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It seems I never posted these photos last year, and since I'm missing proper autumn, I figured I would post a few of them now. These were taken roughly a year ago when I took a friend for her first (my third!) trip to Gyeongbokgung. I love walking around the palace, and the colours were stunning.

Although I lived and worked in the Bundang area of Seongnam, I spent relatively little time there on the weekends. Generally I made the trek into Seoul for at least half the weekend. In my last month one of my friends convinced me to go visit a park a couple stops away in Seohyun. It didn't disappoint! The weather was really cloudy, but the rain held and we were able to chill. This last photo is from a different, equally cloudy, day. It's actually the view from my apartment window.

Most of the peacocks were up in the trees Yesterday my family decided to go to our favourite special occasion restuarant in Austin, Green Pastures. I love the historic home it's in, and the food is always delicious. Although, I think I've always ordered to tofu and roasted veggies as my entree. It's just so tasty, I don't want to deviate. Above all, possibly my favourite part of going there is the peacocks that live on the property. Those birds seem to have run of the whole neighbourhood, too. You can see them on the neighbour's lawns when they wander off property. June marks a lot of new starts for me, which I'm excited for. Most of May has been spent getting my feet on the ground here. Somehow, the move here has been harder than I thought. Thinking on it, I've probably had reverse culture shock . I experienced it when I returned after four months, so it should come as no surprise it happened after eight. Also, Austin feels like a much larger jump bac...

Sunset after a storm is gorgeous, though. I seem to be a curse whenever I come to Austin. The city experiences just the absolute worst weather when I'm here. In the winter I always manage to arrive just as the temperature dramatically drops. It also rains just about every time I come here. Since I arrived at the start of May, it has rained most days over the past few weeks. Just this past weekend there were tornado warnings for hours throughout the various counties with several touching down. There was major flooding, including downtown Austin. It's crazy, really. My friends and family say I brought this weather and really should not move here. I swear I am not the "Elsa of rain," I can't make it rain. That's ridiculous, but I do feel Austin and I have an unlucky relationship when it comes to weather.

These photos are indeed from back in the first couple weeks of April. We somehow ended up there the week before the festival. It was a cloudy day, just like the rest of that week. Nonetheless, the blossoms were gorgeous, and the crowds weren't bad (a bonus to missing the festival, I suppose).  At the park we noticed all of these groups of trees that were labeled "Memorial Trees." I honestly thought it was going to be something sad, or serious. I knew that the anniversary of the Sewol tragedy was coming up soon, too. I could not have been more wrong. They were all for Kpop idol groups! Each group had their own section and sign, then each tree had a tag for whose it was. SNSD Seohyun's tree I do remember, based on the colour, that this was a TVXQ tree. So, it's either Yunho's or Changmin's tree. View across the river from the memorial trees' area Back to the cherry blossoms It's hard to capture how pretty i...

It's finally starting to look and feel like spring in Korea. I am thrilled! My next few posts will probably all be cherry blossoms. No guarantees, but do expect at least one or two. I went with a friend to Yeouido yesterday and those photos will be my next post. I just need to finish editing them. It was cloudy and even rained later in the day, but it was still gorgeous. This one didn't really match with the pinks and whites of the cherry blossoms, but these yellow flowers are also everywhere right now.

It's been almost two months since I last blogged anything. So far, I'm not doing that great on my resolution to blog more, am I? Life is incredibly unpredictable, which brings me to my next topic. I have a little less than two months until I leave Korea. It's both sad and exciting, as all major changes are. And some fun updates... Dracula's Lounge is an awesome Romanian restaurant in Seoul that you should 100% check out. Delicious food, great atmosphere, all-in-all excellent. I went with friends and a Meetup group for Valentine's Day dinner. How awesome are the handmade mugs? Mine's expression was a bit "ugh," but my friend's just looked insane. Also how cute is that dessert? I went skating for the first time in ages. It was not as big a disaster as I thought it would be. I didn't fall once, and therefore feel very accomplished. It doesn't matter that I spent the entire time no more than two feet from the wall. Besides, I was nev...

I've always done better when I have a schedule, it keeps me organized and productive. So, naturally I've decided to apply that to writing/blogging, too. I'm always optimistic, which means I'm thinking this will work. Anyway, I've been absent from here quite a bit over the past few months. I actually had photos and posts I meant to write, but are now untimely. So, instead here's a brief look at some random moments. Admittedly taken from my Instagram, in reverse chronological order (newest -> oldest) 1. My brother came to visit for Christmas and the week after, which I had off. We went to Lotte World to walk around one day. It was my first time going, it's what it is. Not Disney World, but fun. 2. Tree at AK Plaza in Seohyun. I love Christmas decorations, and this one was gorgeous. 3. I went to the Lantern Festival at Cheongyecheon. It was a fail trip, but a fun one. 4. Some of my kids were sweet enough to give me goodies on Pepero Day. 5,6....

It's been almost a month since I arrived in Korea and started working. I had the most insane first week. Looking back on it I can laugh, but at the time I cried. Long story short, the school was put into a difficult situation when a teacher left suddenly. The result was that I had to start the morning after 24 hours worth of straight travel (during which I only had about two hours worth of broken sleep). The level of pure exhaustion was unreal. In some ways it might have been good, I was numb from lack of sleep and jet lag. I couldn't feel nervous, or anything else, really. The third day in this state was the worst, and I cried at work. Not my ideal situation. Luckily, my co-workers, foreign and Korean, are all awesome people. They helped me so much more than I can express. My director is very nice, too. She even had a cleaning service come to the apartment (that's for another day). So, despite the rocky start, I never doubted that this is a hagwon that treats its teach...

After my experience as a student in Korea, I knew that I wanted to go back and teach English after graduation. It was an idea I already had in mind, but being there shifted the idea into a plan. I am so excited to be going back NEXT WEEK! Soon, eh? I didn't want to post anything until everything was confirmed. I've been under contract with the school since the start of April. Getting all of the documents for the visa together was a lengthy and stressful process (mostly due to my university), but I can happily say that I now have my visa and am already to go! I won't be in Seoul this time, but I won't be far either. I wanted to try living somewhere new, but still close enough to hop on the metro to visit friends and familiar places.

Last week we experienced the first signs of spring. It always starts the same way here in NJ, you get a couple of nice days surrounded by frigid ones. However, those two or three days are all that's needed to give a little hope that we will exit the days of 20-something degree weather. A friend and I decided that nice weather meant we should be outside. Initially we planned a trip to a local park, but it was closed. Being the determined type, we decided to drive and chat until we could come up with an alternative plan. That alternative was going out to a trail on the NJ-PA border of the Delaware River. This was not our intention, and it showed. Neither of us was dressed to go hiking, and we were both wearing full make-up. The path was either still slick ice, or mud. So, we pretty much walked a little, sat down on a fallen tree to chat and just enjoy being outside. If there's one thing I've learned over the past couple years, it's that spontaneity can sometimes...

I previously shared photos of Konkuk's campus and the KU:L House dorms , and today I have the final post of photos from Kondae. These are just a few of the general area around the school and places we used to go all the time. Leaving the dorms you have two options, this is sort of the "back roads" way. My friend and I joked we were stalking those girls, and I had a camera. So yes, I felt a bit like a creep. Delivery dudes don't give a s***t about pedestrians, road rules. Entrance to campus. By the way, I know the guy in the picture. He was a running joke for us, because I was told he was a "free man." I never remembered his name, but he would greet me around campus, and I would just think, "it's the free man." Walking past the hospital to the metro station. Lotte Department Store, across the street from Kondae. Star City- the movie theatre is in here, emart, several restaurants, cafes and shops. I doubt a week went ...

I left the last post with a photo of the forest path that leads to the dorms, so here I'm going to pick up the tour with the dorms! Living in the dorms at Kondae is a bit different than living in dorms in the States. The rules are definitely stricter than my own school's (although the commonality is no alcohol!). Here's a few: Boys and girls are kept secret and cannot enter each other's halls  No guests!  You have to scan your card to get in and out of the building.  Somewhat enforced curfew (which I broke a couple times)  Point system - you get points when you break a rule. I only remember that breaking curfew was two. If you are only staying for one semester, these don't affect you. So you can kinda collect as many as you wish. If you are going back, these can get you kicked out of the dorm in the next semester. The dorm area, when the weather's nice there is always people sitting outside or wandering about. The dorm cafeteria, open for breakf...