A Lotte love for Seoul

For one of our last weekends living in Korea, we decided to finally go up to the Seoul Sky Observation Deck at the top of Lotte World Tower 롯데월드타워. This is a building we’ve seen every day for a year from our apartment window, and often visit to eat and shop there, but this was […]

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The Magical World of Korean Skincare

What’s emulsion? ampoule? essence? A 10 step beauty routine? What is this?? If you’re like me, you might have been totally lost when seeing these products crowding the shelves for the first time. And having all the details written in Korean didn’t help me understand them any better. As a complete and utter novice, I’ve […]

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Saying Goodbye to Korea

The final class of my last semester teaching for Chungdahm Learning in Seoul, South Korea was one of the most bittersweet moments of my life thus far (as cheesy as that sounds). Saying goodbye (or annyeong 안녕) to the land of kimchi, soju, and gorgeous mountains was not an easy choice. The joys of overindulging […]

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Death by Rice Chest and the Suwon Cultural Festival

Every fall, the nearby city of Suwon holds the popular Suwon Cultural Festival centered within the late 18th century Hwaseong Fortress. It’s a 3-day extravaganza with cultural performances, activities, and other events. My boyfriend and I had already planned on taking the train out to see the famous fortress, so the festival was an unexpected […]

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Summertime in Seoul

I was thinking about titling this post “Sweaty Summer in Seoul”, but I thought that would make me sound too much like a gross person…. well, too late. I’ve said it anyway. When I noticed the handheld electric fans starting to be sold in the underground shopping markets I should have known what I was […]

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Hiking in Korea: Yogmasan Mountain

On any given Saturday or Sunday in Seoul, the subways and buses are packed with families and friends decked out in brightly colored hiking gear. This eclectic bustle of rainbow-clothed people are on their way to hike the numerous mountains surrounding the city. These mountains are islands of calm surrounded by the ever-busy and bustling metropolis, […]

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14 Different Things About Living in South Korea

Living in another country will inevitably require you to do things in a different way. So it’s best to encounter something new with little/no expectation and a lot of acceptance (i.e. try and do as the locals do). This is far from a comprehensive list, just some random things I’ve found to be new or […]

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A Plague of Yellow Dust

Spring: a time of renewal, growth, the part of the year when Persephone gets to return to the Earth after spending some casual time in the Underworld, cherry blossoms. Oh, and in South Korea? Yellow Dust. What I would describe as a parasitic cloud of fine dust that oozes down from the Gobi Desert to […]

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Seoul in Love

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, I may be an utter failure at being a proper blogger. But here I am nonetheless making poor puns for my blog titles ;P To summarize the first month or so: The week of training for my job as an English teacher can boil down the words hectic […]

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