Advice to my younger self.

18461_1310526209721_744378_n

Dear Younger Self.

Now that I’m 31, I have some things to say to you

First go study. Don’t wait until your late 20’s. You are much smarter than you think. You have the potential. Just because you didn’t do so well in school doesn’t mean that your dumb. You’ll be able to pass both your degrees with distinction just go for it.

Stop telling yourself you are fat and ugly. Wait until your 26 then you’ll know what is fat. Stop complaining and do something about it. Get in the gym now so that I don’t have to work so hard later. You are still young and beautiful enjoy that and stop being so negative, I’m still trying to clean up after your mess.

Stop buying on credit. By the time you’ve paid off that little blue dress you won’t even be wearing it anymore. That dress isn’t really worth it in any case, so don’t even buy it. If you start saving now, you’ll be able to afford the things you really want later and you won’t worry about your old age so much.

Love your husband more, he really is a keeper. And spend more time with your family. Soon some of them won’t be there anymore. Also visit Julian more, one of these days he’s going to Korea and then you won’t see him for 4 years.

I would hope that you will follow my advice but as we both know, it’s already too late

 

Sincerely yours

Your future self.

signature_k22a8w5v6d6jv2mpnr

What to pack for a summer holiday in Korea

 

This weekend we’re off to Busan to meet up with my brother and his wife for 3 days. We’ve booked the hotel, bus and train tickets, and we’ve printed out the itinerary. The only thing left to do is pack our clothes.

Travelling clothes. Because we’re going to travel first by bus and then by train I’ve decided to wear something simple and easy to move around with. This entails a comfortable but pretty shirt, jeans and some comfy sandals.

 

We’ve decided to go out for dinner the first night so I’m taking a cocktail dress with some high heels. I’m also taking a scarf because it’s not really appropriate to let your shoulders hang out in Korea.

 

As is always the case, living in Korea involves lots and lots of walking, therefore a pair of comfortable shoes is always a must. For walking around I’m taking some shorts and casual dresses.

Black monochromes

Cream and salmon ensemble.

 

For the ride home I will probably wear my jeans and mix it up with one of the other shirts, depending on how I feel.

 

 

First time camping in Korea

I’ve never been much of a camper.  The last time that I can actually remember camping was when I was 14 years old.

We’ve been planning to go on a camping trip for about 4 months now so we slowly started buying everything we needed for our summer trip. My husband bought a “one touch tent”, some sleeping bags and a small grill. I packed some “braai” meat (in South Africa we call BBQ-ing… braai), potato and avocado salad, bread dough and some no bake cheese cake.

So on Saturday morning we packed all our camping gear and hopped on a bus to Boryoeng beach near Daecheon. When we got to Daecheon we had to take a 10 minute bus to Boryeong Beach.

There is no laws against camping on the beach in Korea except if there are camping grounds nearby. Boryeong has camping grounds near the beach so that’s where we went. When we arrived at the camping grounds we couldn’t find any ticket offices. Luckily after walking around looking dumbfounded for a few minutes another foreigner explained to us that we can just set up our camp and that the management will walk around later and charge us for the amount of days we are staying.

We set up our little “one touch” tent and started the barbecue. We had a lovely weekend. The atmosphere was great and the beach was right across from our camping grounds. We walked around on the beach, ate ice cream and some coffee when we weren’t sitting around our camp-fire. There are a lot of restaurants, coffee shops and street vendors on the Beach strip. Although we only stayed one night I will easily do it again. it was also great to have a small break from technology and the internet.

Deoksugung Palace Part 2

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

20160424_13285020160424_13291320160424_132846

The Audience chamber

20160424_135108_LLS

The dining room

20160424_141630

Dining wear with the emperor’s seal

20160424_14145420160424_141639

 

 

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.

Subway-Map

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

 

 

 

 

Stying fit in a Foreign country

 

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

20150523_144803

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.

20160406_103444 - Copy (1)

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.

20160406_105135 - Copy (3)20160406_104600 - Copy (1)

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.