Life In Limbo

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.

30 Days of Handstands

July 1, 2014

I’m over on Guinea Pigging Green today sharing my thoughts on our 30 day handstand challenge. About a month ago, Laura and I challenged each other to do a handstand a day, take photos of ourselves (shameless selfies) doing so, and share them with each other. Of course, true to form, we stopped keeping track of the days pretty soon after we started and we didn’t always take a picture. I for one didn’t even do a handstand every day, and I have no idea if I did 30 days worth of handstands, let alone consecutively.

That being said, the experience was a very positive one, and I’m very happy that we decided to take on this challenge. My handstand has come a long way since the beginning of this challenge, and while I’m nowhere near my freestanding handstand goal, I’ve gotten much closer than I was before. I can now hold my handstand – on a good day – for at least 3 seconds, and that’s with good form and no wall. When I started the challenge, I had to use a wall to kick up against, but of course when you do that you get the infamous “banana back” (which just means “bad form”) and it’s not a very sustainable posture.

I’m happy to report that my form is better than ever, thanks to all the safe falling I’ve been doing. The absolute best thing for my handstand practice has been to do it outside on grass or sand. I’m lucky to live in Busan where there are beaches everywhere, since sand is probably the most forgiving surface you could find for handstand practice. It helps me not be afraid so I can tumble as many times as I need to – nowadays, that means into a wheel pose. It means that I can kick up gently into a handstand and hold it for longer because I’m not using the wall which can throw me off balance.

Another thing that’s really helped me in this journey has been to learn to breathe deeply as much as I can while upside down. I have a tendency to hold my breath as soon as I get my legs in the air, but breathing helps you regulate your balance which is something I didn’t know before I started this journey.

If you read my blog, you probably know how much I love challenges, especially short ones. This one, all things considered, was really easy but of course there were still days that I didn’t get it done. Happily, I did get it done more days than not, and ended up learning quite a bit along the way even though I still have a long way to go. I don’t know what my next short-term challenge will be, but I love the 30 day format and I’m sure I’ll be using it countless more times in the future.

You can read more of my thoughts on this challenge over at the Guinea Pigging Green blog today right here.

Fresh Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce

June 30, 2014

I posted a “recipe” for summer rolls – aka non-deep-fried spring rolls – a few years ago, but I recently developed a new favourite ingredient combo (this time fully vegan) so I thought they’d be worth posting about again. I’ve been taking these into work with me lately and even though they often fall apart by dinnertime, they’re so tasty that I usually don’t even mind. It’s like mini packages of salad! So fresh and so clean.

My current favourite mix of ingredients is tofu, leeks (or green onions), peanuts, red pepper, tofu and sweet chili sauce. I don’t need to handhold you here – just chop them all up! It’s all raw, so this is a very easy meal to prepare. Soak your rice paper wraps in warm water for around ten seconds, then spread them out on a flat surface and pile everything on! Like so:

Then you want to tuck up the bottom, fold in the sides, and roll it all up like a burrito. It gets easier and tidier with practice, but sometimes I still end up with a floppy mess. One time, I just wrapped the whole mess in another rice paper, which was surprisingly an excellent fix!

I’ve been eating these with a homemade peanut sauce, which really makes them that much better. I usually half this recipe and season it to taste (since I don’t have sesame oil at the moment). It has good proportions though, and the resulting sauce has a great texture.

Yummy, right? This is exactly the kind of food I want to eat when it’s really hot outside. No standing over a hot stove please! My apartment doesn’t need to be stuffier than it already is.

You could definitely customize this “recipe” in any way you want to! Different vegetables, maybe even some fruit like pineapple or mango, and fresh herbs would of course be wonderful. I’m sure I’ll be mixing it up quite a bit as the summer progresses. Happy eating!

Inspiration | June 27

June 27, 2014

It’s no secret that Sarah Addison Allen is one of my very favourite authors, and this week I was inspired by the article about reading that I mentioned in last week’s inspiration post to “climb her family tree”. Her FAQ section had a lot of reading recommendations and I’ve added all of them to my never-ending to-read list. I’m planning to do the same with Curtis Sittenfeld and John Green next.

I thought this photo post from A Beautiful Mess about the stuff they’re currently loving was so totally awesome. This post from Elise that was inspired by it was pretty sweet too. So now I’m just excited to figure out my own version of it to do too!

A great article (via Laura!) about what travel teaches you that going to college doesn’t. For the record, I think both experiences are very important, but this article was full of great reminders.

I wouldn’t say I identify with every single one of the things on this list but I also refuse to say how many I do identify with (very many). I laughed a lot while reading it. I would argue though that I’m not antisocial! I just try to spend my social energy carefully, or at least that’s what I’ll be over here telling myself.

I thought that this week’s episode of This American Life was exceptional. They did a show live in Brooklyn and it included a Broadway musical adaptation (!!!) of one of their radio shows. I absolutely loved it, and I am not kidding, I still have one of the songs stuck in my head 5 days later.

This picnic looked so yummy and fun. “The point really is about creating the space to enjoy a meal or hefty snack in a beautiful setting along with people you care about.”

Two Instagram accounts I’ve been loving lately: @sonyayu, a new-to-me food photographer with the prettiest, most colourful stream, and @ariellevey, whose stream is full of southern California loveliness.

Some oldies-but-goodies: the time I went to Diner en Blanc, strawberry rhubarb pie (3 years ago this week – whoa).

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And another week bites the dust. I can’t believe it’s mid-summer already. When did that happen?! We still have a lot of summer left though, and I intend to make the most of it. This weekend I’ve got to move into my new apartment, but I’m also hoping to squeeze in some beach time! Happy weekend everyone.