and wore a hat, that DOES NOT mean I don't like the sun.

There's Yvonne, who got extra brownie points by coming to the school
wearing Nexen colors instead of her usual princess dresses and headbands.

Pretty Ellie, our tomboy princess...

Aiden, alias Kim Minsung (yup, same as the Nexen baseball player...) the womanizer

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!