Exploring my New Territory

Fun filled day 

I woke up this morning at 11am and after I got over the shock of almost sleeping for 12 hours and wasting my day away I kind of started to feel a little depressed because there is no one I could say good morning too. So I went to shower feeling all miffy and not in the mood for the day when I remembered making a date with Gezina aka. Christina (next door neightbour) to go and explore the outskirts of town.

And what fun it didn't turn out to be. Wow!! We walked all around the town for about 10km. To add on top of that it was an absolutely beautiful day today. I had to delayer myself twice because I heated up so quickly. I must say I'm going to be a little stiff tomorrow from all this walking but it's better than being sad and lonely. 

Korea love their parks. One thing I realised that differs between us in South Africa and Korea is the fact that Koreans absolutely love the outdoors. Needless to say that I would've loved it so much too if I stayed in a small apartment like most of them do. I saw some many families on a outing in the parks today and it's not only the primary school aged children with the family but the teenagers as well. This was quite a remarkable sight to see. 

We went to the Historic park in Jeon Gogeup (town I stay in). They have a very big museum in the park that you can visit so I will do that sooner or later. They also have all these statues of the ape man standing around or making a fire or hunting a mammoth. As I mentioned on facebook  they believe the cradle of the humankind lies within Korea. And as I assume they also still believe that man came from ape which I won't judge them on but seriously people need to get over that now. It's so not true. One really weird thing I saw was that they displayed rhino's which is quite funny considering they are one of the countries who buys ivory and get rhino's killed.

There is apparently a big festival happening in the park in May so I think I will go join that. Apparently they show the people of Korea how people lived in the Stone age by teaching people how to start a fire with stones and twigs. 

Another interesting thing I found out is that Korea only eat white dogs because they believe their meat is more pure than other hair coloured dogs. And this broke my heart because it's not like these people have black dogs or something but only white dogs and they eat them. And most of the dogs here is chained up. It's really sad. And I really hope that I will never come across a place that sells dog meat. I'm to much of a animal lover to think of eating dogs never mind the fact that I'm really trying to figure out why I'm eating meat in the first place... 

Anyway. When we got back into town I split from Gezina and went into town to do some exploring for myself. I must say their style of clothing is quite different but not to much different from the SA Chinese stores. The other thing I realised is that retail therapy is a thing and really does keep your mind occupied. I'm still a little on the scared side to spend money. Half of the things I wanted to buy today didn't have price tags on and when I ask the guy behind the till how much it is he answers me in Korean which I definitely don't understand. I didn't even understand when they gave me the price never mind everything else they said. I'll have to walk with a calculator so that they can show me on that.

And then of course which is probably one of the best things ever living here is that I met another foreign english teacher from the US who teaches at another school in the street on in my search for a restaurant to eat dinner at. It's quite great that it's so easy to point out who is foreign and who is not. And it's something we definitely don't get in South Africa. So we went for dinner and had a nice chat and now we might go out tonight to introduce me to some of the local beers in a local pub. I must say it's quite nice to just speak to people who actually understand you and who can communicate back.

It's super frustrating to try speak really simple english super slowly so that the Korean people can understand what you are asking or saying. But all in all the people of Korea is super friendly and really nice and they love laughing so it's actually nice being around these positive people. I just wish I understood them a little. But I'm teaching myself the alphabet on my cellphone and I'm translating words into english in order to understand. So eventually I'll be able to maybe communicate a little or maybe just understand their writing. 

The Health Check

What an unclear thing to do. The doctors don't speak english and I really don't understand Korean. Everything sounds the same to me for now. But in some way I got to get it done in 3 hours. From blood and urine tests to blood pressure (100/67 BOOM!!!) to eye sight tests, colour tests as well as hearing tests and x-rays of my lungs was all done in a mysterious way since I have no clue what they are saying. We went up and down, up and down the hospital to get it all done. From one doctor to another.

Luckily I had my Co-teacher with me to sort out the language barrier a little between the Doctor and myself. And it's quite funny how all woman apparently have a thing about men knowing their weight because I didn't say a word and then he commented and said "I'm not watching, don't worry" but he was clearly watching haha. I have no problem with that but it's just a funny observation I made today.

And now it's the wait for the blood and urine results. Hope it all looks good in the end.

A week later:

My health tests came back looking great expect for my liver toxicity levels being to high. It must have been the glass of red wine I had in Cape Town at the airport before I left. I really had to drink a little to give me some dutch courage and calm my nerves. But other than that everything looked good. So say hallo to the lady receiving her Korean ID soon.

My First Thoughts

Weird! Scared! Confused! HOMESICK!!!

I arrived on Wednesday night and after collecting my bags and being on my way out to meet with my lift I firstly had to change my Rand into Won. Their notes works in my thousands so 1000 = R10 and R10000 = R100 etc. It was quite interesting and it look me a little while to figure out how much it is in rand exactly. I got orders to meet my lift at the MacDonalds (very unique lol) but when I got there, there was no lift insight. I stood there for quite some time before somebody pitched up with my name on a little board. But it got sorted out. It took 2 hours to get to the town I'm living in. 

To describe the town it is a really small town and it's between a lot of farms. It looks like Johannesburg in the winter months at the moment so it's really ugly and cold. The place I stay in is quite nice. It's a studio apartment that's quite big and really close to a bus stop and grocery stores as well as some clothing stores and some restaurants. I arrived in the dark at this strange place and my first reaction was "Is this really where I'm staying?" It wasn't what I imagined. Nothing actually was what I imagined. It was scary. Everything was in Korean and I couldn't read anything on any board. The oven is completely Korean.... to the point where I couldn't figure it out at all.

The girl who stayed there before me left me a nice folder with a lot of tips and stories which I really appreciated. Although I would've liked to just have somebody explain to me it is quite an unusual thing to be able to understand Korean explanations. I made myself some two minute noodles but it was really bad and not what I expected. It had no flavour what so ever. I climbed in bed on Wednesday night super scared, alone and missing home so much. Homesick struck me hard to the point where I woke up at 4am in the morning and just started crying and I really could stop. I just wanted my mom with me. I stood up and the girl who stayed here before mentioned that there was a South African girl in the same complex as where I stayed. So being wide awake I stood up wrote "Hi" on a sticky note, went over to her room and stuck it. 

The following day at school I was still not in a really great place to communicate and interact with anyone. I really just wanted to be on my own and cry. I made a few Skype calls to my Friend in America (Maryke) to cheer me up a little but even that didn't really work that well. I had lunch with my co-teacher and at lunch I just thought of the people back home and started to get tears in my eyes. The co-teacher didn't know what was going on so I tried my best to explain. I went home at like 5pm and the first thing I did was to go see if this girl saw my sticky note and if she was there. I must say it took quite a lot of guts to actually just walk up to a complete stranger but I guess when you are in a completely different country you kind of have South Africa as a similarity and you grab onto them as you know them for years.

Anyway she was there and she took me on a tour in town. We had some dinner and it was really nice to eat food that I sort of know. I'm usually all in for trying new things and tasting new aromas but if you miss home and really just want mommy's food it helps a little to cure the pain with some food that you know. We also went to a coffee shop to have the most delicious cup of coffee and there after it was off to the Lotte supermarket to buy myself so nice breakfast and some snacks and stuff. So the night ended off with me walking around with my first Korean payslip of 39000Won = R400 for one little bag filled with goods. It's not that cheap after all.

I still miss home a lot and I'm still a little homesick but at least now I can communicate to someone in Afrikaans about stuff that bothers me or stuff I need to figure out. It's gives me some comfort in moving this far and not having any support system with me here. And to be honest it makes me a little bit more positive about moving so far away from home. 

I think so far what I have learned about myself again is the fact that I always choose one person to be close too. And if I think back on my school days and University days I've always done it that way and had one really really important friend which I cared about and loved and cherished. I have a lot of great and close friends and I love them to bits but it's a different type of friendship I guess. It's a relationship I guess... 

Travel Tips 101

The in's and out about travelling 

With every journey you learn certain new things that will make your travel so much easier if you knew this from the start. And this was exactly the case with me in the last few weeks. Although I have done a lot of traveling myself to a few places around the world I can honestly say that this past few days was quite a experience in itself. I never really organized the previous trips but I always knew what was going on behind the sense but obviously that didn't really help me.

Here is my tips:

1. I prefer a hard body suitcase above a material suitcase because it just seems a little stronger and I think it's also easier to force close.

2. Always have a big enough bag especially if you are planning on going for a year.

3. When you pack your bags roll your clothes up into little sausages and tightly as possible and pack them together as tightly as possible. Try to pack the bottom and top layer in the same direction.

4. Take your big bulky jackets in your hand as it won't be weighed and you save up some space in your suitcase.

5. Take an extra hand luggage bag with so that you can spread the weight of your luggage evenly and attempt to avoid overweight penalties.

6. Always pack an extra set of clothes into your hand luggage especially 2 extra panties/jockeys. Bags do get lost on long flights and you might end up waiting as long as a week for your luggage to catch up with you. So it's always night to have a pair of clothes on while you are washing the other set of clothes.

7. Pack your bags a day or 2 before the time to avoid having to live out of your bag for a week and giving yourself the time to still have a choice what to wear.

8. Make sure you don't exceed the liquid limit in you hand luggage and also pack all your liquid bottles into ziplock bags to avoid your clothes from getting washed and stained in the process of your flight. Air pressure is a real thing.

9. If you have a few stop over's in different countries before you reach your end destination send you luggage directly through to your end destination. This will save you some time and effort on the airport because you won't have to wait for your baggage at collections and then book it in again. This will give you some time for the duty free shops.

10. If you have a backpack take it with as it will make your daily traveling overseas so much easier.

11. Always have your documents with you or at least carry copies of the most important documents (passport) in your backpack while touring as you might just encounter a obstacle where you'll need it. Don't carry the originals for incase the backpack get stolen but copies in several different places will do you wonders when you need it most.

12. When it comes to having a contract in a foreign country try and receive the contract before applying for your visa. This might just save you a lot of time.

13. Don't book your flight ticket before you received your passport back from the embassy. This will save you money.

14. Call the embassy everyday just to make sure there is progression when it comes to issuing your visa. This doesn't count for the American and Dutch embassy in South Africa. I'm not sure about the leniency of the other embassies.

15. If you want to go travel a good idea for spending money will be to get a traveler's cheque (ABSA) because you can get dollars/Euro on it and then safe some banking fees whilst overseas. And you don't have to work in Rand.

16. For money exchange you need your passport, ID and flight confirmation to get the money.

17. When you exchange rand for dollars ask the bank to get small notes (5$ and 10$) and not only big notes (50$ or 100$) because when you buy something in a foreign country at a small coffee shop they don't have change for the big notes and thus you won't be able to buy it or if they do have change you will sit with their currency which is not necessarily the same currency as your end destination. Saving you money.

18. When you are actually on the plane high up in the air and your ears are getting sore because of the irregularities of cabin pressure ask the flight attendant for 2 plastic cups and put it over your ears. This will calibrate the cabin pressure and your ear channel pressure. This works wonders for screaming babies too. Oh this might also help you sleep in the plane if you know how to make a screaming baby quiet.

19. Walk around in the plane every 3 hours or so just to keep the blood flowing. Your legs and feet tend to swell a little because of water retention and the altitude.

20. On that note wear loose clothes on a plane. It's much more comfortable and it allows your legs and feet to swell a little and not cause you discomfort. Wearing a pair of jeans is a no go!! Unless its a short flight.

21. If it's a really long flight try and take a sleeping pill just to help you feel rested by the time you reach the other side.

22. Be sure to know in what time zone the airport falls in order to avoid missing your next flight after a lay over. This happened to my family and it delayed our trip by 4 hours which is not nice considering your journey becoming 24 hours long.

23. If you choose your plane seat it's better to take a aisle seat to avoid discomfort when you want to leave your seat and walk around or go to the bathroom.

24. If you travel alone for a very long time make a friend as quickly as possible.

This is all I can think of now.... If I get so learn some new tricks I'll post them here.

The Time is Now

Why wait?

Every year goes by in a blink of the eye. We normally start the new year with another goal in mind and with a positive outlook. And most years these "wishes" stay the same. I want to work harder this year or I want to get bigger and stronger in gym or I want to make more money or I want to spend money on [something]. But at the end of the year we normally look back at the year that just passed and we haven't really reach our goals. 

There is a big mistake that everybody makes. We all live every new years. We all make goals on new years. We take part in this race to reach our goals but in the end we miss the beauty of the journey to get there. We always have the end in mind and it causes us to loose sight of the little things that happens along the way. We are so concentrated on our own goals that we forget the goals of the people around us or even forget their needs. We are so rushed everyday that we forget to look at the beauty of nature. We are so busy to wish every week by just to chill on weekends that we end up wishing for our life to pass. 

Why don't we make new wishes every single day of the year? Why can we not work towards being happy even if it means that today's work won't be done by the end of today? Why not see the beauty of nature you are busy rushing by every single day? Why can't we stop and smile to a complete stranger. Why not talk to that guy that stand on the streets every single day looking for a job? Why don't we look up to the stars and see how many shooting stars we can count? Why don't we make more time to get to know the inner beauty of every person even those closest to you. We seems to miss all of these things. The things that actually matters. 

We also seem to say "maybe tomorrow" a lot and then we end up not doing what we really wanted to do. We end up just going through life not really gaining anything, not learning anything, not improving ourselves at all. We sometimes think to ourselves I really want to do this particular thing or even as crazy as I want to be with this person. We are to scared and always have some excuse to why something won't work or why you can't do something. It's so easy to think of excuses. I can think of a 100 reasons why I can't write this post right now but in the end writing one makes me happy. I let go of things I feel is important for others to know. I open myself up for criticism and remarks.But after it all I am happy by writing things down that's on my heart and by sharing it with people. Always worked for me. 

I'm also guilty of this absurd thing that all human are guilty of. It's absolutely ridiculous. 

So today I challenge you to take 5 minute in your day and just smile to somebody else or laugh at yourself or even if you want to call somebody you hardly ever speak to. Take that 5 minutes in a day and think to yourself how you are going to proceed in reaching your dreams. Do something that makes you happy. 

LIVE - LOVE - LAUGH

∞

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

My PA Has Bigger Plans

The Truth

Life don't always work out the way we want it to work out. Since a very young age I had this fairly good idea how I want my life to be. I wanted it to be like a fairytale where you find your prince charming and live happily ever after. I wanted success to cover my tracks. I wanted to be grown up and happy and in control. But you see, I have a PA up in heaven that decided this won't be your fairytale. It will be his plan and path I'll be walking on. 

After studying 5 years and not 4 and walking out of university with a degree I didn't want as a 5 year old girl my path already changed. I wanted to become a doctor who safe lives and instead I became a lifescience teacher ( maybe theressome saving to do there as well). I met my thought to be prince charming after school and after 4 years realised that what we had in mind for our paths doesn't quite fit together. We had other dreams and wasn't able to succeed in them together. I had the idea to go overseas after my studies and now that also seem not to be working out. But there is still an point to all this some way or another. 

It's hard to take knock after knock, having to stand up all the time and strengthen and commit yourself again while everyone else expect you to keep it together. Everyone else's life seems to be the fairytale you wished your own life to be. It's hard to find your purpose in life when things constantly feels like they're not working out, when you give it your best and get nothing in return. Not that I expect to get something in return but it will help discovering your purpose even if it's positive criticism. But just going on as if nothing is happening or when you don't know what's happening it knocks you down. 

Trying to stay positive if life toss you to the wolves is not the easiest task to take on. It makes you feel hopeless, powerless, worth nothing and lonely. It ripes your soul out and it doesn't give it back without a fight or help from a psychic. And sometimes it's better to just accept defeat but that is also the easiest way out. 

Sometimes it gives you a glimpse of hope and happiness. It sends angels on your path to lighten up your days. He gives you friends with happy stories to give you some hope for the future and give you something to be excited about. He brings life into the world to make those around you happy and share their happiness with you. Something to help you keep hoping for the same things. 

My PA has a plan for my life and although I'm not sure what it is at all I think I should give my plans over to him to lay it out for me. I'll never know my full life story but I'm planning on making the most out of it and stand up when I get knocked down. The getting up might take longer from time to time. But nonetheless everything happens for a reason and there's nothing you could do about it. 

Back to [] one

Now what ?

I am on holiday in the silence of nature with wind howling over the clear waters filled with life. Where fish eagles sing and fly free in the fresh air. Where the sun wakes up the flowers and the moon put them back to sleep. And the mountains carry on them the beauty of wonders with an abundance of life. This is how I describe the place I am, staying in a little shack. 

Of course I should add we enjoy this nature by walks at dawn and we test the waters with an early bird ski and acting like flying fish over the wakes of the boat with a lekker wake-boarding session. Yeah okey, it's not all just boring nature stuff but I can say this is an absolutely beautiful place. It feeds the sole with freshness and it detoxes the body from the rotten thoughts that built up during the year.

But to get to the point of this post....

So last week we decided to get wifi installed in our little shack to break the everlasting silence of our communication devices and be reconnected with the world out there. This got installed yesterday morning and as I and a few of my family members normally do as soon as we come home after a 3 week holiday, we checked our emails, got up to date on facebook bla bla bla. Late afternoon I receive this email notification reading: Administration. So to my knowledge this definitely had something to do with my Korea applications and so I decided with a lot of confidence and self-assurance that it's probably just a random update on where things stand. Normally they send out stuff to keep all the applicants excited (always works) about the journey we are about to have. Or some administrative stuff... Needless to say normally quite average mails. To my surprise this email was somewhat different to the rest... some of it was cool and exciting and some of it, well, not so much. The content was just not what I expected. 

The email read that the number of candidates accepted and placed have be reduced by 50%. Those who have not been placed will be placed on a standby list immediately. This gave me a cold unpleasant thrill down my spine and left me in shock. It took about 6 months to get to the point of being placed and now there is no space to be placed. 

So for now I have no idea where I will end up and what I'll be doing. This is quite a bawler that was super unexpected. 

So now I will have to either apply directly to go and work in Korea or apply to go work somewhere else such as Thailand/ China/ Indonesia or Vietnam. These places all sound super intriguing, just need to see what is available now and this time I think it will be safe not to count my chickens before they hatch. 

Never thought this would happen but one little set back won't stop me...

This little butterfly is open to fly to any place in the world. (Saying that just made me really excited)

"I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way" - Carl Sagan (1934-1996)