Not yet living the dream

May 12, 2016September 6, 20163 Comments

One of my first jobs was in a flower shop. I started of as a florist in training and later became a branch manager at one of our stores. I absolutely love flowers and colours and it was my dream to one day have my own flower shop. As time went by I changed jobs and left my dream of owning a flower shop behind. Someday I would still like to have my own shop but maybe more as a retirement hobby. I still love flowers and regularly buy flowers to brighten my home, sometimes I buy real flowers and other times I get silk flowers.

I often look at flower shops for ideas for my future “flower shop”.

There are different ways that you can store your flowers, these include tin buckets, woven baskets ( with water tight containers inside) and glass vases.

Tin Buckets

Glass Vases

Woven baskets

I love the idea of floral arrangements on display, it gives you the chance to get creative ideas or to buy a ready made arrangement, especially if it’s for a special occasion like a dinner party at your home.

I also like flower shops that have a market type feel but still small enough to be a shop and not a market.

Deoksugung Palace Part 2

May 10, 2016May 3, 20162 Comments

Last week we visited the Deoksugung Palace in Myongdong South Korea. There are 2 main forms of architecture on the site. One Korean and on Western. Last week I featured the Korean buildings. This week I will focus on the Western buildings.

Seokjojeon Hall is a Western-style building completed in 1910 which consists of three floors. The kitchen and storage areas are on the ground floor. The audience chamber and dining room is on the first floor and the bedrooms and private living courters of the royal family is on the second floor

The entrance hall

The Audience chamber

The dining room

Dining wear with the emperor’s seal

The palace is situated in Myongdong South Korea. It’s very close to the Myongdong Shopping district. The Myongdong stop is on the light blue line just past Chumgmuro, if you come from the Gangnam Express bus terminal.

Next week I will share some more pictures of the second floor.

Springtime in Korea

May 5, 2016May 4, 2016Leave a comment

Although most of the Cherry blossoms have gone now there are still a lot of beautiful flowers across Korea

Deoksugung Palace Korea Part 1

May 3, 2016May 4, 20162 Comments

I’ve been in Korea more than a year and only recently had the opportunity to visit one of the Palaces. Contrary to popular belief, as a teacher in Korea, you do not have all the time in the world to do the touristy thing. But we had some time to spare on Sunday and decided to walk to one of the Palaces. Deoksugung Palace is situated in the Myeongdong district in Seoul.

History

Deoksugung Palace served as the king’s residence twice during the Joseon Dynasty. It was originally the home of King Seonjo and Prince Wolson who temporarily lived there after the Japanese forces withdrew from Korea in 1593. He lived here because all the main palaces where destroyed during the war. Prince Gwanghae renamed the Palace Gyeongungung Palace after rebuilding the palace and making it his main resident. The palace was used as a main residence by Gojong again during 1897. During the Joseon Dynasty the state was proclaimed an empire. The palace halls were rebuild and the compound was expanded to some three times its present size. Unfortunately Gojong was forced to hand his empire over to his son who became Emporor Sunjong in 1907. Emperor Sunjong Moved into Changdeokgung Palace and bestowed the title of Deoksu (virtue and long life) on his father, wishing him a long life. The compound came to be called Deoksugung Palace and the former emperor remained here until his death in 1919

Both Korean and Western architecture dominate the site. While walking amongst the Korean style buildings it feels like you’re walking in a different time. Almost like you’re part of a different era. It was quite an amazing feeling.

To get there you can take the dark blue line (line 1) and get off at the City Hall, across from Seoul Plaza. Alternatively if you get off at Myongdong (light blue line) you can walk about 2 blocks down Eulji-ro, past Lotte Duty Free to get there. Its right across from Seoul Plaza.

Next week I will feature the western style architecture at Deoksugung Palace.

Interesting reads to help save money in Korea

The Wealthy English teacher

Stying fit in a Foreign country

April 26, 2016April 27, 2016Leave a comment

Staying fit is pretty hard. You have work, family and other daily occurrences that makes it hard to stay fit. When moving to a new country you have other factors at work like not knowing where any gyms are and not being able to communicate with the locals to find the right price for gym membership among many others.

When we first arrived in Korea we were like Hansel and Gretel at the gingerbread house. We ate everything we could find. We were in food heaven, but as it turns out it wasn’t really heaven. :p

To get my mind in the game again took me a very long time, I must confess. Luckily because we don’t have a need for a car in Korea, we walk everywhere. We can walk for hours on end. We tried joining a few gyms but our first gym ($45 per month) was very uninspiring so we didn’t go everyday and then later we joined a “fancy” gym ($80 per month)It went well for a few months but we started going less and less until we skipped weeks on end. We eventually cancelled our membership but decided that we still have to keep going, so we started going to gym at the park and now that it’s warmer its becoming easier to go everyday. We do a variety of things. Sometimes we jump rope and sometimes we do pull-ups on the bar equipment.

In addition we generally do bodyweight type exercises. My husband goes to the Gym once or twice a week (we pay $2.50 per day) to exercise the muscles he can’t exercise at the park. We also ride our bikes ever so often.

On the days that we don’t go to the park or ride our bikes we try and walk for 20-30 minutes so as to keep moving. I’ll keep you updated on our quest for health and fitness.