To market, to market
Posted on: May 25, 2013
Hey y’all ~
The weather’s getting a lot warmer here in Korea. Pretty soon sleeve-less shirts and sandals will be a must. I love the warm weather with just two exceptions – 1) You get pretty sweaty. >.> – and 2) I can’t run before twilight. The heat and humidity make it kinda crummy for running, so I’ll probably have to start my night running soon.
Anyway I’m coming to you with another mini-adventure from Seoul. I went up last weekend for the long weekend because of Buddha’s birthday (Thank you, Buddha~). Mostly just chilling and taking in what Hongdae had to offer. Friday night I met with friends and we ate at On The Border in Shinchon. I don’t care if it’s a chain restaurant, it was so yummy. Saturday I spent walking around Hongdae. Last year I went to the free market (read about here ~), and I’ve been itching to go back. I wasn’t disappointed! Check out my haul:
First this cute purse and card holder. I bought a wallet with this design last year from this artist. I use it everyday and told her so. She looked very pleased that I liked her crafts so much. 
I think I’m going to need to get a new wallet before the year is out, so I hope I can see her again and pick one up.
If you wanna check her out her name is Hye Jin Lee (이헤진). She has a cyworld here –
http://cyworld.com/hjsamo
.
A crocheted animal… puppy? Bear? I think it’s a puppy haha. ^^
Last year I bought cute coffee cup earrings from this artist and I was happy to see she was back. I wore the earrings last Saturday and she was also pleased to see a happy customer. I can’t resist things with penguins so I bought this necklace and cute heart earrings.
A cute French flag magnet.
This iPad pouch is quite nice. Leather on the outside, cloth on the inside, and each pouch has different colors and patterns. The artist even told me that since I live in Korea, if my pouch breaks then she’ll fix it up for me. Awesome!
You can find her site – toM – here:
http://blog.naver.com/tomiscat
The young lady who made this was very sweet. She had some rather nice drawings and watercolors. I asked if she was an art major, but turns out it’s just a hobby. She lived in France for several months and took some inspiration from her time there. Unfortunately I can’t decipher her blog name (I tried several variations). Jinkyoung ~ if you’re out there, I really like my drawing.
Ahhhh so cute! I can’t resist! These designs were calling my name. The characters are named Lala & Berry. Absolutely adorable. I could see these being very popular if the right people see ‘em.
You can find her page at: peanutmellow.blog.me
The man I bought this from had some neat prints. Some were like this heart, some had Korean designs, and some were just — whatever haha. He didn’t sign or number these prints though! This kind of surprised me. I only took a semester of printmaking in college, but I feel like printmakers should at least sign their work. Putting that aside though, I liked this particular one. Simple and cute.
Last I picked up this bracelet. The artist had a totally awesome vibe. She lived in India for 4 years and everything she made was based on her time there. If I remember right, the skull on the bracelet is kinda supposed to take away your bad feelings and the other beads bring out the positive. Loving that concept.
You can check out her site here: www.lovejoypeace.net
I really do suggest giving this a look if you have the chance. There’s lots of talented people out there and you can get great souvenirs from your trip to Seoul. Don’t forget to explore the area too! Hongdae has lots of great shops, cafes, and restaurants. I found several places I didn’t know about before, and a couple I didn’t have time for (next time for sure!).
Until next time, friends ~
New job! Kindy here I come.
Posted on: March 4, 2013
- In: Daejeon | work
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My, my ~ how time flies. I’ve already been in Korea for 2 years and a bit at this point. I got in a pretty comfortable routine with things. I really felt a need for a change though. Teaching at an English camp gets a bit, well, repetitive. So I’ve recently changed from my position at Daejeon Educational Training Institute to a kindergarten in my neighborhood. Kind of a big jump from 13-15 year olds to 5-6 year olds! In general, I’d been lucky in the past to have the majority of my students have a decent understanding of English. I’m a little worried about going from that to kids who will barely understand me. But gosh darn it they’re so cute and itty-bitty!
One major improvement is that I can walk to work in under 10 minutes. My last job I had to take a shuttle bus every morning at around 8:10 am. And if you miss the bus, boy, are you in trouble! It’s the only one, so if you’re late then the options are to quick call a co-teacher and beg for a ride, or take public transportation. The subway wasn’t so bad, but the only bus that went near work only came every 30-45 minutes. So it’s either a 30 minute shuttle bus ride or maybe 1+ hours on public transport. Blegh.
Also my hours are pretty decent. Walk in at 10 am, leave around 3:30-4 pm. I’m not a morning person at all so this is nice for me. My lunch hour is drastically reduced, however, from about 1 hr to about 20 minutes. Oh well.
Luckily there’s another native English teacher who happened to work at the kindergarten about a year ago. We’ll be splitting up the kiddies. I get the 5 & 6 year olds. Although that’s Korean age so really they’re 4 & 5.
I feel like I’m starting all over! At my old job there really wasn’t any lesson planning or the types of things EPIK teachers usually do. I’m not EPIK anymore, so I feel like I have a lot of trial and error ahead of me.
If anyone is wondering how I found a job on my own: Facebook. Really. A friend knew I was going to be looking for a new job and saw a post on a Daejeon Facebook group from the kindergarten. I set up an interview, sent my resume, and here I am. I was actually working with my recruiter that helped me get here in the first place (Canadian Connection fyi), but I ended up finding this mostly myself. So don’t count out Facebook as a resource. Usually there’s groups set up for a city or province so you can get help from other teachers if you have questions.
I don’t meet the kiddies until Tuesday, so I suppose I’ll eventually report back how things are going. Really hoping for a fun school year.
If there’s one thing I’ve grown to love in Korea it’s probably all the cosmetic stores. There’s everywhere! The products are fairly inexpensive too. I never really stick to one brand either like I did back home. I feel like each brand has different things they do better than others – like maybe one has the best eyeshadow and another has great skin care products.
Anyway here’s a review of some of my fav make-up items. Does anyone else use these? Or something you wanna recommend to me? If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Photo Jumble – Seoul
Posted on: January 8, 2013
- In: photos | Seoul
- 2 Comments
When you move abroad you can amass a number of things, I suppose. As for me, I have taken so many pictures on my adventures. It seems I haven’t shared all that many here though. For sure I have on Facebook and Tumblr (this is mine btw). Anyway, this is a random photo post for some of the pictures I had intended to share… like forever ago. There’s quite a few so I guess I’ll start with ones I took in Seoul to begin with.
Korea House (한국의집)
I think the palaces were just Changdeokgung and Gyeongbokgung, though there may have been a third in there? There’s so much to see in Seoul so it’s hard to keep track. Also I took these pictures about 7 months ago when my mom came to visit me.
I have so many photos that I want to share, so I’m going to try to separate posts as neatly as I can. I hope this entices a few of you to come to Korea.
What do you want to see?
Posted on: November 16, 2012
Hello, lovely people. ‘Tis I, Janelle.
I have a bit of a conundrum. You see, I’m a pretty casual blogger, as you can probably tell from how frequently I update. But I’m always trying to drum up some initiative to make more blog posts or interesting videos. Unfortunately I’m always at a loss what topics I should cover. For example, I have a strong interest in K-pop, but I feel like people like Simon & Martina at Eat Your Kimchi have that pretty well covered. And there’s plenty of very excellent food blogs, and Qiranger is just awesome all around.
So basically what I’m asking all y’all out on the Internet is: What do you want to see from me? What sort of topics interesting (mainly relating to Korea, but I’m open to other suggestions). Food/coffee? Fashion/make-up? Dramas? Travel?
I’ll do my best to tackle your question or topic if I’m able. I’m not in Seoul, so it’s not easy for me to get to music shows or much in terms of K-pop performances, but those are things I’d want to cover as well.
Anyway, please leave me a comment or hit me up on twitter with suggestions. I really appreciate it you guys!
Also, I’m lucky enough to be going to SeoulTube on Saturday. It’s the first event that is backed by YouTube. You may (or may not) remember I went to a few SeoulTube gathering before, but those were run by local vloggers. I only skimmed over the info, but I believe Eat Your Kimchi will be there, as well as Sun Hyunwoo from Talk To Me In Korean. I’m hoping to learn from them and plenty of other vloggers, so I can step up my game a bit. I’ll make sure to take some photos and videos — and hopefully I won’t oversleep and miss my train and end up missing the whole thing… oh dear.
Moru brunch cafe
Posted on: October 25, 2012
- In: Daejeon | food
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Moru cafe
Being so far from home, you tend to miss certain things. Food is definitely a big thing. I really like Korean food, don’t get my wrong, and these days I actually find myself wanting to eat kimchi (though I still can’t eat large amounts of it). Anyway, sometimes when you’re feeling down or just need a little pick-me-up it’s nice to eat comfort food. Moru cafe is just the right place.
I’ve been there twice so far. I’d like to go more often, but I guess it wouldn’t feel as special. It’s darn good. Last time I went with my co-teacher and we shared our dishes: french toast and eggs, bacon (and a few things I forgot) on an english muffin. I can describe it thusly: nomnomnomnom!
My french toast was heavenly. Made with fresh bread, topped with bacon (all the best things are), and very sweet. A hundred times better than anything I can whip up at home.
The dishes are all roughly 9,000 – 12,000 won – just an estimate, by the way. I can’t remember the exact prices (sorry). They also serve various coffee drinks and such.
Last time I went was a Friday in the early afternoon. It’s a smallish place with around 10 tables inside and 3 outside. It’s also fairly popular. We timed it right and went when it was only about 1/2 full, but if you go on a weekend during mealtimes you may have to wait. They also do run out of certain food occasionally. The first time I went I couldn’t get my first choice because they didn’t have it. Still, if you plan on going before the late afternoon you shouldn’t have a problem.
Getting there is easy. If you’re at Galleria Time World department store, use the underground crossing, and go the opposite side (as if you’re going to City Hall). Just a couple minutes up the street is a gas station, currently SK Oil but I’ve seen it change names already so it may someday change if you’re reading this in the future. Just cross through the gas station and it’s right behind it. Cute little place with a rather small porch. Order and prepare for delicious-ness.
Comic World – Seoul
Posted on: October 22, 2012
- In: photos | Seoul
- 2 Comments
I went with a few of my friends to Seoul last week to check out Comic World. I’ve been to my share of conventions in the past, so I thought it’d be interesting. I knew it focused on anime mainly, but even though I don’t watch it anymore I thought it’d be a good chance to take pictures.
It takes place a few times a year at the Yangjae AT Center in Yangjae-dong. To get there you can transfer at Gangnam station and take the Yangjae line. I believe the stop is 양재시민의숲 (Yangjae Citizens’ Forest), and the center is right out the exit.
I wouldn’t call it a “convention” exactly. It’s more like a big cosplay gathering with an artists’ alley thrown in the building. Still, for a 4,000 won ticket it’s not a bad way to spend the afternoon. It only run it’s about 5:30 pm and I got there really late, so we didn’t spend lots of time there. I wanted to check out the artists’ alley, but my friends weren’t all the interested. We spent our time taking photos of cosplayers that caught our fancy. I did catch 3 Westerners cosplaying (Finn & Jake from “Adventure Time”, and a soldier), but that’s all I saw. I dunno if non-Koreans tend to participate, but it’d be cool.
Anyway here’s what we saw ~ my favorite were the “Adventure Time” cosplayers.
