I’m not sure if it’s the same for everyone but once January starts, I am filled with hope and excitement for the New Year. This year is no different. I’m not sure if it’s all the resolutions that I’ve written, the blank slate that comes with a new year or the fact that I’ve had more than 2 days off work so I’m actually refreshed. I think all the above.
The endless summer days and 3rd boost of energy after dinner means that I’ve been working around the clock on everything. One of my goals for 2025 was to be more active. This coincided with me starting a course at the end of 2024 to become a fitness instructor. These past days since Christmas has been me trying to complete all my modules for this course so that I can finally become qualified. To be confirmed. You might be glad to know that “resting more” is included in my 2026 resolutions.
Towards the middle and end of 2025, I have felt more like me. I really tried to work on it and questioning myself on why I don’t do certain things due to my preconceived idea on how I should be in the world. Apparently getting in touch with your inner child is one way to go back to what truly makes you happy. So in 2025, I become the owner to a (not very costly) sequinned bag. The inner 5 year old me would be so pleased. And as I start 2026 with mint green and lilac coloured nails (some with glitter of course), I’m reminded to have more fun.
Wishing you all a fabulous 2026. I’ll be out and about with my sequinned bag.
One of top things on my list of places to go to on my first return trip to South Korea since leaving in 2023 was Suwon. My old hometown. My stomping and sliding grounds in winter. The place I had chosen as my home away from home for a year based on a google image search.
I got onto one of the red coach buses (inter-town buses) from the centre of Seoul and in under a hour, I was in Suwon. I’d taken this bus many many many times when I was living there. Obviously not enough, as I got off the bus 1 stop too late from where I wanted to get of. By getting off 1 stop too late, I was almost back at my apartment in Suwon (maybe an unconscious error). So I had to walk abit more than anticipated. Luckily, it was through streets I had walked before so I knew where to go. Going through the backstreets here transports you to the original authentic South Korea away from the high rise apartments. I like seeing all the signs hanging off the buildings in bright colours or neon at night, quietly screaming to be looked at but are also sort of cute. Just look at them.
Soon, I arrived at the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress. I love it not only because of it’s historical importance but because it’s so grand and there’s so much space. And so quintessentially Korean. The pink rhododendron, the highly pruned and neat garden and Korean pine trees.
I walked the wall and thought that I would find a nice cafe to have a coffee mid morning overlooking the fortress. That’s when it was evident that I had been away from South Korea for too long. A cafe open mid morning? You’re dreaming. After realising my rookie error, I had to veer off the path of the fortress and into the back streets in search for the odd cafe that would be open. As luck had it, I found one and enjoy my mediocre coffee with milk (another sign that I’ve been away for a long time).
After my morning at the fortress, I took the bus a short ride to the newest shopping mall in Suwon, Starfield Suwon. If the name rings a bell, you are not mistaken. There is a Starfield Coex Mall in Gangnam famous for the open library that features…..almost everywhere. So in the Suwon Starfield Mall, there is a similar open library. Great for photos but not much for library activities. I had lunch and a walk around the mall. The most intriguing find was a large Daiso and a Traders Wholesale Club in the basement level.
I now have enough socks to last the next few years.
Earlier this year, I went back to South Korea for a holiday since leaving in 2023. It was only for a week (all the annual leave I had left) but I was so excited to go back and dip into my personal nostalgic world. Excited seems like an understatement. I carefully crafted my itinerary- I needed to capitalise on those precious 7 days to see everything and re-see everything. A little bit of touristy sight-seeing, a little bit of shopping, a little bit of eating kbbq, a lot of nostalgia, 1 hike, 1 day tour and a whole lot of walking.
The photo above was the first photo I took on South Korean soil. Blurry to match my flurry of energy to be back. Oh to see hanguel again and get to say and hear 안녕하세요 (hello) again. I caught one of the airport buses into the city centre (it’s so much faster than taking the metro) to stay in an area that I hadn’t stayed in before. The weather was great every single day which allowed me to be out and about to my heart’s content.
I of course, went back to my ex-hometown of Suwon. Away from the crowds and rush, I enjoyed a day at the Suwon Hwaseong fortress, a place I use to frequent now and then walking from my apartment. I also went to see a new department store (more on my day in another post to come).
I was so content at being back. Everything was somewhat familiar yet somehow still precious. It felt like a lot of time had passed but also not. I realised how different I was as a person to who I was previously when I was living there. I guess something that is emphasised when returning to a place where you have many memories of. Or maybe I’m just getting wiser.
I’m looking forward to my next return soon one day.
That was a long writing hiatus. It was a mix of no longer wanting to write anything, my brain feeling like the above picture and the fact that my own wordpress homepage wouldn’t load in my internet browser for months. A quick google search today led me to try opening my homepage incognito and now here I am, wondering why it took me so long to google my problem when it takes me seconds to google my health problems. And feeling like I’m up to no good because I’m incognito.
I was reading a book today on my flight back home (a work trip) where the book was set in a bookshop (one of those millions of books set in a bookshop) and got to where there was a book club discussing work and how we feel like work takes over when there is little time left over to enjoy our life and free time. My feeling of hating work recently stems from this! Fitting, for someone who was on a plane home and about to clock in the 12th working hour of the day. What would I do, if I had a whole week off work and wasn’t going on holidays elsewhere?
What immediately came to my mind was to be more creative- in all its form. I haven’t written on my blog in almost a year! I wonder what it would be like instead of dabbling in the creative world every now and then, I did more of it all the time? I wonder if I can experiment with that work-life boundary more and push work back into it’s circle?
Suddenly, this vase I came across now seems less like what my brain feels like to a clay mountain of hope with ideas that can pop up anywhere and anytime, just when you least expect.
PS. I still love flying. Planes are awesome. I just don’t like working overtime which I don’t get paid for anyway.
I’ve been a little mia on the blog last year. After really struggling to readjust to being back in Sydney towards the end of 2023, these feelings and thoughts continued on into 2024. I started working again full-time and had no annual leave. It was just the grind. I hadn’t really given this blog any thought until I started getting emails over the past few weeks that I needed to renew my domain. I hope to blog a bit more this year but we’ll see!
Townsville, Queensland in 2024 on a work trip
This year, there are few things that I want to change in my life.
I’m journaling in a new way this year in the hopes that I can better organise myself. It’s basically an empty journal with goals and day journaling together so that I can better see how I’m going on my goals and break it down better.
I want to consume less media. I am so easily distracted by youtube and always find something new to learn and watch. It just takes so much time away from me actually doing things. So I’ve unsubscribed from channels and have almost turned it into a language learning tool.
Sydney International Airport ceiling
I want to decrease my screen (phone) time. Last year, I think I did very well and got it to under 1hr most days. I’ve put the timer on my apps so that it kicks me out. I’m also so close to bringing myself from uninstalling facebook.
Lastly, I want to become more active. I work from home most of the time so I actually have to make some effort to be active and try and add in more incidental exercise in my day. I live in an area which is typical of western countries with houses. Everything is a drive away so I can’t duck down the road for groceries or coffee. I already have a habit of going for a walk everyday (almost everyday) and have, as of this morning, created a set of exercises with weights to work on my strength (hello, bad shoulder from 2024 still not completely healed).
If anyone has any tried and successful tips on any of the above, let me know. Wishing you all a lovely year ahead filled with good health, joy and nature.
I always make sure I put a comment in my hotel booking for a quiet room. I wouldn’t be able to stand a room right in front of the elevators and have the ‘ding’ go off every 3 seconds or people congregating right outside. To be frank, if I wanted to have interrupted sleep, I would stay at a hostel. Please put me at the end of the corridor next to the fire escape and let the rooms on either side of me be empty.
I get into the elevator and push the button to my floor forgetting everything the receptionist has just told me about needing to scan the card inside the lift.
I’ve figured out how to get into the room. Is it a insert and pull out then push down on the door handle or other? The swipe card works. I’ve been in that situation before of having to go back and forth between reception and my room multiple times with bags in tow because the swipe card to the room didn’t work. The receptionists are always so friendly. I wonder if I would have fun doing their job.
I leave my bag on the stand or cupboard for suitcases. I have heard one too many bed bug stories to leave my bags on the bed. Plus outside germs. I get rid of the runner (is this even what it’s called?) and any decorative pillows. Why do they still put these on the bed? If I’m travelling with work clothes, I’ll iron and hang them. I open the curtains and check out the view. I love being up on the higher levels looking over the town. But sometimes it’s a drab and looks onto another building or into a carpark.
I check out the bathroom. I love massive bathrooms and how they always have so many lights. Don’t even get me started on the marble benchtops. I check to see what freebies they have and if there are any unexpected ones. Nowadays, you’d be lucky to get any freebies. I then open all the drawers and wardrobe. I’ve never worn a hotel robe before even if it was in the room. I do love slippers though if they are there. Nowadays, they are never there.
I unplug the bedside table alarm clock-radio. I once stayed at a hotel on a work trip and the alarm clock had gone off at an obscene time waking me up. Never again. When it’s time for bed, there is always the struggle to get a certain light to turn off. It’s like some secret agreement all the hotels have. I lie in bed and wonder where this blue glow is coming from. The TV. I move whatever I can to cover the light. I hope I fall asleep fast.
If you’re planning on visiting South Korea in July and August, get ready for plenty of iced drinks and air-conditioning. The hottest months of the year (along with the wettest) will require some good shoes and back up plans.
Summer: peak is July- August Rain: peak wet season Temperatures: 25-30C Other: high humidity
Clothing South Korea as a whole is still quite a conservative country when it comes to clothing. For women, for some reason, wearing the shortest of short skirts is ok but baring your shoulders is not. In Seoul, I guess anything could go but if you want to not offend and not to stick out too much, I would err on the side of caution. For men, you won’t be seeing many tank tops (is that what they’re called? muscle tops?) on the streets. For the beach, I would say bikini’s are not very common among the locals but if you’re somewhere like Busan, it should be ok.
Shoes When it rains in the wet season, it pours. Keep in mind it is also hot so gumboots may or may not be ideal (although I have seen them being worn). Another conundrum is that you’ll likely be walking a lot so thongs (or flip flops as the rest of the world call them) are also not ideal although practical in wet weather. I went down the jelly shoes route but there’s also water proof sandals, leather sneakers and crocs (which you’d be surprised is actually a big thing in South Korea).
Jelly shoes in summer
Fan When the humidity kicks in, it’s great to have some sort of breeze. This is where the hand held fans come in handy (hahaha). These mini handheld fans are sold everrrrywhere. Head the your nearest Daiso for a $5 one (which works really well) or Artbox for more fancy and cute ones. There’s also nothing wrong with an actual manual fan.
Electric fan
Umbrellas Another way to keep the sun away are umbrellas! In some concrete jungle areas, there’s a lot of heat reflected so a nice way to create some shade is by using an umbrella. You might be thinking that it’s weird, coming from Western countries particularly. But in a lot of Asia, using an umbrella in summer is common practise (plus with the wet season, you’ll be carrying one anyway). In South Korea, it is quite popular to be walking under an umbrella in summer. There are also sun umbrellas designed to keep out UV rays etc (although I think these are more popular in Japan).
Staying cool You already know that you should be hydrating in these conditions, luckily for you, there are plenty of cafes around South Korea. Everywhere indoors will be air conditioned. I have seen some air conditioned waiting rooms at large bus stops and train stations. There are plenty of museums and large shopping centres. Large shopping centres usually have water filters near the bathrooms where you can refill your bottles or have a cup of water from.
Alternatively, head the beach. The beaches are a little different from Australian beaches. There’s an open beach season which usually starts in June but is in full swing in July and August. This means that the umbrella and beds are set up (which are rented) and there are lifeguards. Outside of the official beach openings, I’ve heard mixed reports of what happens (between getting kicked out of the water vs no-one caring). Swimming is a skill that it not widely taught in South Korea so when the beach is open, you won’t be able to get far out due to netting (depending on which beach) with most people staying quite close to shore.
Haeundae Beach in Busan
Hiding out in a book shop
Food Some popular dishes to eat in summer contain both cold and hot dishes. Some popular cold dishes are cold soybean noodle soup (kong guksu) and cold noodles (naengmyeon-this dish has ice in it!). A favourite summer hot dish is chicken ginseng soup (samgyetang) which is supposedly very good for you in summer (and all year round but particularly in summer). For other general dishes to try, I have previously posted about this here.
I can’t of course, not mention ice-cream. A classic summer essential. Cheap and easy to find (just go into any of the convenience stores!). I made a list of ice-creams to try in South Korea if you’re willing to go on this culinary journey.
kong guksu
Ice-cream from Baskin Robbins
How else do you like to stay cool in a humid summer?
I’ve had these pictures sitting in draft for months and I’ve changed this blog post topic now for the 3rd time. I haven’t written a blog post in months for a few reasons. Let’s catch up.
My job has now full steamed ahead. I’m back in a 9-5 and dreaming of better days. My job luckily offers me the ability to be completely home-based and some travel every now and then. Work travel of course is not as free and light as normal travel but the change in scenery and location is a nice reprieve. On account of having no annual leave banked up right now, travels are being put on the back burner.
Recently, I flew to New Zealand for work. It was a quick 2 day work trip with 2 days of travel days to get there and back. It was the first time that I flew international with only hand luggage! I felt so lost- checking in at the kiosk but then just walking through to security. I liked not having to wait for my bags and just rolling past out the exit feeling smug. The downside was that on the way back, I spotted some Whittaker’s chocolate (a New Zealand specialty) at the airport and couldn’t buy any due to the weight of my bag. My handbag was already stuffed full with some Cookietime cookies. I’ll have to wait to the next trip.
George St, Sydney
I’ve been battling some shoulder pain in the past year or so which has nice actually settled a lot after some regular physiotherapy and constant exercises. I’m not sure how the shoulder pain was caused but maybe the luggage pulling and hurling from mid last year did something to it. You know how these aches and pains start, they never go away. So I’ve been told anyway.
A while back I posted about reverse culture shock and how difficult it was to reintegrate back into my ‘old’ life. I’ll explore this further in another post. I think I’ve settled back now but I don’t think I’ll ever feel reintegrated. I see life here through somewhat unfamiliar eyes. And that’s ok.
I decided to take some photos on my camera this day. How bad is it that the first thing that comes to mind is that the photos feel retro? These photos also feel…..empty or cold? Not the usual photos I like to take. Perhaps it was just what I was feeling that day or this is actually how the city is. Maybe I’ll try again another day and see what I find.
I was fortunate to be able to return to Karlovy Vary last year for an overnight stay. Karlovy Vary is up there on my list of ‘beautiful architectural towns’. Only 1.5hrs by bus from Prague, Karlovy Vary looks like you’d expect all the princes and princesses from fairy tales to live which is not that far from the truth. Large wide boulevards, beautiful neoclassical, art dec, renaissance (and more) architecture and surrounded by nature, it is such a beautiful and peaceful place to visit.
Market Colonnade
Famous for their hot springs, Karlovy Vary attracted all of Europe’s aristocracy. Being neither a princess or a member of the European aristocracy, I settled for a walk around town instead. Arriving in the late afternoon, my friend and I walked to our airbnb. It was nestled in the hills which wasn’t too bad to walk to and on a quiet residential street. After leaving our things, we went for a walk and keen for my friend to try the thermal water. There are taps around town where you can try the local mineral water. They are usually located in the many colonnades around town- which I have since found out are evenly spaced out columns.
Remember to bring a cup or otherwise you can purchase a sipping cup from one of the many souvenir stores around town. I can’t say I had fond memories the first time I came here trying the mineral water so just had a quick taste this second time which reminded me that I didn’t like the taste of the water at all.
We ate at Czech restaurants for dinner and the following day’s lunch and found the food to be great. Alot of the restaurants in town seem to be all highly rated so you’ll be spoilt for choice. The town is quite touristy and on my first time here, joined a day trip tour from Prague. By late evening, the streets start emptying and the entire town quietens down.
For me, this town is just the place to spend walking around admiring all the buildings and just the general pleasantness of the town.
Sipping cups being sold around town
Beautiful sunset on gold embellishments on the building
St Mary Magdalene’s Church
The next morning, we did a walk to the Three Crosses Lookout. Walking through the shady forest, I spotted this little fairy house (is there a word for these?) with moss growing over their front porch. On the opposite end of town, there is another walk to the Diana Observation Tower which also looks like it would’ve been a nice walk too.
Maybe next time or in my next life as a princess, I might book into a wellness hotel for a handful of days. On my first trip here, our tour made a stop at the Moser Glass workshop where we got to see how glass was blown (literally). Karlovy Vary is also famous for Becherovka Liqueur and there is a museum in town if you want to know about the process of making it and trying it.
Have you been to Karlovy Vary? Would you like to go? What did you like/not like?
It is inevitable that when you live in a different country, things are bound to go wrong sometimes. You just don’t know, the culture is different or you just didn’t know (I said that twice on purpose). To get through these times, you need some humour and a little bit of that ‘happy go lucky’ attitude.
Transport
My first misadventure on public transport occurred very early on in my stay in South Korea. I was going back to my city (x marks the spot) after spending the day in Seoul and caught the metro back as I had caught there. It was simple, I just needed to take the dark blue line and then swap onto the olive line. Little did I know, that there are infact 2 routes on this dark blue line. You can see the fork where I circled on the map. So yes, I didn’t know that there were 2 end destinations on my line until after the fork in the tracks and found myself instead, en route to Incheon. It was an easy fix though, I just had to get off and change platforms and head back. Luckily, the metro I next took was going in the right direction towards home.
Food
I relied heavily on my own research and also recommendations from students about what foods to eat and try. I’m not that much of a fussy eater so am game to try everything. It was important to me to try as much as I could of the local foods that I could find. Some I liked and some I didn’t care for.
Songpyeon (rice cakes) is a traditionally eaten during Chuseok (Korean harvest moon festival) and I was so happy when I came across them at a local supermarket. I wanted to try them and I also wanted to try mugwort which is what this green one was. The outer is made of rice flour and it is usually filled with ground sesame seeds or in this case, mung bean. It was quite filling but I made the mistake of putting it in the fridge for the next day. The rice flour outer ended up toughening up and I only ended up eating the filling. The lesson here is to not put it in the fridge.
One food item that I missed quite quickly was bread. Sliced bread from the supermarket tended to be quite dry or were sweeter than usual (it’s a thing in South Korea). Bakeries tend to have cakes and from what I could tell, not make their own bread. I found 2 bakeries near my school and one of them had the best bread sandwiches except the filling. The filling was always the same. The butter was always in thick slices like you can see in the picture. It contained a slice of ham and jalapenos. I mean, it was still delicious but not my filling of choice.
You’ll read everywhere that you need to try sundae when you come to South Korea. So tried, I did. Sundae is type of blood sausage and is a popular street food. You’ll find it being cooked with tteokbokki and fish cake in the street stalls. I love eating at these street stalls where you stand around, the store keepers are yelling out what they on offer and they are quick to serve you in assorted containers. I can’t say that I would choose to eat sundae again but it’s worth a try.
I don’t think I ate so much ice cream in my life until the year of living in South Korea. I seldom eat ice cream from a store and gelato is a lot more popular in Sydney. For some reason Baskin-Robbins is huge in South Korea so as you can imagine, there is such a range of flavours and some tailored towards the kids. My students kept telling me of this shooting star flavour which has popping candy in it. What a weird sensation and flavour combination it was but, I’d try it again.
Rubbish
One of my first posts about living in South Korea was about the rubbish system. You can recycle almost everything and you have to buy these rubbish bags which are different in each town. You can buy them at convenience stores and some supermarkets sell them in packs. I once bought the cheapest option I could only to go home and realise it was cheap because it was the smallest size. It was 5L! But I discovered that this was actually an awesome size because food scraps get smelly quickly and it was better to fill one up quickly to chuck out.
My Apartment
In Korean apartments, there is usually a control like the below which controls your hot water system and underfloor heating. Obviously, everything is in Korean. In the first few weeks of moving into my apartment, I woke up sweating wondering how it was so hot this early in the morning already. Upon going downstairs (loft apartment), I realised that my floor heaters were on! From then on, I made sure to always turn it off after showering. By winter, I had mastered my little heat controller to know where the hot water switch was and even how to set it for winter so my pipes didn’t freeze. I tried to set up the timer for the floor heating but didn’t manage to become an expert at it.
Lingo in Transit 
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