Travel – Page 8 – Life In Limbo

I’m On Vacation!

July 23, 2014

J? matane, everyone! Somehow it’s already July 23rd, which means I’m leaving for my summer vacation tomorrow. I’m going on a little solo trip to Japan, visiting Osaka and Kyoto for 5 days.

I’m a little nervous about travelling on my own in Asia for the first time, but I’m sure I’ll be fine. Truth be told, summer vacation totally snuck up on me – I feel like I’m only just now getting the hang of my new job and new schedule, so I’ve barely had time to plan for this trip. It’s been stressing me out for the last few days, and I’ve been worrying that I won’t make the most of it or know what to do, but if I think logically about it, I know I’ll be okay. If I dive into my memory banks, I remember that I love navigating in new cities, I love wandering around and taking photos of beautiful things, and I love eating the local food. It’s been a stressful month, and so earlier this week the idea of finding my way around Japan seemed really overwhelming, but I think I have a handle on it now. I’m just reminding myself to be gentle, go slowly, and be grateful.

No matter what happens, I will come back having seen some lovely things, and with a belly full of tempura and sushi. And really, isn’t that all that matters?

I’ll be back to posting on the blog next Wednesday. If you’re curious about my adventures while I’m away, you can follow me on Instagram @lifeinlimboblog!

Have an awesome week!

Summer 2014

July 9, 2014

It’s hard to explain how happy I am that I decided to do this video project again (the last time was in 2012) for my year in Korea. It makes me happy at almost every stage of the process: while filming funny snippets of life and my friends, while listening to music and auditioning it in my head, while editing together the videos and laughing all over again at some of the moments I captured, and of course, while beaming as I watch the finished product. It makes me so happy to know that I’m documenting my life in a way that I find beautiful and funny, and I know that I’ll be so excited to look back on these videos and remember what life looked and felt like in 2014, in Korea.

It’s starting to feel more okay knowing that I won’t be able to capture everything, and that my video is sometimes shaky. I’m doing this project for myself, and for my friends, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s perfectly imperfect! One of my favourite quotes is “I want to feel my life while I’m in it”, and making these videos, every step of the way, reminds me to pay attention and appreciate all the beauty and fun and humour I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by.

So here’s part one of summertime in Korea (May to early July), just in case you’re curious as to what my life looks like here. I had too much footage already to make just one summer video, so there will be another (yay!), probably in a few months’ time. I’m roughly dividing these by season because it’s a less stressful, more fun way for me to produce them (as opposed to every month). In the last few months we spent a lot of time outside, on rooftops and on the beach, on beautiful islands and on boats and on coastal trails. We found a trampoline, we did a lot of tumbling on the sand, we explored temples, we went to a music festival, and we climbed a dormant volcano. Even though some of the moments might have not been perfect or ideal at the time, looking back on this video I only feel blessed and grateful.

Jeju Island, Korea

July 7, 2014

Our weekend on Jeju island wasn’t what we had expected, but it was still magical in its own way. July is the rainy season in Korea, but I didn’t know that when we booked our flights. We also had no way of knowing that Korea was going to be getting the tail end of a monsoon this weekend. All this is to say that we were completely soaked for most of our time on the island, but the gorgeous scenery more than made up for it.

The fact that it’s an island makes it seem like it would be small, but in fact it’s quite big and spread out. Jeju is a very popular tourist destination for Koreans, and it’s actually laughable how many attractions and museums there are on the island. Gorgeous scenery and natural wonders of the world aside, you can also visit museums about sex, teddy bears, chocolate, seashells – there are over a hundred on the island. We didn’t visit any of them, preferring to experience the stunning natural beauty of the island, despite the pouring rain and long bus rides.

It seemed like everywhere we looked on Jeju, we saw something beautiful. The whole island is so lush and green, full of tropical plant life and huge cliffs and deep blue water. The highlight for me was definitely Seongsan Ilchulbong Sunrise Peak, which formed from an underwater volcanic eruption. It is absolutely majestic and otherworldly because of its size and greenery, and the fog hanging over it while we were there. While we were doing the tough hike (steps pretty much straight up to the top of the crater), it was also coincidentally raining the hardest it had on our whole trip. It was a good exercise in patience and staying present and reminding myself to look around and take in all the beauty. When we got to the top, we just kind of surrendered to the pouring rain because, well, we didn’t have much of a choice! Our umbrellas and rain ponchos weren’t doing much of anything, so we stripped them off and embraced it, fooling around and even taking some yoga photos because we’re crazy. It ended up being a lot of fun.

Our last stop was the Samyang black sand beach where the sun finally broke through the clouds and gave us a little warmth. The beach itself was small but beautiful, and the black sand was pretty awesome. We rounded out the weekend with drinks and snacks and even got a gift of some delicious treats from a Korean family sitting nearby.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We were lucky enough to see some very beautiful places and have a little vacation, which was much needed after a pretty stressful week. It wasn’t perfect, but I was proud of our attitudes and our ability to stay positive despite the weather.

Inside My Second Korean Apartment

July 2, 2014

When I first moved to Korea, I shared photos of my apartment for anybody curious back home (hi Grandma! hi Mom!) or anybody curious in general. I remember how nervous I was about moving here in the months leading up to my departure, and I remember how great it was to see pictures of my friend Dylan’s apartment before I left. So if there’s anybody out there about to move to Korea to be a teacher at a hagwon and curious about what your accommodations will be like, perhaps this post can shed some light.

This is the beautiful wall of windows I’m greeted with every time I step into my apartment. As you can see, I have no furniture apart from my bed (actually a futon) and a couple of little tables left by the previous tenant. I could really use a desk! But I’m making do for now by using my little built in table in my kitchen.

I really love this table feature. It’s been working out wonderfully so far, but I’ve only lived here for two sleeps so we’ll see what I start using the space for as time goes on. The stools were also left behind and I love them too. My personal motto appears to be: “The more colour, the better!!”

The Disney decals on the walls were also already there – aren’t they funny? The kitchen is very similar to my last one – it has two gas burners and the washing machine underneath. But my last kitchen didn’t have Winnie the Pooh so I think this apartment is winning.

I also love this little table directly across from the kitchen. I’ve used it to store all my precious little things – a Ganesh god statuette that was a gift from my mom, a candle from Israel from my best friend, a rubber ducky I took from a fountain outside a love motel in Japan, you know, the usual. I killed off my succulent plant (typical, for me) so I repurposed its pink container to be a change jar. The full length mirror behind this table is also awesome.

Lots of closet space, which is great, and I hung up my felt bunting across the ceiling because it refused to stick to the wall. I helped make miles of that bunting for Market Day at my last school and took some of the extras home. I love having it in here, it makes every day feel like a party!

My reading materials and my bedspread and a little inherited table.

A messy cabinet, with lots of storage!

The bathroom, featuring a sneak peek of my ajumma pants (which I adore). My shower in this new place has a door (yay!) but the bottom isn’t totally sealed off so the water runs over the floor into the drain near the sink (not so yay!). It’s a good compromise, since some showers have no door or separation and all your stuff gets wet every time! I’m happy that I have an in-between-style shower.

And that’s that! It’s my second day at the new job today and I’m a bit overwhelmed but I’m just trying to work hard and do my best. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually!

Dare I say I like this apartment better than my first one? I think it has more personality! And more light! And fewer neighbours across the way! I might need to buy a few more things to make it more homey, but it’s really great.