잘가

잘가 in Korean is an informal version of 'good-bye', it's not as final as good-bye though, it's more of a 'see you later'.

While I move further into my final evening in South Korea I hope that this will be a 'see you later' rather than a 'goodbye'. For me, even though the circumstances of my leaving this country are bittersweet I'd like to think I'm leaving the door open behind me when I leave.

Instead of focusing on the negatives and the reasons behind my leaving I'd rather use my final post written in Korea to remember the sweeter memories and experiences from this past year.

My unforgettable night at the Beach House concert.

The heartfelt guest-post I wrote for Roots and Feathers about South Korea and the universal map.

My beautiful, inspiring kindergarten students.

My countless cozy afternoons spent in Korean coffee shops.

The time I paper bombed my city with free smiles.

So I'll see you later then, Korea...it's been, memorable ^.~

heart sabbatical

This past year since I arrived back in Korea has been a full one, packed like a bulging suitcase with  extremes; extreme highs , extreme lows, landmarks and downfalls in both my personal and love life. Things of which I have alluded to on here but not given the full un-edited version.

Sadly, for the past few months the bad moments have overtaken the good, and while I could brush them off like raindrops before, now I feel as if I'm caught up in a full blown rainstorm. 

For these reasons I have made the difficult decision to cut my contract with my school early and take some time off to go home and be with my family. To give myself the time and space for my heart to recover, for wounds to heal.

Living in a foreign country has the most amazing benefits in terms of life experience and rich memories to treasure but when things turn sour it can be a lonely, lonely position to be in.

Right now I'm looking forward to returning to the familiar, the loved ones, the comfort of my real home.

I hope you guys keep following me while I'm on my healing heart sabbatical.

My parents live in the rural countryside of Ireland, the perfect place for relaxation and wound-licking!

And gosh how I can't wait to give my parents a big koala-bear hug! 

white day

March 14th in Korea is officially known as 'White Day'~ a holiday in which the boys traditionally shower their sweethearts with gifts and presents... or in my case my students shower me with candy and chocolate and a possible future trip to the dentist.

Dallas and I didn't really celebrate Valentine's Day when we were still together last month but last night we went Dutch as friends and ate delicious barbecued samgyupsal, which is the juiciest pork sizzled up right at your table and then eaten wrapped in a sesame leaf with spicy sauce, garlic and onions.

Delish.

My heart is forever glad that the friendship didn't die when the relationship did.

It's a rare thing that should be treasured, and I do, with all of my heart.

the sunday slowdown

 Do you ever wish that Sunday mornings could just last forever?

Today's was the perfect, lazy, slow-wake-up kind of morning with cups of tea and bacon sandwiches and The Beach Boys and jumping in and out of bed till noon.

Later the sunshine (sunshine!) enticed me into the shower and out to the tracks to watch my buddy put me to shame by running 10k while I slouched on the stands, listening to Radiohead and messing around with photo apps on my phone.

She's a master deceiver, Madam Weather, especially when she is in transition and my fingers finally became numb enough by the wind chill for me to sneak off and hide out in a coffee shop with a book, a chocolate latte and the warmth of a sunny spot next to a window.

Because, really, what sunday is complete without a little coffee shop action?

little family

Friday nights are for friends and food, bars that allow music requests, painting the boys lips with lipgloss and laughter.

Big, big belly laughs that spill tears from the eyes and hurt the stomach muscles.

We started at the coffee shop and moved on to a local haunt to celebrate two of our dear co-workers departure from our school. 

We had a strange diet of squid and sausage, beer from the tap and requests ranging from Christina Aguilera to The Kinks.

I love my sweet-spirited Noonas (sisters) so much~ and damn but aren't they gorgeous??!

we all march on

February 2013 is a month I won't be sorry to turn my back on.

It left an aching hole in my heart and in my apartment that can't ever be refilled.

It left scars, emotional and physical.

It left circled dates on my calendar that are not of the romantic variety.

We all have bad years and bad months, upheavals in our lives.

Right now it feels like someone changed the record and I don't know how to move my feet to this new and unfamiliar beat.

But the band must march on.

I want to begin this new month with positivity and intention.

Dallas and I are lucky enough to have nurtured a healthy friendship despite the break-up... that is a huge blessing to me. 

Friends were sacrificed, but they left space for focus on new and healthier friendships.

My korean noonas and friends from home have created a circle of love and support around me...and  it tugs and tugs at my bruised heart to know how lucky I am to have them.

There is a lot to mourn, but so much more to be thankful for.

This one goes out to the heart tuggers and how I couldn't have got through this without them.

the sunday slowdown

There's nothing a little tea and a sweet letter can't fix.

I love the peace and the quiet of a Sunday,

the way it bookends the week with a little pocket of solitude and wind-down time.

This day of the week keeps me sane and centered.

I dance to a slower melody.

Today I checked the mailbox and found the sweetest snail mail from a dear friend who knew exactly what I needed to lift me out of a little mood rut.

I made myself a hot cup of British tea to remind me of home, set out fresh roses and set aside an hour to slow sip, read over fond memories and just be.

I'm forever blessed to realize I have friendships that have survived time and distance and prolonged absence.

Swoony, cozy, cups of tea-filled Sundays are where it's at.

^^

kindie teacher moment of the week

Give two six year old girls a Batman mask printout and they'll quite literally turn him into a big ol' Queen,

beauty spot and all

 ~.^

You can also find me filling in for Nat over at Modern Buttercup today sharing this cute teepee stamp DIY.

Go check it out!

& finally a big congratulations to Natalie, she was the winner of my cute Korean stationary giveaway!

Peace, love & triple high fives people x

<<< tiny >>>

Welcome to my 7 am morning view as I wait, bleary-eyed, for the elevator to collect me from the15th floor and spit me out into that metropolis of high rises where I will become another tiny ant on the sidewalk, marching alongside the others to work.

I love the romance of this craggy mountain and the way it lends its poetry to Korea's typical white apartment building landscape.
I love that no matter where you travel in Korea, there is a looming, omnipresent mountain never too far away. Reminding us just how tiny we are.
They are the silent, giant observers of our day to day business. They witness scores of sunrises and sunsets, rain clouds and fogs and snowstorms. They are the harborers of stories and superstitions and lore.
You can look at a mountain and feel at once how small your worries are, how immaterial your cares.

When I look through the window and see this mountain every morning I can't but picture myself atop it, sleeping ,cooking, walking  it's crags and battling it's lonely wilderness like Kerouac in Big Sur.
Mountains are commonly used to symbolize obstacles, but I see a mountain and feel only reverence and transience. The thrill of it's loneliness and solitude, the awe at it's magnitude and the longing for it's wild expanse.

Mountain, Field or Sea?
These days I am comforted living under the watchful eye of the mountains.

{{via}}

kindie teacher moment of the week

Check this pair out.

Bambini Kindergarten's resident lovebirds, Jessica and Johny, wearing their finest hanbok (korean traditional dress) to wish you all a "Happy Lunar New Year' in Korean.

This was because Koreans celebrated their traditional holiday Seollal (Lunar New year) this weekend..

I was invited by my lovely co-worker to observe the holiday with her and her family at her Grandmother's home but unfortunately this cold I can't seem to shake kept me in bed most of the weekend.
Otherwise I could have spent two days helping her family make traditional Korean foods, play folk games and perform ancestral rites at the graves of their dead relatives.

I'm sorry to have missed out on being a part of this very closely guarded part of the Korean culture~ the fact that they still observe their holiday traditions so fervently is why the sense of tradition and culture has been preserved in this country so successfully.

According to the Zodiac, Asians believe we are entering the Year of the Snake...in the Chinese Zodiac the snake symbolizes mystery and malevolence. 
Previous Snake Year's have included the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, the Tienanmen Square protests in 1989 and the 2011 terror attacks in New York.

What do you think?
Is this a year of bad omen or is it all a bunch of smoke and mirrors?

the sunday slowdown

Is it almost Spring yet?

I have a hankering for flowering baby buds and warm window panes and

I'm tired of fending off colds that are coming for me left, front and back!

This morning I scooped up my book, pens and writing paper and escaped to the coziness of the coffee shop for a few hours of reading and writing therapy.

Works a charm on me every time.

My soul is craving some good outdoors time, but for now the snow and the frost have me running for cover every time I venture out of the apartment.

I have to remind myself the deeper we move in to February the closer we inch toward Spring and warm air and good changes.

When I think back to Spring last year, when I was home at my parents house in Ireland, taking long walks every day, spotting wild horses in the fields and taking photos of old churches, I realize now just how happy a time that was for me.

As much as there is a hermit in me (incidentally, The Hermit was one of the first cards I pulled at my Tarot reading) who loves the hibernation involved in Winter, there is another part of me that loves the freedom and call of the outdoors that Spring offers.

I hope that Old Man Winter is being sweet to you, he is a charming old wizard after all...but I am ready for a little bit of change ^^

peek at my week// winter warmers

Beomgye High Street

The Korean winters can be long and brutal.

The deepest freeze can come along and take your breath away, red your nose and numb your ears in the blink of a night time.
If you squint your eyes and turn your head to the left you can semi make-believe you're living in Narnia.
But I don't much feel like an arm-circling ice skating lesson every time I put a foot out the door!

There's so much about this part of the year that invites the seasonal blues but I say blues are for the birds and I'm gonna keep some warm winds in these sails of mine!

This involves warm woolen socks, making blanket caves in the bed, cranking the heat and spending an extra ten minutes under the hot shower...

... it also takes wool lined slipper-socks for padding around the apartment....

...belly warming bowls of banana and almond butter porridge before work...

...treating myself to a soy chai tea latte date, wrapping my mittened hands around the hot cup for extra warmth in a classroom not yet heated by muffler-clad energy balls...

...and opening care packages filled with warm pajamas, marmalade, chocolate and all the things only an intuitive Momma could know that I need most in the world right now.

Hope y'all are keeping cozy ~.^

kindie teacher moment of the week

It's a hard life... being 6 years old, having the in-my-opinion-the cutest-name-ever: Bernard, being the cutest kid in school and all at the same time rocking this unbelievable superhero hoodie.

Can you seriously handle this cute?

Me? No.

Makes my womb do ten round-house kicks and fifteen back-flips just looking at this picture.

I can't wait for the day I have my own babies to squeeze....~.^

kindie teacher moment of the week

Our little 5 year-old bobbin, Julie, spinning and swaying and doing swirly whirlies with big ol' hearts in her eyes, clearly feeling quite the Disney princess in her sparkly pink birthday girl dress.

Can anyone ever get enough of cute tiny humans?

I can't watch them practice this graduation dance routine without my heart dancing a little bit inside.

>.<

Roots & Feathers Guest Post// South Korea and the Universal Map

I wish you all a colorful Friday friends!

Today it feels a little like my birthday~ it's my honor to be guest posting over at one of my all-time favorite blogs Roots & Feathers, written by the beautiful and talented Laura.

Head over to check out how I woke up at the end of the tornado in the weird and wonderful 'Land of the Morning Calm'.

And I get to use my favorite word in the whole dictionary, 'kismet' ^^

Read here

☾☾ Beach House Concert ∆ Live in Seoul ☽☽

There's only a handful of concerts I have been to where I have walked out afterwards feeling like I just beheld some kind of magical occurrence.

Last night after seeing Beach House rock the Interpark Art Center in Hapjeong I had that telltale buzz in the pit of my stomach, pour me a bourbon neat, holy-mama what did I just witness? kind of a moment.

Last night was the band's first stint in South Korea and marked a smashing come-back for Korean indie- music scene promoters Super Color Super.

From the moment their incredible stage lighting transformed the sterile, wood paneled recording studio atmosphere of the Art Center's arena into a shimmering purple indoor aquarium the crowds shoulders unanimously loosened and an almost hypnotic en-mass body sway ensued for the duration of the set.

Victoria Legrand, half mermaid-siren, half glam-rock mama to Monster from the Muppets, owned the stage from the second she strode on to it wearing her trademark glitter-ball jacket.

Spending half the set hunching ominously over her organ like a B horror-movie organist, her long, skull ring encrusted fingers scuttled like spiders over the keys as she head banged and snake-hipped effortlessly along to her own singing.

She cut a mysterious figure up there on the stage, her bewitching voice soaring out from within a curtain of shadow and long red mermaid waves which frequently obscured her face. Her ethereal, siren-call voice, capable of impossible range, lended an exquisite baroque quality to their myriad of sing-a-longs from both Teen Dream and Bloom.

Alex Scally cut an impressive silhouette with his guitar and vocals backing up Victoria's mezmerising performance perfectly. 
They were a pair of snake-charmers bedazzling their pit.

The exceptional  fortune of having access to such amazing bands out here in South Korea is not lost on me and hats off to Super Color Super for their tireless efforts in the name of bringing the best indie holy rollers in to this tiny little peninsula. 

Encore.

   

we call it home

Hey folks!

Tonight I thought I'd take you for a quick walk around the little apartment Dallas and I share together out here in South Korea.

One of the perks of the school contracts for foreign teachers is that your apartment comes with the job rent-free.

I know, right?

It can be a gamble though and we have known people who have been stung with a really tiny and/or dirty and old places to live in.

Dallas and I were lucky enough to pull the long straw with this apartment~ it's in a nice new building and although small, it has a split level with room upstairs for bedding even though we don't use the upstairs at all.

This is our first time living together so we've really enjoyed nesting and leaving our own little impressions all over the place.

We live and sleep in the downstairs area, using the bed as a sofa too.

The Life Aquatic poster was a gift Dallas got for his birthday and the two smaller pictures are pages from a Himalayan Mask coloring book Dallas bought when we were travelling in India which I colored in and framed.

The little nook under our stairs is where we stash our little dinner stroke crafting table.

We eat all our meals off this table Asian-style sitting on the floor.

I also have a little floor garden of succulents and a large plant we inherited with the apartment.

The steps make a great showcase for ornaments and tea lights.

I love the way the late afternoon sun slants in through the blinds casting orange shapes on the wall.

Mini bathroom.

And lastly our little pocket of kitchen. 

It can be a challenge trying to create a meal in such a limited space but we've gotten used to it now.

We hung the tapestry over the upstairs balcony, I think it gives a great pop of color to the room ^^

I hope you enjoyed the room tour!

 It's definitely come to feel like home to us these last 8 months.

Happy Sunday!

x

3 little things

One week. 3 tiny joys.

1. Raccoon in a headdress t-shirt

Bought from this delightful Etsy store.

I wanted to buy all the t-shirts they had but I could only choose one. So I chose this one.

Because it's a raccoon. In a headdress.

^^

 2. Delicious winter morning skies

Don't you just want to scoop all these colors and lick them off of an ice cream cone?

I think they'd taste like blueberry vanilla.

 3. Playing with beads

These beautiful jewelry making beads were a Christmas gift from my Mom.

I've never dabbled in making my own jewelry before but I think It'd be a fun project to take on this year.

I love all the colors and patterns on these, I'm thinking maybe of threading them into a beaded friendship bracelet.

Happy Friday folks.

x

⋙⋙⋙currently⋙⋙⋙

I got the inspiration for this new 'Currently' feature from the lovely Danielle at Sometimes Sweet.Not only is she a beautiful person but she knocks me over with her writing skills on a  daily basis, you should check her out!

Reading // 


I'm still ploughing through this fabulous Dostoevsky novel 'The Brothers Karamazov' on my Kindle.It's a gripping, gnarly, provocative and darkly satirical read. Dostoevsky nails it every time for me. It's taken me forever to get through this one because Christmas and new years distracted me from my reading groove for a while but I'm back on track now and have so many good reads waiting in the sidelines for when this one is done.

 Planning //




Lots of big moves coming up later this year, my current school contract finishes in April and I'm currently applying to move from private school back to a Public Government school position. This entails piles and piles of boring paperwork and admin. Yawn.A more exciting prospect on the horizon is the Beach House concert Dallas and I are going to in Seoul on the 23rd. I can't wait! Stay tuned for a review of the show here ^^

Watching//




Two noteworthy movies watched over the past few months: "Beasts of the Southern Wild' and Tarantino's 'Django Unchained'.Both were movies that leave you thinking about them looooong after the credits rolled.

I'm also a sucker for season 2 of 'American Horror Story' at the moment.

 Eating //




The only meal that warms my heart and soul right now is a big bowl of creamy basil tomato soup with grilled avocado and cheese sandwiches.

 Writing // 

I have two exciting guest posts I'm currently tapping out in the evenings for two wonderful bloggers. Stay tuned for those later this month!

 Listening // 

To Turquoise Wisdom on Aquarium Drunkard

 Learning // 

A few harsh life lessons at the moment.

I listened to Florence & the Machine on the way to school this morning and really listened to some of her lyrics, hearing them truly for the first time: 

"I am done with my graceless heart//
so tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then re-start//
and it's hard to dance with the devil on your back//
so shake him out".

  (Thanks to Danielle for this "Currently" list inspiration ^^)