Reflection

Lucky for me, life hasn't always gone the way I planned it.
     Two years ago I was fresh out of school and had no intention of ever leaving the college town I had grown accustomed to. I planned on going full-time at the company I was interning with, getting my own apartment, and spending all of my free time laughing at bad jokes with the boy I loved. Life was good that summer, and I thought I had it made in the shade. Then came Fall, and like the color of the leaves, everything began to change; I never got that promotion so I settled for the first job that came my way, my apartment never became home, and the boy broke my heart.
That winter I packed everything that could fit into my car and headed to Florida. I've always heard the saying that whenever you've got nowhere to go, just head south until you hit the ocean & that's more or less what I did. My first two weeks in Orlando were the saddest and loneliest days I've ever experienced. I didn't have a job, and the one person I knew there was already too busy with her own life.
     Coming from a small town in Arkansas I was intimidated by everything in Orlando, even driving to the grocery store became a big ordeal. Soon though, those weeks of crying alone in my room, and questioning wether I had done the right thing or not came to an end when I finally got a job offer. This job offer was by no means my dream job, but I was eager to start working again and quickly said yes. Once I started my job everything changed and I started meeting people and going out and experiencing all sorts of challenging and fun things.
     My time in Orlando only lasted 11 months, but in that short time I learned more about myself than I had in the last 23 years. I made some great friendships that I hope to carry with me for many years to come, and most importantly I challenged myself and thrived in the face of adversity.
This is how I now find myself on the verge of starting another life changing journey. In less than two months I will be making my way to another continent, starting a new job, and immersing myself in a culture completely different than what I'm used to. I'm going into this experience with the clear understanding that tough times are definitely ahead, but with everything, the most important thing I need to remind myself of is to keep the faith, and always look ahead to the brighter future.
     I have given up on trying to plan out every detail of my life, as the best memories I have are the ones I unknowingly stumbled upon. To the people in Florida who befriended me, and treated me as if I were part of your own family, thank you for saving me and giving me a chance. To everyone else, thank you for reading and taking this journey with me. Wherever I go, I'll take a memory of you and hope to become somebody you can look back on and be glad to have met.

My travel wish-list: SE Asia edition

My life-long dream has always been to travel the world. I've filled up several notebooks with doodles and make believe schedules I would one day follow when on my travels. However, no matter how much planning I did life always took me in another direction. It wasn't until I found out I had been accepted into EPIK that I began to allow myself to think that maybe, just maybe, my travel scrapbook would actually be put to use. I'm sure the list will expand the longer I stay in SK, but as of now in no particular order, here is the list of places I absolutely must visit before returning to the states (all photos unless otherwise stated are courtesy of the Lonely Planet).

Tiptop Island, Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

"According to local legend, when Vietnamese had just started to develop into a country, they had to fight against invaders. To assist Vietnamese in defending their country, the gods sent a family of dragons as protectors. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Under magics, numerous rock mountains abruptly appeared on the sea, ahead of invaders' ships. After winning the battle, the dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth, and then decided to live in this bay."

Sunrise silhouette of Angkor Wat through trees

Angkor, Cambodia- "Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument."

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Twin Petronas Towers are the equivalent to 95 stories each

"KL to its friends – is more than just a capital city: it is a monument to Malaysian ingenuity and determination. From humble beginnings as a tin-mining shanty town, KL has evolved into a 21st-century metropolis, dominated by the tallest skyscrapers in Southeast Asia and flush with the proceeds of international trade and commerce. The marketing slogan for the Malaysian tourist board is ‘truly Asia’ and nowhere is this more true than in the capital. KL is every inch the Asian cyber-city: historic temples and mosques rub shoulders with space-age towers and shopping malls; traders’ stalls are piled high with pungent durians and counterfeit DVDs; and locals sip cappuccino in wi-fi–enabled coffee hops or feast at bustling streetside hawker stalls serving food from across the continent."

Tapplia Waterfalls- Batad, Ifugao, Philippines

The Philippines
"First and foremost, the Philippines is a place of natural wonders – a string of coral-fringed islands strewn across a vast expanse of the western Pacific. Below sea level, the Philippines boasts some of the world’s best diving and snorkelling, including wreck diving around Coron and swimming with the whale sharks off Donsol. Above sea level, it has a fantastic landscape with wonders enough to stagger even the most jaded traveller: the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, Banaue & the Rice Terraces and fascinating reminders of the islands’ history in places such as Samar & Leyte and Vigan. And if you’re after palm-fringed, white-sand beaches, try laidback Sipalay or flat-out party town Boracay."

Bangkok street markets at night

Bangkok, Thailand "Bangkok is excess in all of its unrestrained glory. Bigger, better, more: the city is insatiable, a monster that feeds on concrete, shopping malls and diesel exhaust. The city demands that you be in the present and in the moment, not necessarily for a religious epiphany, but because the city is self-absorbed and superficial, blissfully free of wrinkle-inducing self-reflection."

hello, goodbye

Life is a never ending circle of goodbyes, at least thats what it feels like to me. Throughout my 23 years of life I have been pretty blessed with the people that I have been able to meet, and the friendships that have developed from those encounters. However, without fail, after a few years life has always taken us on different paths causing us to say goodbye and move on to the next stage. I've heard several times that if somebody is really meant to be in your life, you will find a way to keep in touch regardless of distance; I find that to be true only to some extent. In college I was able to meet people from all over the world and spent day in and day out with them for four years. Then, graduation day came around and those friends had to go back to their own countries and I was forced to say goodbye. I moved to Florida and was very lonely for the first weeks until I met people whom I share the same interests with and I no longer felt homesick, then my time in Florida came to an end and I again had to bid my friends goodbye. This has been the common occurrence in my life, and because of that, I've really grown to cherish and appreciate the time I spend with people I care for. Goodbyes are still hard for me no matter how often I've had to go through them, but accepting the fact that they've become an inevitable part of my life makes it a little bit easier.

The month of May was really slow for me, hence the lack of posts. I've now completed my 100 hr TEFL, received my certificate and forward it on to EPIK. The certificate wast he last piece of the puzzle in my application, and after a long month without any updates, yesterday morning I woke up to a really terrific email: I have been accepted! I have been placed in Seoul due to start this Fall (now the goodbye post makes sense, eh?) I will not receive an official contract or be able to purchase my ticket for another month, so it stills feel a little unreal. I started this process in January, so it's hard to think that now it's all over for the most part, and I have no more papers to collect, or emails to send. I am definitely not looking forward to saying my goodbyes all over again, but hopefully there will be many great new people to whom to say hello to.

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On a side note, I'm thinking I would like to change the title of this blog. It's currently set to "daisy says" simply because I could not think of anything else at the moment. Now that I know I'll be placed in Seoul, I can't help but think up cheesy/over used titles like: Finding My Seoul Mate, Heart & Seoul, Hey Seoul Sister, My Heart in Seoul, Seoul Searching (my fave), etc, etc. Suggestions greatly appreciated! I would like to make the change before I depart :)

cooking woes

I think I like the idea of cooking more than I like cooking itself. I love browsing the internet looking through cooking tutorials, or flipping through cook books planning out the perfect meal in my head. I'm a bit of a clean freak (which I get from my mother), I can't stand for the kitchen to be messy, or for the sink to have any dirty dishes in it. So in the end, I end up stressed out and worrying about having to clean every 5 minutes instead of actually focusing on the food.

Tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet) 

A couple of days ago, however, I discovered Kfoodaddict and I was inspired to make something from one of the posts; I settled on one called Mussamali, which is an assortment of veggies and meat wrapped in tasty pickled radish. Sounds simple enough, eh? I thought so too. Right until I realized that given the fact that I live in a town of about 5k people with an almost nonexistent asian population, finding said wraps would be a nightmare. So, I decided I would go ahead and make the wraps myself. How hard could it be to pickle sliced radish? After work I proceeded to hit up every grocery store on the search for white radish/daikon, only be disappointed. All three (yes, there are only three) grocery stores in town do not carry white radish! And so, I came back home and decided to cook up a quick snack to cheer myself up. I ended up making tamagoyaki, and albeit tasty, it was not what my taste buds had been yearning for. I came across an online store that carries pickled white radish, and I am tempted to order it, however as desperate as I am about trying Mussamali, I am not 100% sold on the idea of ordering food online. 

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EPIK update: final documents have arrived in Seoul! got confirmation from my coordinator that everything is in order, and I am now just to play the waiting game a little bit longer until I find out for sure if I'll be receiving a notice of appointment. It's relieving in a way because all of the long and grueling paperwork is out of the way until it comes time to apply for the visa, but I am not known for being the most patient person, so going almost two months without hearing anything back is killer. I currently have about 25 hours left of the online TEFL to complete, and it is driving me utterly insane! As soon as I think I'm making progress I get stumped on something and cannot move forward. I have until May 10th to complete otherwise I'll have to pay about 75$ to extend it for 30 days; today is May 5 so I have roughly 4.5 days to finish. I hope I can do it because I definitely do not have the funds at the moment. I wish I could take time off from my full time job until I finish. 

KMF10

I'm currently at the airport waiting on  my flight back home from a weekend getaway to Los Angeles for the 10th annual Korean Music Festival (some people refer to it as KMF10 because it's the tenth year, but I've also heard KMF12 for the year 2012); it was such a great experience & I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to attend such a great event! The trip to L.A. itself was a bit questionable as I hit a bump on the road with the company I had, but still I enjoyed myself. Aside from attending KMF, the second highlight of the trip was meeting up with a childhood friend whom I had not seen since we were in 4th grade! We kept in touch trough Facebook every once in a while, so it was really excited to see her again. While in L.A. I did the typical sightseeing at the Hollywood walk of fame, & window shopping on Melrose Avenue. I also ate a lot, I mean I ate a LOT of really delicious food! We went to Koreatown a couple of times where the best part was an all you can eat kbbq place my friend recommended. We were there for almost three hours & the waiter just kept the meet coming. Wow. Being in Koreatown & attending KMF gave me a sense of what it would be like to live in Sk if I'm accepted into EPIK. All of the signs where in hangul, and I couldn't understand 95% of what was being said around me. It was all very exciting though and not as intimidating as I imagined. Everyone was impressed with what little Korean I do speak (which honestly, only consists of 1 or 2 phrases I picked up from watching too many kdramas).  The festival itself was mostly in Korean as well. Before going I was a little disappointed in the line up as there were only two artists I recognized, but at the end of the night I came out a fan of everyone who performed. It was my first time hearing of Bobby Kim and G.O.D. and now I keep going on YouTube to hear their songs. I hope I have other opportunities to attend events like this, be it in the stated or abroad.

 --- EPIK update: I passed my skype interview!!! As mentioned before, I was scheduled for a Skype interview on a Monday, it lasted for about 30 minutes and three days later I woke up to an email saying I had passed and could now forward original documents to the Seoul office.  All of this happened about three weeks ago, but I've been waiting for final apostilles to come in, so I wasn't able to post my package until this past Thursday before I went to the airport. I tracked it like crazy this weekend, and last night I got notice that it had been received by my coordinator; thumbs up FedEx for being so fast!! In a couple of days my coordinator will look over my documents and verify that everything is correct. If not I'll have to resubmit, but hopefully that's not the case as it cost me $70 usd for shipping. Once she verifies my documents and forward them on to the office of education, whom will ultimately make the final decision if I'm placed at a school or not. So, basically I'm done with the paperwork and now I continue the wait.  The only EPIK related task I have yet to finish is the awful 100 hour TEFL course I'm taking. It's so tedious and time consuming, luckily I've already completed 70 hours and hope to complete the remaining 30 by this weekend so I don't have to pay extra to extend the course.  And that's the last week of my life in a nutshell. Tomorrow it's back to early mornings and full days of work for me. p.s. please forgive any spelling/grammar mistakes in this post. typing on an iPhone from a busy airport is not my forte.

I love the 90s

I've always felt like maybe I was born in the wrong decade. I'm enamored by the clean, sleek style of the 50s, and I'm a sucker for 60s car models. Lately though, I've really noticed that I'm more drawn to the 90s more so than any other decade; my favorite music, movies, and memories come from that time period. A couple of days ago I was watching tv with my 12 year old sister when a commercial featuring David Beckham came on, I commented on what a cute couple him and Posh made together. My sister starred, and asked "who is Posh?", I was a little taken back by that and I told her, "Posh, you know, the girl with the sleek hair bob from the Spice Girls" and that's when it hit me, my sister has never heard of the Spice Girls! She can tell you every song lyric to Drake or Lil Wayne, but is at a complete loss when you bring up spice up your life. So, now I am on a mission to educate my sister on the wonders of 90s pop culture. We will begin by watching the Spice Girls movie, then I'll slowly ease in to a few other of my favorites.

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A short update on my EPIK (English Program in Korea) status: I had my interview on a Monday evening, and Wednesday morning I woke up to an email telling me I had passed and was now free to mail in remaining documents! So two hurdles down, hopefully only a few more to go before I find out if I'm placed or not. Currently the only document I am missing is my apostilled Diploma, but hopefully that should be in next week, and I'll be able to submit final documents to my EPIK coordinator within the first two weeks of May. 

Easter.

Spring is here! actually, it's feeling more like "sprummer" lately with temperatures ranging in the high 80's! makes me wonder how brutal summer will be. As of late, I've developed a new hobby of painting my nails! I have racked up quite the collection of polishes, and I love browsing the net for new ideas. Last night I pulled out my favorite spring-ish colors and went to town putting little "easter eggs" all over my nails. I'm far from being a professional nail artist, but being as how I'm doing it for my own entertainment, I think I'm quite alright :)

Spring is my second favorite season (first favorite is Autumn, due to my favorite color being orange & favorite holiday being Halloween), I love seeing all of the pretty flowers start to bloom! my neighbors probably think I'm strange because I keep going outside and taking pictures of the flowers & trees, but I just can't let their beauty go unnoticed! I mentioned in my previous post that I am interested in teaching abroad through a program called EPIK, and I've got an update on that. I submitted my initial application with two letters of recommendation last Sunday, and a couple of days later I received an email stating that I had made it on to the interview process! My interview is scheduled for tomorrow evening, and if all goes well, I'll be asked to resubmit my application with additional government issued documents and go from there. There are probably a few thousand applicants and only 400 positions available so getting an interview in and of itself is pretty great. I hope it goes well!