Boracay

My 10 days in Boracay feel surreal now as I am sitting at my desk back in Korea. As I begin to write I can only hope that I am able to capture and explain adequately the marvelous and life changing experience that I had while I was there.

I arrived on the island midday well rested and ready to begin my adventure. I briefly stopped at my hotel to drop off my luggage and then set out. I walked the length of the beach and was in compete awe. Here I was for 10 days in a literal paradise. It was the perfect mixture of old and new, local and tourist. A little over my first hour on the island I met a group of locals who I ended up spending much of my vacation with.

I first approached their shop purely out of curiosity. They were selling jewelery that had crocodile teeth, dried bird heads, monkey skulls ext. for pendants. It was a sight to see. Although strange, the jewelery was BEAUTIFUL. Out of the shop walked a girl with the most beautiful henna tattoo on here leg, immediately I decided that I wanted one. I approached the artist and asked him  how much it would cost for me to get one, 500 pesos. Naturally me being stubborn, I bargained the price down to 200 pesos and a beer.

My henna tattoo turned out gorgeous. He freestyled a tribal design that started on my shoulder and crept down to my bicep. But my 200 pesos and beer bought me more than just a temporary tattoo, it also left me with a new outlook on life.

Carpe Diem, Pura Vida, Don't Worry Be happy, Life Goes On are just a few of the many different quotes and sayings that people try to live by. For me, I have always lived by two words, "Why not?" On a school trip in Europe, why not ditch the group and do my own thing? My first college was planning on cutting down a historical tree, why not join the hippies and tie myself to it? Why not take a spontaneous trip up the coast of California the day before Mother's Day and STILL manage to make it back home before the annual brunch?  Close friend is living in Spain, why not on a whim go visit for a week? Why not dance like I am possessed by the DJ?  Fall in love with a guy who is moving permanently to Thailand, why not move there as well?  Things don't work out, why not pick up and move to Korea instead? Why not jump off of a 15 meter cliff? The list of why nots goes on for me. I do not let fear or doubts stop me. Why not do whatever I want? It is my one and only life I see no reason to set limitations.

The locals in Boracay have their own view on life, The Simple Life. When this first came up in conversation I couldn't wrap my mind around it entirely. I am a big city girl who comes from a world that is defined by wealth, education and status. A world where people are constantly trying to get ahead or fighting to keep up. A world where material objects, who you know, where you live and what you do all are major players in people's lives. A world where everyday I stress on trying to figure how I will become not only a competitor but winner in.

 The Simple Life hosts an entirely different concept. There isn't any hierarchical status based on wealth or education. There isn't any competition between the people to get ahead or stay ahead of one another. You are not defined by what or how much you have but rather what kind of person you are.The main objective? To be happy. And there they were, just happy with what they had. They didn't strive to be rich or to have the nicest things, all they needed was enough to survive. They were the richest people I had ever met.

Everyday I spent with them opened my eyes up a bit more. When we would eat, they would pay (as much as I would allow), not because they had more money than me (they did not) but because they could. They did for me, a stranger...somebody they had just met, simply because they could.They didn't need any other reason, they could do it so they didn't see why they shouldn't. If somebody came around their shop looking to get a tattoo but wanted to compare artists, they would tell them who else they should see. There was not any competition to keep the customer or profits to themselves, helping others prosper was more important. If somebody wanted to take photos with their products they let them with no animosity, even if it was obvious the people had no intention to buy. They felt it more important to give the people a good memento of their time in Boracay than to fuss over a purchase.  It was here I learned  the true definition of selflessness and it was here I learned the true definition of happiness.

I was a happy person before Boracay but after spending time there I rethought my reasons for happiness. The locals in Boracay were happy for reasons that could not be stripped from them by others. They were alive, breathing, had each other and enough to get by. These things were the reason for their happiness, things that were not materialistic and things that ultimately really matter in life. Was I happy for those reasons too? Or was my happiness because I am well paid, have a nice apartment and am able to afford finer things? I do not think there is anything wrong with being happy for these reasons but if I lost them, would I still be able to be happy? Or had I allowed myself to rely completely on these?

I could never be sure of my reasons for happiness before but I have embodied the concepts of this Simple Life. I now solely happy because I am able, able to live, able to breathe, able to love, able to give, able to receive and able to do. I now realize the importance of appreciating what is important and I owe it all to my new friends, you have opened my eyes to a new way of thinking. Thank you John Art, Nonoy, Ronnie and the rest of Mari Tattoo for showing me the real meaning of life, Mahal Kita.



#CHEERS2REALREASONSTOBEHAPPY



if anybody goes to Boracay visit my friends at Mari Tattoo!

Alone but not lonely

 **I wrote this before I left for vacation but in my excitement I forgot to post it.

In T-minus 3 days I will be on a plane and on my way to spending 10 sun filled, stress free days on Boracay Island in the Philippines. After the hellish winter I have been dealing with here in Korea, there are not enough words in the English language to describe just how happy I am for this. NEVER in my life have I been this pale. I might actually for the first time ever share a similar skin tone to my blond hair, blue eyed, white (Polish/Danish American, it really doesn't get much whiter than this) Mother.

Korea's winters wouldn't be so bad if there were sunlight, but instead every single day is cloud covered and murky. Okay actually Korean winters would still be really bad even with sunlight but at least I wouldn't look sickly. I've always liked my freckles but now that my skin tone is near translucent, having dark brown spots on my face just makes me look like I have contracted scabies or a mutated form of chicken pox.

I have forgotten what sunlight feels like. I have forgotten what it is like to be hot. I have forgotten what a sunburn feels like. I have forgotten what it is like to not be able to wear certain types of clothes because of tan lines. I have forgotten what it is like to WANT to be outside. So for the 10 days that I am in the Philippines I have plans on soaking up as much vitamin D as humanly possible. I do not care how uncomfortably hot I get, I do not care if I sunburn, I do not care if I get a sunglass tan or suffer from a heat stroke, I will force myself to sit and enjoy the heat every single moment of heat because when I return to the ROK I will once again be drown in bitter cold and gloom.

Of course I have been bragging about my future trip on all social media that I actively participate in which then leads to the question, "Who are you going with?"

I am going alone.

This answer usually receives one of two reactions. The first, pity and the second, worry. Those who pity me never worry about me and those who worry about me do not pity me. I understand the worry. People worry that something might happen to me because I am alone and people who are alone are more vulnerable. This reaction doesn't bother me, I understand it. But the people who pity me, annoy me with their looks of "ohhh this poor lonely loser. She doesn't have friends and therefore must go lie on the beach in beautiful weather, clad in just a bikini, losing herself in great novels, great music and consuming amazing food ALL ALONE."

.......still waiting for the point when I see the reason I need another person. I have friends, plenty of friends, all over the world, all ages, all colors, all demographics..there is no shortage in that area of my life. Yes, having my bestfriends next to me would add to the FABULOUSNESS time that I am going to have on my trip, but them not being there is taking nothing away. 

To those who have never done it, try traveling alone. It allows you more of an opportunity to meet other people and make new friends. You are able to experience where you are on a different plane. Alone you have to fend for yourself, figure out how to get around, communicate, what to do and where to go on your own.  It also gives you much needed time to yourself and allows you to do what YOU want to do on your OWN time schedule. I personally believe everybody should try it at least once. BUT Of course do not forget to be safe.

As for that I will be on a 10+ day hiatus. Stay tuned for my adventures in Boracay :).

#CHEERS2VACATION!

Cold Weather.

 Warning this is a rant from a girl who has "I grew up in Paradise" problems.

Let me start this off by saying I was born and raised in Paradise aka. San Diego, CA.

When I first was deciding on where I wanted to be located in Korea I requested a city that had a temperate climate and my recruiter (I am sure laughed at me also)  informed me that just does not exist in Korea. For the first time in my life I am experiencing these things called seasons.

Back home, we think we have seasons. Summer hovers around 80 and 90 degrees and then drops to 50 (if it is really cold) but on average it is mid 60s in the Winter. Even so, at home we all bitch and complain about the weather, "it's soo hot today" or "it's too cold." For San Diegans it's always too something, anything that is not within 5 degrees of 80 is too something.  People laugh and joke about how we are sissys when it comes to weather well it is TRUE! It isn't our fault we live (in my case liveD) in Paradise.

Right now it is October and about 60 degrees on average daily here in Korea which apparently is "nothing" as everybody keeps telling me as they laugh at how cold I claim to already be. The coldest month, so I have heard, is January. That is 3 months away...I have no idea what to expect, but I am terrified.

Everyone around me has been extremely nice. I am constantly being given advice on how to prepare and live through the winter. Some people honestly worry about me and other find my ignorance amusing, all still providing me with survival tips. But even with all of this winter advice, friends and family, I do not think I am going to survive.

Back home when the temperature drops too low for our liking  we bust out our trendy scarves, boots, coats and call ourselves "bundling up." My San Diego "winter coat" is lined with Leopard print silk. I may not be an expert on extreme temperatures but I do not think silk is on the list for best cold weather material. I own beenies and scarves, all of them quite fashionable and can spruce up any look but here scarves and beenies are not a fashion statement, they are a means to survival. The days of dressing up my shorts with a cute beenie or a scarf are over. Now I will wrap my neck like a burrito to fend off the piercing wind and top it with my Michelin Man Coat (I did get a very cute color so all fashion is not lost). And yes, it is complete with the fur. 


(Fact: Korea is the most fashionable country in the world and without a doubt I am sure that Koreans find and do succeed in being fashionable during the winter and I am just a big sissy from San Diego who likes to complain)


Speaking to people from colder parts of the world I am constantly hearing that they couldn't imagine not having a cold Christmas. They like being able to cozy up by the fire and ...? So far that is the only reason I have heard from people who actually desire a cold Christmas. The fire is fine and dandy but what about after Christmas? It is still cold, Christmas is over, you have to go back to work, you can no longer cozy up by your fire, so now what do you have? Nothing but cold weather. Those of you who can't imagine anything BUT a cold Christmas just haven't experienced a warm one. It is amazing, we may not have a fire but I don't think that can be considered missing much.Winter sports? We have them AND we wear sleeve-less tops while doing them. Beat that.

Luckily, I have been given a slew of advice from cold weather veterans that I am going to include in case anybody else is as clueless as I am.

1. Layer, Layer, Layer. Buy: Long underwear, a "proper" winter coat, thick gloves, thick scarves and warm socks.
2. Keep your chest, wrists and neck warm.
3. Set your timer for your heating
4. Blow dry your hair before going outside
5. Layer, Layer, Layer (this is the most popular piece of advice I have been given)
6. Get from point A to point B as quickly as possible
7. Buy a personal space heater or have a cuddle buddy. *Preferable a Jacob vs Edward (Twilight reference).
8. Blow warm air under your covers with a blow dryer before getting in bed
9. Take warm coffee in a mug to work
10. Stay inside.

So, in my preparation to survive and taking from all of the advice I have received I figured I MUST do 3 things.

1. I must lose inches but gain body fat. Why must I lose inches? Well all this talk of wearing long underwear under my pants isn't going to happen unless I do so. The only thing fitting in my pants is myself.  I can barely put them on when I have lotion on and somehow I am supposed to put an EXTRA layer of cloth under? Not happening. Why must I fatten up? Fat is suppose to keep you warm, bears fatten up before winter, animals that live in the North Pole have very high body fat, larger people tend to get warmer quicker ext... well at a whopping 19percent body fat (thank you Korean food I am incredibly fit) my fat (or lack there of) won't be keeping me warm. Joke is on me, for once being fit is working against me.
2. I must give up my social life outside of my apartment walls.  One reason, heated flooring. Why should I leave the warmth of my floors for the outside world? The farthest I see myself traveling is next door, sorry neighbor you're stuck with me all winter.
3. I must find and download many seasons of many shows because I will be racking up my viewing hours. (Suggestions are welcome)

There is a positive to me experiencing my first winter, I finally get to put my Roca Wear puffy jacket circa 90's and early 00's rap music videos to use :). It even becomes a vest!

#CHEERS2SURVIVING.

**Despite what it sounds like, I very much love Korea and yes I have exaggerated a lot in this blog.

The end of week two

Above is the Google Map version of the area in which I live! To take a look just type in Sau-dong, Gimpo-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea in Google Maps.

It is hard to believe that it is already the end of my second week here in S.K. Time sure has flown by! As of now I still know nothing, where to eat, what to eat, how to order, I am pretty much handicapped if I want to eat something besides the 2 weeks of chicken and eggs I have at home but on a positive note, I have become more familiar with the area that surrounds my apartment, now I can venture beyond the supermarket, my gym and my apartment.  Since I am still phone-less I refuse to travel outside of my safe little city. Okay, well technically I am not phone-less, my recruiting agency, Korvia, provided me with a phone to use until I am able to obtain my own. The reason I say I am phone-less is because they gave me a phone from the early 90's. We all remember those slide up phones, where you have to text using your number pad and the ring tones are a various selection of popular songs from the 90's (mine is Celine Dion My Heart Will Go On) that are barely interpretable because they sound like they are recording of elementary school flute players.While I am extremely grateful for the free phone, I absolutely hate it. It has not only put in perspective the trouble my mom has when trying to learn how to do something new on her computer, as simple as it may be to me it pretty much is a foreign language to her (and most of her generation), it has also shown me how dependent I am on modern technology.  I feel so incapable of reprogramming my mind to use a phone that doesn't already think for itself already! What's the point in thinking when you have Siri?* When I got the phone it already had 10,000 KRW on it (a little less than 9 USD), I still haven't run out of time, just to show you how little I use it. It took me 5 WHOLE minutes (and I am not exaggerating) to send a text that was maybe 15 words long, where with my awesome iphone I could have typed a dissertation in that time and ALL 15 of those words were in capital letters because I have no idea how to take the caps off. So, I am phone-less and as for now I can just pray my ARC card comes soon so I can happily utilize and abuse my dependency on modern technology again.

#CHEERS2MODERNTECHNOLOGY

*Siri is the iphone's "intelligent personnel assistant." Basically Siri is the iphone if it were a person. You can ask her to do anything on your iphone and she will do it for you.

T-Day (Travel Day)

"The great courageous act that we must all do is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams."

-Oprah Winfrey

It has always been my dream to live abroad. The idea of it was always so intoxicating, being a foreigner in a completely new world, surrounded by a language I did not speak, living in an unfamiliar environment with new types of cuisine, hobbies, customs, religions ext.. and now it is finally happening, I leave tomorrow for my new life but it still hasn't hit me. I have shed a few tears saying goodbye to some of my friends and family but that glass shattering I am MOVING to Korea hasn't come yet, right now I feel as if I am taking another one of my world adventure trips. But none the least I am excited to see what Korea has for me. 

Until I settle in my new home,

#CHEERS2THEBEGINNING

One month away!

I am officially one month away from my departure to Korea!  All of my paper work is in and now I am just waiting for my VISA number :) Departure date is believed to be somewhere between August 29-31. I am sooo excited but the preparation for leaving is extremely tedious and stressful. How in the heck am I supposed to go through and select the most important items from 23 years of crap that I have managed to accumulate and get them to Korea? I have going through all of my athletic t-shits, sweatpants and sweatshirts but that is hardly a dent in all of the stuff I have. I wish I could just teleport everything because right now I can not imagine leaving any of my shoes (I have tons of shoes) behind or clothes (3 closets full) on top of the fact that I need to shop for "professional" clothes to teach in. Packing alone will be an adventure. Any advice on how I should pack? What I MUST bring vs. want to bring but won't really need? Help me out here PLEASEEE :)

#CHEERS2mylastmonth

getting TESOL certified

Last weekend was my first 2 classes (of 6) of my TESOL course and to say the least, I LOVE IT. First of all my professor is awesome. He is a big man who is full of personality! His love for teaching English pretty much OOOZES out of him as he teaches us. He is getting me very excited and anxious to begin :)! The material in the class interests me which is a first for school and I honestly am beginning to believe this is the job that I will wake up every morning excited to go to. Although I am on 1/3 of the way through my class, I feel that with this and my experience coaching, I will be more than prepared to tackle my own class room! Counting down the days:)

#CHEERS2mylastmonth

The beginning...

“I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.”- Beryl Markham, West with the Night

And this is exactly what I am doing. In less than a month I am leaving everything that I know and love and am moving to Gimpo, South Korea to teach English. As of now I am not sure how I feel. Living and teaching abroad has been something that I have wanted to do for many years but now that it is finally actually here I have become a ball of mixed emotions and those that know me know that I can be emotional. I am excited of course for the journey that I am about to pursue but at the same time I am terrified. Terrified to be alone, terrified to leave my home, terrified of what is to come. But then I am happy, how many people take this risk and uproot and move abroad, start over, immerse themselves in a new life?  But my happiness is accompanied with sadness, specifically sad because I am going to be with out those that I love the most, I will miss family gatherings, "beff-friend" bonding, my nephew learning to drive, my niece starting middle school, my mom taking down the corrupt employees of the  SUHSD, talking basketball with my dad, spending time with my sisters.. the list goes on and on... But I am going to do this, despite my fear and sadness I know that ultimately this is what I want most. 

#Cheers2NewBeginnings.