nail art, my way to relax.

A while back I briefly mentioned my nail art hobby, but haven't mentioned it or posted photos since. Now that I am in Korea I'm having a bit of a difficult time finding polishes that aren't too clumpy, and the lack of Seche Vite in the area has slowed me down. Luckily, I had a friend visit from the states recently and he brought over a replacement for the bottle of SV I had just finished, and I went to work on my nails! I know a lot of my friends judge me, or think it's crazy that I spend so much time on my nails but I see it as anything but a waste of time. I mean, it does take me anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to achieve the perfect look I want, but how is that different from wasting time on facebook or youtube? for me, painting my nails is a stress reliever and I look forward to the relaxing time I can spend  not thinking about anything except what color I want my nails to be! usually when I paint my nails I'm either listening to music, playing a movie or tv show in the background, and it's that sacred 'me time' I'm often in need of after a crazy day at work, or a busy weekend out in the city. I'm still nowhere near to being a very good nail artist, but for my purposes, I get the job done. Here are a few designs I've done since moving to Seoul. (p.s. I've decided that the next best thing to China Glaze or Essie can be found at Etude House). 

as of this post, the polish I'm currently wearing is the one with the flowers, and polkadots :)

Six months

Wow! cannot believe I'm now officially halfway through my first year in Korea! time has gone really fast, and I think that only serves as reinforcement of what a great time I'm having.. because I mean, if I were homesick or having a hard time then surely time would be creeping by, right? ;)
These last six months have definitely had their challenges, but I think I've made good decisions when it comes to the people I've surrounded myself with, so having them around whenever things have gotten difficult has definitely helped me get through.
Living in Seoul has been a complete change from what I grew up with back in rural USA, but despite my being a small town girl, I have found the city to be totally friendly and not as complicated to navigate as I thought. The locals are friendly, and there is always some event or festival going on, and new areas to explore.
Teaching is going well, my school is on a two week break at the moment, when it resumes in March it will officially be a brand new school year, and I will have brand new students. I found out I will be teaching grades 4, 5, and 6 this time around which means I'll only see each class once a week so I'll need to work extra hard to establish a connection with them and get them motivated to learn English. I'm really excited and a little bit nervous about what the next six months will bring but here's to hoping it's just as great as my first six months!

Seoul Music Awards

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to attend the 22nd Seoul Music Awards at Olympic Park. I heard of a contest that was giving away a pair of tickets to foreigners so my friend and I signed up and said whomever won would take the other. I didn't win, but my friend got a pair of third row tickets to the show! It was pretty great, aside from my trip to the Korean Music Festival in Los Angeles last year, this  has been my only other Kpop experience to date.  During the show they gave out awards for various categories like album of the year, song of the year, etc., and it was really sweet to see the performers go up on stage and be ever so humble. I think their humbleness despite the fact that they're super famous celebrities makes me like kpop even more. The awards ceremony itself felt a bit more like a concert because every 10 minutes it seemed like a different artist would take the stage and perform.
I saw my two favorites Big Bang & 2ne1 and definitely had a fangirl moment when they came on stage. Aside from Big Bang & 2ne1 some of the other groups who performed where: Sistar, Secret, BAP, Epik High Miss A, Super Junior, and Shinee. It was a great night! my friend and I enjoyed singing along, and screaming whenever our idols were on stage. I'm really fortunate to have been able to see Big Bang as I was unable to get tickets to their show when they performed in Seoul earlier this year. It was also really good for hearing new groups I normally would have not heard before. Epik High has been playing at the clubs for a while now, but I hadn't really paid attention before; now I'm a big fan of their music and have downloaded their albums.
Hopefully I will have the opportunity to go to more events like this. I guess it's pretty normal in Seoul for artists to perform during special festivals/events, I just need to stay on top of things and brave the crowds.

Focused on big bang during the opening ceremony