Gyeonggi - Do

I

My new Home Town 

I went to research my new town a bit just to see where exactly I'll be staying and what I can expect form my surroundings. I don't want to be completely clueless.

Gyeonggi is one of the most popular provinces in South Korea with a population of around about 25,6 Million over 11,730 km(2). Interestingly enough Gyeonggi-do can be translated to "province around Seoul. Seoul is the capital of South Korea and it's the largest city. Incheon which is also very popular is South Korea's third largest country and it's located on the coast of the Gyeonggi- Do province. 

Climate 

The climate of Gyeonggi province is the continental climate, which has a severe differentiation of temperature between summer and winter and has distinctions of four seasons. This really sounds a little like a recipe to get sick. I hope they have something similar to Corenza C because that stuff works for everything. Anyway in their winters I will be able to snowboard and build snow mans. Super awesome. Temperatures normally range between -4 and -8ºC. And then the summers are hot and humid and everybody runs for the beach so I will be able to maybe build up a little tan as well but will see. Temperatures have an average of 26,5ºC. Super hot. NOT!!

Nature and National parks

Well this is where I get excited. As a nature lover and water sports person I think mentioning a big river flowing through Gyeonggi will get me excited. The river flows through the mountains and also through the plain so definitely will find something somewhere to do with water sports. If not, oh well. I will just have to stick to snowboarding then. Gyeonggi is stocked with mountains (hiking Yay) and lakes and seas.

An abundance of colour to the pure white snow. It's absolutely beautiful. 

Transportation 

Gyeonggi province's proximity to Seoul and Incheon has contributed to its extremely well-developed transportation infrastructure. It is close to both Incheon International Airport (International Airport) and Gimpo International Airport. They also make use of water transportation and a subway station all over the city to increase availablity of transport.

Education

Gyeonggi is actively investing in education at the moment (which is probably why I got my job) to foster a talented population suitable for globalised economy. It's currently promoting the opening of local campuses of reputable universities as well as establishing special purpose high schools for high-quality education. Paju is the largest domestic "English Village" for education in English language as well as villages in Ansan and Yangpyeong. 

Sports 

Very interesting. The Korea - Japan World Cup was held in Suwon World Cup Stadium in 2002. 

They have sailing as a high profile sport in Gyeonggi and they compete in races on the river. This also attracts sailors from right over the world. I'm definitely going to make a plan to go see this. 

Then they also have Football, basketball (not sure how this works because according to me they are quite short people like myself), Volleyball, Ice Hockey (I think this is super cool. I'm definitely going to try this out).

Food

Apparently Gyeonggi has long been famous for their Incheon rice, Yangpyeong Korean beef, Suwon cow ribs and Korean court cuisine, and marine delicacies made of fresh marine products from the west coast. I am a sucker for seafood. Think I will definitely have a blast when it comes to dinners. I think I'll be able to find quite a lot of food that I would like.

Festivals 

Korea has ALOT of festivals. Almost every month there is a festival or maybe even two. It's quite ridiculous looking at the list. It looks like every little region has a festival at some point during the year. I think it might be really interesting to go see what the Koreans do at festivals. Besides for that I love festivals. I will post about the ones I will go too.

My One and Only Valentine

Simple Adventures

To make a girl happy you need two things. Money and lots of it. 

NO I'm kidding.

You need two things. Love and time. Yes only that. 

With these two things you can create anything. When you love somebody it's a natural process to want to give your lover the best and to make them happy. It's in love's nature to care and to think of them. It's in love's nature to want to spend time with them and to want to share moments with them. And then time comes into play. You see, without any love you won't make time for somebody else nor will you spend the time thinking about things the person will adore. Time and love goes hand in hand. You could have all the money in the world but if you don't have the time to spend with the one you love your relationship will go to ruins. If you have all the time in the world but no love your relationship will go to ruins. If you have no money but you have time and love your partner your relationship will be strong and last. 

There is much more than just love, time and money that plays a role in a relationship but these are some of the main factors, according to me, causing people to get divorced in modern days. The grass always looks greener on the other side. I don't really want to talk about divorce and the failure of relationships. Because I'm no expert in that field duh!! And it's just sad!

I just wanted to share a little part of my relationship with you, which is really awesome by the way. So I have this blonde surfer / engineering genius boyfriend right. We met in university and we are ending it all to follow our own dreams and create career paths for ourselves but I don't want to speak about our journey or our crazy decisions. I want to just tell you how awesome my valentine's day/ 4 year anniversary date was. It's quite the unusual dating type of thing. 

He wanted to go for a picnic in the Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens and if you know the gardens you will know its absolutely stunning and really relaxing. Okey yes, that's quite a usual thing to do maybe on valentine's day but we didn't do that. We got there and then he thought of buying a picnic basket but the stuff was so damn expensive that I told him we can go somewhere else and spend half the amount of money. But see money wasn't the point. Having a picnic in a garden at a little pond with baby ducklings walking around is super cute and romanic. So we bought a coffee went to the pond anyway and had a fat chat about everything and anything. 

We decided to go to a local pub for a beer and some tapas and we got free champaign! Yay! Then a craft market which was really expensive so we left. We were talking the night before about getting a puppy of some sort for their house but it as literally only talk and jokes flied everywhere. And obviously this idea stuck so my boyfriend really wanted to go play with pups. So we ended up in Hout Bay at a animal rescue centre and saw about 10 pups we could play with. They might be "gemorsies" but they were so darn cute and playful and when they look at you with those puppy eyes you just want to take them home. 

Then after my boyfriend dragged me away from the pups before I got the courage to take one home, we went home to be in time for the Liverpool game. And man what a game. We won. What better ending to a fully packed valentine's day will you get?

So as I made my point at the top. We didn't spend a lot of money. We spent time together and we did things together that both of us loved and that's the only thing that really ended up mattering. Yes I'm a girl all for expensive dinners and diamonds and spa treatments or get aways in hotels, what woman isn't a fan of that? But to me it's not more important than just spending time with the one I adore deeply and actually just having fun together. 

Oh and did I mention he made me a jewellery box out of wood?

Infinite moments of impact. 

The start to my new Journey

MIXED FEELINGS

So the last few weeks I've been applying for a whole range of jobs with the hopes that I would strike one of them lucky. I applied for jobs on boats, thought of aupairing in America, going to Thailand or China for english or even doing modelling in China while teaching english. I never heard anything back from any of these endevours, or they required large upfront payments. This made me so despondent about my future and my dream plan to go overseas that I was really close to giving up. However, I'm not somebody that really gives up and folds when things get difficult so I just carried on doing what I was doing. Like I said in my previous blog post, my PA has other plans for me and thus my plans are not of any value. 

I got yet another wake up phone call requesting my presence on Skype. Being super negative already and really "Gatvol" for the whole process did kill my mood and desire to go overseas. But I thought to myself: "What the heck, just do the interview and get it over and done with. Hopefully this will be the one". So still in bed very sleepy and not fully rested (well maybe I was rested but having had holiday for the past 3 months didn't really help the sleeping pattern case nor the daily routine) I got out of bed, went for a shower and then BAM, all these questions and thoughts jumped into my head - Smile and be friendly, and don't say JA. MMM wander what they going to ask me?... What am I going to wear? Wander if I'm going to talk to a woman or a man. Will they be friendly and talkative. I wander where the school is exactly... And it didn't stop. 

So I finally had the interview, it was a very friendly woman speaking, and it all went well but it was a very short interview of like 12 minutes. I mean, who can get to know somebody in just 12 minutes unless you have already made up your mind about them. And only 4 questions were proposed. So I ended the interview with no real hope about getting the job. It didn't work the first 5 times so why would it work now?! And then in the same week they told me that they prefer American candidates because their students just understand them better. Soooo no hope there and I just continued on my everlasting job seeking journey. 

The week goes by and yet another wakeup call. This time I only had 3 hours of sleep so I'm a little grumpy, once again sleepy and not really that much in the mood for yet another interview at all which is what I expected when I saw the agency calling me for the n'teenth time. I thought: "Really now, Really. Another one". 

But....

This time I got hit by probably the biggest hammer right between the eyes. The voice on the other side of the line said: "We got you a contract." I was like: "Wait, What? A contract from who, where... what?" I was so stunned by the news that for a second I couldn't think straight and obviously I forgot to ask half the questions I was suppose to ask and had to call back later that day. But whatever, that doesn't matter. 

What matters is I GOT A CONTRACT = I GOT A JOB!!!!!!

Now here comes the part which explains the title: I have been spending so much quality time with my family and friends that the idea of leaving just got all the more weirder and scarier. Yes I still want to go but I think a lot of crocodile tears will follow me. And not to mention that I'm not gonna be around to see my one friends little pink foot when he arrives in the world. And I'm kind of breaking things off with my boyfriend whom I deeply adore as well. And then on the other hand (positive side) I am so excited to start my life and to stand on my own 2 feet and spread my wings that I'm vibrating with excitement. But more importantly I am extremely ready, committed and exhilarated to reintroduce myself to Me, the woman that I am today and figuring out what I stand for, making my own decisions without anyones influence and finding out what I am interested in and what I love doing. So yes, taking all of that into consideration I think it's pretty understandable where mixed feelings are coming from.

Now it's admin time and organising time since I have probably less than a month left in my beautiful country. I hope that everything will run smoothly and that I will be able to fly with happiness and determination. 

Okey! okey! Yes! I will definitely do all of that anyway. 

SUPER EXCITED THAT MY JOURNEY IS FINALLY STARTING!!!!!!

"The world is my oyster and I will conquer the world taking on all opportunities that will seed my success." - Me