Spending Christmas with a sick baby

January 5, 2021Leave a comment

I absolutely love Christmas. This year I was super excited to spend it with my little girl, it being her first Christmas and all. We planned on dining at a friends house on Christmas Eve and then visiting another friend on Christmas day.

We set off to meet our friends at 5:30pm. When we got out of the car I thought Hazel felt a bit hot, but as you know the car seat can make a baby feel warmer. After having welcoming drinks we sat down to dinner. I had finished my first plate of food and was planning to get a second helping when I felt that my little girl was really feeling hot now.

Luckily my friend has 2 little boys and she suggested that we take her temperature. It was 39 degrees and we decided to take her to the Emergency Care Clinic.

The clinic was pretty busy so we had to wait. Apparently having a high fever isn’t seen as that important. To me, fever means danger. When I was young my parents always said we had to get the fever down or break the fever. They would even put us in icy cold bath water to try and break the fever. Breaking the fever was the most important thing. So naturally, I thought a high temperature is an emergency. The doctors reassured us that it’s the body’s natural response to a virus. They said they would put a urine bag on Hazel to check whether she had a UTI but they forgot.

We only got at around 11pm and sat up all night sponging her head to get her to cool down but to no avail. By 5 am her temperature was under 38 degrees and we thought we were out of the clear. By 9 am on Christmas day, her temperature spiked again and stayed at 38.5 most of the day. By 10pm it went up to 39 and we went back to the clinic. This time they referred us to the hospital. We waited for Hazel to have a wee in order to check her urine for a UTI test. At first she missed the bag and we had to wait some more. During our time at the hospital her fever broke and her temperature came back to normal. We only left the hospital at 5 am on the day after Christmas.

The rest of the day we periodically checked her temperature to make sure that it stayed low. That night it sounded like she had trouble breathing and off we went to hospital again…turns out we were just paranoid new parents

On Sunday night she developed a rash all over her face. We phoned the healthline and was advised to head back to the Emergency Care Clinic.

This time the doctor was able to explain to us what we needed to look out for in the case of a bacterial rash and told us that a rash iften appears after a viral infection. He was very informative and to be honest, the best doctor amongst all the doctors we encountered over the weekend.

All in all we’re glad she’s better and hopefully next Christmas we’ll be able to have more fun with Hazel.

Having a dog in Korea

April 28, 2020April 20, 20202 Comments

In 2017 we got a dog. At the time, we have been living in Korea for almost 4 years and since we had just signed a contract to stay at our then current work place we decided it was time to get a dog. Generally dogs provide a lot of joy and is also a good stress reliever. Research even suggest that people who own pets, are happier than those who don’t. Therefore…. since there’s research involved… we got a dog

Getting the perfect puppy

If you do research about where to get a puppy you’ll come up with a lot of bad reviews about dogs from pet shops. Furthermore, if you walk into some pet shops you can immediately see that some of those dogs are either under fed or already looking sick.

Therefore we decided to get a puppy from an owner who already has his own dogs and is not a dog breeder. We were in luck as my friend heard that we were looking for a dachshund and she saw an advertisement in the local ‘cafe’ about dachshund puppies for sale. Luckily the owner was really particular about giving his puppies to a good home and to us, it meant that he really cares for them.

Because we lived in an apartment we had to crate train her, which really helped her. Even today she still finds her comfort in her little crate although we changed her crate from a plastic one to a cute fluffy little house. She knows that she’s safe there and even though she eats my shoes, I won’t touch her in there. The crate training also helped her a lot when we traveled across Korea and overseas.

Korean Souvenirs

January 9, 2017January 9, 2017Leave a comment

We have officially started our holiday countdown. For those of you who don’t know this yet, we’re going back home to South Africa for a month to take a little break. We’re leaving on Thursday and we’re just about ready to go. We haven’t packed yet but we have already bought some souvenirs to take back home.

Its not very easy to choose what to take, because you want to take something that’s Korean but also not so much Korean that you’re family can’t use it, for example chopsticks aren’t very useful in western countries unless you like a lot of Chinese, Japanese and Korean dishes. You also want to take something home that’s special.

This is what we’ve decided to take. Honey flower cakes and Honey Butter Walnuts. Honey and Butter is something that is truly very Korean. We get all kinds of Honey infused foods here, from bread and pizza to potato chips and even nuts so I thought that would be a nice treat for our parents. I’ve also gotten some Green Tea Kit Kats.( I see they’re actually from Japan…. but I’m taking them home in anyway 🙂 ) In addition to honey butter, Koreans love Green Tea in their cakes and sweets and I thought that would be really nice for the people back home to try.

As mentioned previously chopsticks might not be the best gift but I got some in anyway.

I also bought a french brandy

and some cute traditional Korean key-chains.

Korea is also known for it’s amazing beauty products so I’m also taking some of the Tony Moly Pokemon cosmetics home.

Now all that’s left is packing 🙂

The lonely Expat Christmas

December 16, 2016December 22, 20161 Comment

When choosing to leave your home country to live in another country, it all sounds really exiting and cool. Truth be told, it is mostly cool and exiting. But then sometimes, its not…

When you leave your home for whatever reason, there will be some unforeseen troubles along the way. Things that will make you miss home. Or sometimes you’ll just need a hug, but there will be no-one to hug you.

One of the things that you need to consider is whether or not you’re willing to give up the precious time that you have with loved ones. One of life’s infinite truths are that we will all die. Its inevitable that someone you know will leave this world, and depending on how long you’re away from home, you might not be there in their final hours of need.

It is a choice that you will have to make before you leave home. You could have spend a few precious moments with that person and you didn’t. But just because you can’t be there in person, make sure that you are there for them in different ways. Remember to call home ever so often. Send Christmas and Birthday gifts. Show them that you care for them even though you’re not there.

One of the things that we have to live with is having no one for Christmas. This year Christmas falls on a Sunday meaning that our Christmas holiday isn’t long enough for us to visit our families. They might put a few minutes aside for us during a Skype call but after that, we’re all alone again, and if they forget to call then you’re whole Christmas is ruined.

This Christmas, remember your loved one in far off distant lands, whether you’re the one away from home, or them. Give them a call or send them a little card just to say I LOVE & MISS YOU!!!!

Workwear (Korea)

June 28, 2016September 21, 2016Leave a comment

Korea is different from the western world, they have a different culture and ways of doing things. Although they also wear clothes that come from american and European companies there are still some taboos. For instance girls can wear extremely short miniskirts but it is totally inappropriate to show shoulders, collarbones or cleavage. The social laws seem to be relaxing nowadays but in some areas of the country it is still considered highly inappropriate. Therefore when coming to Korea try and keep it conservative as you will be working with these people’s children.

Summer Outfits

You should be able to get away with showing you shoulders as long as it’s not in a strappy top. In summer you can wear lovely floral dresses or skirts. Your shoes should be chosen according to your school. If you’re working at a private academy (hagwon) then go with flat shoes because you’ll be on your feet the whole day. In public schools however you’ll wear slippers inside the buildings so you could wear high heels to work if you choose.

It is always better to put your best foot forward in a new work environment. Your style can become more relaxed once you’ve settled and seen what the other people at your work wear. Generally though the Koreans are dressed to the nines. A lot of foreigners wear jeans to work here in Korea but they keep it formal rather than casual.

What not to wear to work!

Although this outfit is really cute it is not something you should wear to work. Uggs with jeans are OK in winter because it is freezing but not with sweats and t-shirts. You are a professional, try and act like it.