Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon

Outing with my Canadian Friend
What a day :)

This was quite an impulsive decision at first and it wasn't that nicely planned but sometimes going with the flow and just doing things as they appear is also awesome. This was exactly what happened this weekend. We decided on Friday that we are not sitting at home this weekend and decided to go check out the fortress. Built in the 18th century from 1794 - 1796 under the reign of King Yeongjo this very scientifically built wall served as protection to the people in the economic city. This wall is 5,74km long and 1,2 meters in height. I guess they didn't have ladders in that time and couldn't reach higher.

The old city beyond the wall is non-existent after the Korean wall and some parts of the wall was severely damaged in the war. This is quite sad as the new buildings and modern architecture spoils the viewing of the wall to me in a sense but in another light it also shows how much Korea developed since the time of the Korean War. They went from being a 3rd world country to a 1st world country in a time frame of about 50 years. This is amazing considering the time it takes to transform a nation. And this is partly why English teachers are employed so drastically the past 10 years. They want to support their economy by being able to communicate to their neighbouring and other countries. 

We had quite a fun time walking all around the fortress in about 3 hours. We stopped, took a lot of selfies, took awesome videos, did some window-shopping and had awesome iced coffee's afterwards to relax our feet a little. I also then realised I have walked holes in my stockings which is not all that cool since I will have to spend money on buying new ones now. But it was all worth it. 

After visiting the fortress we decided to go hang out in Hongdae, the university town, a little. Chary and I went shopping first. After spending way to much money at H&M (my ultimate favourite place) we had some interesting Korean street food and also sat and ate at the stall on the street, which was weird at first but really interesting. You look at all the people passing by. From people getting carried away on stretchers by paramedics to girls in really high heels and others in tekkies it's quite a site to see. The variation is impressive.  

I also started this new thing now where I will go have drinks or eat cake to celebrate a friends or family member's birthday. This weekend it was Meriska's birthday and although I couldn't celebrate it with her because I'm about 22000km away I still think it's important to celebrate the birthdays of those close to you. So after eating some dinner we went to a club called HO Bar. We were quite hesitant at first since we kind of associate HO with well Whore. But the music was pumping and we decided just to go have a look and we ended up having cocktails there and I had my favourite Malibu as well. I felt quite at home in a way. I don't really go out that much at night to have drinks because it's really expensive and I would rather save it for something like clothes haha. 

We decided to go home around 11pm. Tip: Always check when is the last train home. We missed our last train home and it costed us a penny and a dime to get home. Not the way you want to waste your money. And we only got home 3 hours later eventually. Oh and another Tip: Don't listen to a foreigner who's think he knows everything because he's been here for 3 years. You would expect them to know by now but rather listen to you gut-feeling and the Subway App. It makes things easier and a hell lot cheaper. If I mean expensive try R1120 for a cab to take you home. Yeah! It's ridiculous. 

After this big eventful and super fun day I'm sitting with my feet up for a week. Oh the painful experience that goes with having so much fun. 

 

SHOPPING!!!!

Retail Therapy!!!

I received my very first paycheque and to be completely honest it was quite a shock! A good shock! I have never even thought of having this much money and yet at the same time having this little. I'll explain the little just now. I'm till in the mind set of having a student budget and having to budget the hell out of your allowance. There was months I ended up eating a friends places for the last week since I had no money to afford a whole meal on it's own. It's expensive to eat alone. I'm actually still shocked about getting a salary. My life is almost devoted on paying taxes to a government that doesn't spend it wisely. I'm lucky for this year because I don't have to pay taxes but my time will come. 

We made a deal between all the girls that once we had our salary (and my first) we will have to go do some shopping for summer working attire since shorts and tank tops doesn't quite cut it. Guess what we went and did? SHOPPING!!!! Although I didn't buy that much. The Korean Won Currency still freaks me out a little. I try and convert everything but you know sometimes that just doesn't work. The reason being that everything is basically the Rand x 100. So it's a mental block to spend 50000 won in one day, which is actually only R500. 

So with this mental block I found it hard to spend money until of course Christina came along. Chary and myself went to Uijungbu to meet up with Vicky for a day of shopping and some nice food. This was the Saturday. I didn't spend that much since the plan was to join Christina for a shopping spree on Sunday. I did end up buying clothes but handled myself pretty well. Then on Sunday I joined Christina and spent soooo much. It's all worth it but yeah my purse screamed at my a little afterwards. 

This is a typical Korean dish. In Korean restaurants you
 cook your own meals. You just ask for all the raw ingredients.

I was looking for a gel set since I came here in order to do my own nails and I kind of see it as an investment in a sense since I'll be using it for quite some time. I walked into a beauty store just to look what the LED lights cost and ended up buying a whole kit. Like everything I need. And it's all thanks to Christina. There was a VVIP thing where you get 55% off the gift box (containing all the goodies) if you become a member so I became a member because that is quite a lot of discount for a good product. So I saw another gift box with all the gel colours in it, but you see you can  only get one gift box at discount price for one membership. So Christina also signed up and got me the second gift box. I obviously still owes her money but I have the 2 sets now which is absolutely fantastic. 

Guess what I'm gonna do every week ?

Porfessional night out

"Eat what ever you want and if someone wants to lecture you on your weight, eat them too" - Anonymous

We went out last night for our annual monthly dinner and man was it interesting. Firstly, we went to have a nice starter at a little restaurant that really didn't look much like a restaurant but more like a little shack house. It was quite an interesting little place. I would've liked to show you how it looked but my phone battery was completely flat. I had rice wine for the first time. To describe the taste for you it was like someone through milk into namaqua sweet white wine and gave it a little bit of a fizz. It wasn't too bad to be honest but it wasn't my favourite at all. 

In Korea the tradition is that you are not allowed to drink before the head of the table starts drinking and you should also finish your drink when they finish theirs so that you are ready for a top up. It is considered disrespectful and rude if you don't do it. So what do you think happens? Everybody gets drunk. 

This is the Rice wine and how you drink it. 

And here we all cheers on my first glass with the school. 

After having a little bit of wine we all headed off to the Soyosan Mountains in Uijungbu (walking distance) for a little bit of a hike. I thought we were on our way to the restaurant where we will be having supper but the language barrier caused my assumption to be wrong. We just went up for a little bit of scenery. It was absolutely beautiful. There were cherry blossoms all the way up next to the walkway. It looked like snow with a little bit of pink in it. Absolutely beautiful. And the mountains is also becoming more green by the day. I think it will be stunning in summer never mind in autumn when all those leaves turn into shades of red and orange. We went up so many stairs and then again down so many stairs that I'm not sure how many stairs there were but there was a lot of stairs and it was all worth it. We ended at this beautiful waterfall at the end of the path and this really interesting and beautiful temple. The mountain Soyosan was named after a princes who used to walk though the forests and play in its small waterfalls and natural springs. It is also a very common place for Buddhists to come pray and there is 2 priests also living here. They are actually preparing for Buddhists birthday at the moment which is on 25 May.

 

After our little walk up into the beautiful mountains we head back to the city for a traditional Korean BBQ. I actually like the Korean BBQ since you can eat quite a lot and most of it is eaten with your hands and the variety is quite big. I can eat what I like and leave the rest for the other people. We took off our shoes and went to sit on the floor cushions at the low tables and started packing our meat on the grill. We had duck and pork. It was super nice. Another tradition came out when the principle handed me a shot glass (quite a big one) and asked if I want beer, cider or sojo. Sojo is almost like vodka and you shoot it. It's not the most pleasant taste in the world and luckily I only had one. But to get back to the tradition, if a person in higher authority or ranking throw you a shot you need to give them a shot back of the same thing. And you need to pour it yourself. It is seen as good manners and acceptance/ thanks if you give one back. So the bottle of alcohol doesn't last very long if you are a lot of people and the one handing out the first shots well I think it could be implied how it all turns out.

Every little bowl has something different in it. Here we are having some soup as well because it's good for the digestion. The green bottle is Sojo and empty. 

After dinner the principle gave me a choice where we should go. The choices were coffee house, beer house or karaoke bar. I wanted to choose karaoke bar but I am a little sick so my voice needed some resting. I choose the beer house of course. And she was very keen for that. We ended up in a coffee house in the end but we did still order beer. We had beer in the one hand and ice cream coffee in the other. Talk about best of both worlds. At first I was a little overwhelmed but the whole story but it turned out to be pretty cool. I just wish I understood these people. I feel so stupid when I laugh but have no idea what about.

Best of both worlds.

Got you!!!

ID card ? Check 

After an successful medical examination and a 2 week waiting period I officially have an Korean ID which means I can actually start my life here. You can't do much without one. I need it to open an bank account and to get my own internet as well as buy myself some Herbalife as well. It's not to nice not to have those things. So I guess there is no turning back now. I'm here for a year! Things will get exciting now. 

My Korean ID. 

Brain Stimulation

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest" - Benjamin Franklin

I have decided last year that I am still not happy with what I know. Although I have a degree in Science and a certificate in Education it doesn't satisfy my needs. I have no idea what exactly I want to become in life or how I want to earn a honest living. But that doesn't mean the dreams ain't there. I have so many dreams of what I want to become that it is actually a little unrealistic to become everything. But that said it doesn't mean I have no vision of where I want to be when I'm older. I guess I can't use when I'm big anymore or can I? I am a newbie in the working world. So when I'm big then. 

I always had an interest in listening to my dad's stories about his business and decisions he had to make that what difficult and affected the whole family but that never stopped him from growing and researching the possibilities. It made me think that maybe I should consider another direction on top of what I already have. So I decided now that although I am super far from home and I'm getting my own salary it is a good to invest in myself and rather be overqualified, not that it will stop me.

I started today with my new short course. I'm doing a course in Start and Manage a Small Business. Maybe I won't necessarily use it straight away but I think anybody should have business sense if you want to really make an success in life. Yes you have to have an idea but don't we constantly come up with new ideas and just because we don't necessarily have the knowledge to transform it into a business we kind of just let it go and forget about it. I think everybody must start at the bottom and work their way up. It's just a matter of how fast you want to get there I suppose. If you not willing to learn no one can help you. If you determined to learn no one can stop you. 

I'm a Stellenbosch student and I walked out of university with a big chip on my shoulder because I am one in a very small percentage that have a degree at a world renowned university. I'm proud of it. But when you come to a foreign country and you figure out that what you have is really quite average it removes that chip really quickly. I actually like being intellectually stimulated. It makes me feel good and productive. So today was the first day of many short courses in my life to come. I don't think people should ever stop studying. It can only benefit you and in this world there is so much to learn that it's impossible to study everything but that doesn't mean you can try. 

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change"- Steven Hawking

Frustrations

Sleepless nights; Haunting pasts 

One simply don't just forget. One simply don't just move on. One simply don't just let go.

One simply don't just fall out of love.

Not easily at least.

 

It has come to my attention again and again over the past 2 and a half weeks (yes I have been gone for that long now) that you might forget or at least force yourself to forget but the body never does. My mind hasn't forgotten any of it either. Countless times I have heard stories that the body get sick or tensed up when something reminds you of something that happened long ago. Although this is the function of the unconscious brain and although the unconscious never forgets it is the job of the conscious brain to tell you what you remember. But what anyone should know is that you only remember the things you want to remember. It's that simple. The brain suppresses the memories it doesn't want to remember. Another function of the unconscious brain is dreams. Sometimes your conscious brain also play a role in dreams but mostly it is started by a tiny spark of memory or sparked by a earlier thought. At the moment my brain is busy rewriting everything in my consciousness. Enough about the science behind my sleepless nights...

The body remembers. When I was still back in Cape Town, back in a relationship and still had my family and friends around me I didn't really experience sleepless nights. I guess feeling protected all the time even at night when you sleep makes a huge difference. For 2 months before I left SA I frequently visited my boyfriend and when I had a nightmare or couldn't sleep at all he was there. I used to turn around and hold him till I fall asleep again. And it was nice to cuddle anyways. You see my body remembers that. You call it spacial awareness.

Whilst being in Korea and not sleeping in a big dubble or queen size bed anymore and in a small single bed it became even harder. Because my body is used to having another body next to me I could grab and cuddle with it searches for that during the night. My unconscious brain is awake and well aware. I know this because of brain harmonics tests I did. It's like it sends a message to my conscious brain to wake up and explain the sudden abnormality. It doesn't understand. 

I guess being in a relationship for not only one year but 4 allows for confusion and misinterpretation to take place the day it's not there anymore . It spills over into a vast majority of daily activities that just doesn't sit right with you or you just feel weird doing them without, in my case, someone else being there and in your way. It's hard to just move on and it's hard to just forget about everything you've been through. It's hard to forget about the one pillar in your life that is suddenly not there anymore. It's hard to only rely on yourself for the fun in your life. It's hard to accept.

But just as hard as it is for the brain to discover to raw truth so is it hard for the body as well. Spatial awareness is a thing. Something the Korean people don't really know. I guess their "ego" is not as big as ours. It's hard to just forget about the body that used to be there in the night when you had a nightmare or woke up for no reason. I wake up now in the middle of the night tossing and turning because I'm not used to not having something to hold. I try hold my pillow but that doesn't really work since I have nothing to lay my head on then. And then I try and force myself not to open up my eyes and look on my cellphone. Seeing that it's 7 hours behind my schedule in South Africa I wake up when you go to sleep. So when I sleep you are awake which gives me all the more reason to grab my phone.

I have came to the conclusion today that I will have to use my settlements allowance on a big teddy bear that might just help me sleep through the night. I will marry my teddy and will devote every night to him. Because he will always wait for me till I get home and he will be there to say goodbye when I go.

I have also came to the conclusion that social media is something that can destroy relationships more than it will build it up. It's creates a secrecy between people where there is not suppose to be a secrecy. It lure assumptions, misunderstandings, jealousy and hatred into your life which wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for social media. Besides for what you might see on facebook for instance media such as chat apps also allows people to say things that they won't say in person. It gives people the courage to ask questions they normally won't ask but because the humiliation is not there it's easy - I find it cowardly. I think that anything you cannot discuss with somebody in their face should not be said over a cellphone or social media. It should be said the old fashion way.

I believe in love and I believe in the old fashioned way of loving one another. Technology might be going forward and my soon to be hubby teddy bear might be made from more advance material or the eyes might be made out of glass but that doesn't take away the fact that it's still a teddy bear that's always there. Yes independence is really important but is it the only thing in life that matters? No it's not. It's an ideal for individuals working together to create something together.

I'm buying my teddy bear soon because I cannot stand sleepless nights and I cannot stand searching for something that doesn't exist anymore.....

Seoul - Capital of Korea

Crazy and Adventurous

Seoul is about 2 hours away from Yeongok by bus and then by train with a transfer to another train. The subway here is actually quite a huge success and it's amazing how many people use it on a daily basis. Once you understand how everything works it really makes you mobile. And if you miss a train you just need to wait a little while before the next one arrives. 

My trip to Seoul was completely unplanned and unexpected. Christina just randomly in mid day on Saturday asked if I'd like to join her to go to Seoul (Itaewon)  because she had to go do some grocery shopping. I immediately said yes. (I have the motto to say yes to everything at the moment.) We got there and she showed me where Braai Republic was. It's a South African Restaurant with the best menu ever. They have South African drinks and dessert and they have Biltong and Lamb shanks and braai broodjies and it's just heaven. 

Then we went to do some shopping in foreign grocery stores for some good meet and vegetables. I actually found some frozen vegetables and some camembert cheese (yummy) as well as rooibos tea and milo. I must say this weekends shopping made me plat sak but I won't be hungry for the next week and I can actually cook some decent meals now. It makes me quite positive and helps a little with the homesickness. 

We then went to eat at a Thai- restaurant and the food there was also just as amazing. Sweet and sour pork is my type of food. It used to be my dinner in exam times when there was really no urge to cook nor any "time". Okay I'd rather just watch a quick episode of my favourite series than standing in front of the stove. It kills me to stand in front of a stove. After dinner we went to one more shop and then we headed off back home. 

But this was only Saturday. Let's back track a bit. On Friday night I met a new girl in town who has been in Korea for the past year and a half which means she also knows her way around places. Her name - Catherine. She is from Texas in the United States and she's really friendly. We went for dinner at a Japanese place in Yeongok. This was also really yummy. And to fast forward a bit I had a date to meet a new friend Chary (Canada and also a really great girl) on Sunday. Catherine then said she also had plans with Chary and then we all kind of decided to go to Seoul together and meet each other on the trip. This was quite a nice idea and also really sudden. 

We went to Itaewon and I actually suggested to go eat lunch at the Braai Republic. So here I am with an american and a Canadian in a South African Restaurant in the middle of the Seoul having the best lunch ever. I had to introduce them a little to the menu and told them what is nice and what's gorgeous. They even sold Savanna and Hunters. It was really worth it although quite expensive.

There after we went to Yeouido which is also in Seoul. The parlement building is there apparently. We saw a building that could've been it but we didn't go there for that reason. We actually wanted to go see the Cherry blossoms bloom. They are the first signs of spring and only bloom for a few weeks. What is really unique of these Cherry blossom trees is that there is no leaves on the tree when the flowers dresses the tweaks in the softest whites. It's really beautiful. After the flowers comes the leaves and I can already see that nature around me is starting to become a picture of evergreens. After snapping some selfies and taking so pictures we found our way back to the train to head back home. It was a long weekend and I was really tired by the end of it but rather tired than bored and no adventure. 

Cherry Blossoms: Catherine(Left), Chary (Middle) and me.