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Happy New Year! 새해 복 많이 받으세요!  It’s hard to believe that 2012 is already in its last hours (if you are in the USA, that is). Sometimes when you look back on a year you find yourself thinking, “I accomplished nothing.”   That’s never really true though, regardless of whether you reached your New Year’s resolution. Truthfully, I forget what my resolutions were last year. Or if I even made any, but either way this year was not without accomplishments and highlights.

This summer I had a chance to go to Paris for the first time in 15 years with my brother. It was an amazing trip and the city genuinely stunning; we stayed in a beautiful hotel in Saint Germain. I am still going to say that walking is the best way to see the city, we walked just about everywhere. Sure we got lost a few times, but sometimes getting a little lost is the best part of traveling.  Taken on our last night, the sunset on the Seine is one of the most gorgeous sights to see. The glass roof belongs to the Grand Palais.

I am the sort that needs to study a little everyday when learning a language. These are a couple awesome online sources that can help you practice and expand your vocabulary a bit. Memrise This site offers tons of languages, including Korean. The idea is that you have a 'garden' of words. You plant each word, harvest and water it. There are several courses to choose from at different levels. This site also requires you to type in Korean, so make sure you add the language to your computer. It's great for learning and memorizing new words rather than phrases or grammar. It is free. Here is a link to the Korean courses . The Korea Times Hangeul Flashcards These were created by the newspaper to help foreigners moving to Korea learn the language. They feature tons of everyday phrases, occupations, numbers, etc. There are also some relating to customs and food! Extremely handy, there are now over 600 of them. This tumblr is a good database of 1-632.

Kpop is continuing to gain popularity in the USA after PSY's "Gangnam Style." PSY's video remains the most viewed video on YouTube. The singer has made several appearance on popular TV shows including the "Today Show." PSY is not the first as South Korean companies and singers have hosted concerts over the past few years firmly giving Kpop a foot in the US market.

창덕궁과 후완 Changdeokgoong Palace and Huwon was built as a secondary palace in 1405 as a place for Kings to rest. The palace was burned down during the Japanese invasion after the royal family fled. In 1611 the palace was restored and as of 1997 is now a Unesco World Heritage site. Photo credit: KTO    What most caught my attention was the garden: The garden had formerly been called ‘Bukwon’ and ‘Geumwon,’ but was renamed ‘Biwon’ after King Kojong came into power. The garden was kept as natural as possible and was touched by human hands only when absolutely necessary. Buyongjeong, Buyongji, Juhabru, Eosumun, Yeonghwadang, Bullomun, Aeryeonjeong, and Yeongyeongdang are some of the many pavilions and fountains that occupy the garden. (KTO) The 300-year-old tree in the one garden also sounds pretty. Palaces are amongst my favourite places to go when traveling. As a former history major I can’t help but get excited at walking the same halls so...

I am the sort that loves cute things and places, so I cannot explain how excited I was when I realized that the 서울 어린이대공원 Seoul Children's Grand Park is only one stop away from 건국 . According to Google maps, it is entirely possible to walk there, should only take about 15 minutes. I'm always up for walking, so that sounds feasible to me! Image Credit: Seoul Children's Grand Park website From the Frommer's day by day guidebook: A huge complex, this family park includes hiking trails, a botanical garden, a zoo, a small amusement park with rides good for smaller children, and an outdoor stage. Over half of the area is green space, perfect for kids to run around. Obviously, I am not traveling with kids, nor am I a kid (debatable to some), but I love places like this. The trails, botanical garden, music fountain and zoo are what I most want to see. I love zoos, the last time I went to one was the Austin Zoo down in Texas around last Christmastime, I kinda want ...

With an official departure date and less than three months to go I decided to buy a couple of guidebooks for Seoul and South Korea. I have to admit my local Barnes & Noble had a very limited selection of guide books for South Korea. I was disappointed that my favourite DK Eyewitness Travel doesn't have one for either. I had their Paris guide when I went this summer, was amazing and extremely helpful. Seoul day by day - Frommer's South Korea - Insight Guides Living Abroad in South Korea - Jonathan Hopfner (Moon) Native Speaker by Chang-Rae This is a fictional novel that was recommended by the program I am going with. I figure I love to read and the summary captured me, so why not? One of their other recommendations was an amazing book (non-fiction), Still Life with Rice by Helie Lee. Description from the back of the book: Korean American Henry Park is "surreptitious, B+ student of life, illegal alien, emotional alien, Yellow peril: neo-American, st...