Korea Is a Dream

There’s delicious food everywhere, and culture and history galore which is certainly a dream come true for me 😀  I love being able to find new food in every other building; most of which is scrum-dilly-umptious! If I’m feeling lazy, I don’t even have to leave my building for tasty goodness.  The fact that I can walk or take a short bus ride to sites that are hundreds of years old and kept the same as in their bygone era is marvelous!  I love walking through history and learning about the culture.  Koreans are generally very helpful, kind people which makes being a foreigner easier and less stressful 🙂  In some ways, it’s all so easy.

Chocolate Toast and Strawberry Bingsu with Cheesecake

Despite everything above, when I say South Korea is a dream, living here is much more like trying to remember a dream after you’ve woken up.  The visuals are usually pretty clear, but the exact words anyone spoke are vague at best.  This is how I feel whenever I interact with a native Korean speaker who doesn’t speak English.  Most (as in 99.9%) of Korean is gibberish to my ears and in my mind, so I never know what I’m being told.

As in remembering a dream, there are often a couple pictures that stick out, crystal clear.  Even those visuals sometimes have murky and unclear pieces though.  Since so much is written in Hangul, I can’t quickly and easily read anything, so all the writing I try to remember is fuzzy.  At least when Korean words have been Romanized, I can remember them with some semblance of clarity.  This is the only reason I know any street names around here and bus stops, and subway stops for that matter.

Thus, more accurately, being in Korea is like trying to remember a dream after waking up.  The most dreamlike aspect is how great my students are 🙂  I love them all, even the ones who need extra help and are “bad” students.

Flag at Hwaseong with Kites

“Cut away every safety net, Live your life so you won’t regret the road” -We Are Giants by Lindsey Stirling and Dia Frampton

Me Mum is Thee Best

I know some awesome moms, but no one beats my mom.  This woman rocks and I can’t thank her enough for everything she did for me during my last week in the States.  She has done so much to solve my petty and, often times avoidable, problems.  To the point, I literally wouldn’t be where I am right now (as I write this or post it).
Where I was while writing is a plane en route to Incheon via Chicago.  I may have done the upfront work to get myself here, but my mom has been in the background helping make sure everything fell into place since I signed my contact in December.

She’s helped with all the logistics of moving from paying for the truck and its gas (as well as the gas in her car) to reminding me to find moving help to packing and keeping me on track while packing.  I’ve never neither had so much help packing nor needed so much help packing.  This has proved a monumental task which I wasn’t completely up to on my own.

My mom arrived the evening before I moved out of my apartment in Milwaukee.  I still wasn’t done packing, despite starting the process five weeks earlier.  This is what happens when one tries to work full-time, see a city of friends, and pack.  She didn’t seem surprised, but after returning from seeing a movie with a friend, she helped in whatever way she could.  I appreciated the help then; and I appreciate it even more after my final 24 hours Stateside.

I have never been so burnt out.  Packing a year’s worth of clothes into two checked suitcases and a carry on (despite the size of my carry on) is ridiculously difficult.  While I had all my clothes in these three bags when I left Milwaukee, I neglected to pack any shoes and toiletries.  I unpacked everything a couple days after returning to my hometown with the intention of repacking it shortly thereafter.  However, shortly thereafter turned into the night I was due to leave.

At 9:30pm (five hours before my mom and I were due to leave for the airport), I was sitting at the kitchen table, looked at my mom, and asked if she’d come back to Grandma’s with me to help me finish packing.  I’d like to think she said ‘yes’ simply because I managed to ask for help and not because I was on the verge of tears…the first of many times in the coming hours.  Like six days previous, she was awake with me at the wee hours of the morning, helping the best she could.  She created another backup of the files on my laptop, folded freshly laundered clothes, and filled my travel toiletry bottles—a couple hours worth of work.  Even if I hadn’t needed her help with the former, I certainly needed the moral support and motivation to keep packing.  I kept wanting to cry in frustration and exhaustion; Mom wouldn’t let me.  She kept telling me to keep going and to push through.  I couldn’t fail.  Not in front of her.  Not when she’d done so much to ensure I got what I wanted.

If my failure at packing in a timely manner wasn’t bad enough, at a crucial time I also temporarily forgot where I put the car key.  (I’m seriously cursed when it comes to car keys; I have this nasty habit of putting them places where they become irretrievable for a time.) My mom was putting my winter coat into my suitcase—per my frustrated, teary eyed request—and asked if there was anything in my pockets.  I rarely keep anything in my winter coat pockets, so I promptly responded, “No.”  Wrong answer!  Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem; we’d simply open the suitcase up and remove the key from said pocket.  It was Friday the 13^th though, so retrieving the key wasn’t so easy.  The zipper got stuck and the clock was pushing 3:30am.  Ergo, we DID NOT have time for this.  After several minutes, the persistent threat of tears, and the power of teamwork, we succeeded.

Beth messes up yet again (with a car key no less), and Mom saves the day because apparently at 23-years-old, I’m still not to be trusted with a car key if the vehicle’s owner is around.

As previously mentioned, this fiasco with the car key happened just before 3:30am.  I wanted to leave closer to 2am or 2:30am.  3am was the latest I wanted to leave my hometown because my flight left at 5:50am and the drive to the airport is an hour and a half.  Departing at 3:30am left me very little spare time before my flight.  My mom, being the rock star mom she is, got me to the airport with almost an hour to spare, helped me check in my luggage, and saw me to security.

As I said before, “I literally wouldn’t be where I am right now” if it weren’t for her.

Everything above still doesn’t include my mom giving me free-reign to her car for almost a week, so I could come and go as needed and run all my errands; the fact that she scheduled my dentist appointment for me; that she’s willing to front the costs to ship me stuff that wouldn’t fit in my suitcases; and a dozen other things.

As I’ve hopefully and clearly illustrated above, if it weren’t for my mom being the fantastic, supportive person she is, I’m not sure how I would have completed all my packing and done everything that needed to be done in order for me to make it to South Korea.  Even now that I’m in South Korea, she’s still being phenomenal by staying up late to track my flight until I landed and taking care of the leftover financial things in the States (taxes, final paycheck, etc).

I can’t thank my mom enough for everything she’s done.  She knows how much it means to me to live abroad and she’s done more than her share to ensure that dream became a reality.

Old and New Meet Nature Throughout South Korea

Reasons Why I Love Leggings

First off, some people have very strong, negative opinions about leggings and I encourage these people to read this blog as an insight into why leggings rock my socks.  Leggings are easily my favorite article of clothing and probably the only one I can’t live without (denim short shorts are barely beaten out though).  And here’s why 🙂

1. Comfortable. I’ve always chosen my clothes based on comfort, not fashion.  Cotton leggings are comfortable enough I could live in them, so they’re frequently a logical choice for me.  Leggings are honestly so comfy; wearing them for a whole day—whether sitting or standing—is easy.  They’re even comfy enough to sleep in!
2. Year-Round Wear. Leggings are light enough to wear during cool summer days (otherwise there are capris length leggings), most spring and fall days, and even during the winter.  While sometimes this requires wearing a pair of tights under said leggings (Wisconsin winters are chilly), I have worn leggings on numerous occasions in the middle of winter.  Since I’m writing this post, I’ve obviously lived to tell my tales 🙂
3. Range of Motion. This goes a long with Comfortable, but leggings are stretchy enough to move with me; and since they’re made of cotton, they easily shift across my skin.  They’re almost like a second skin because I don’t usually have to pull them up in order to sit down—like I do jeans—and upon standing up, I don’t always have to pull them down into place—like I do jeans.  Jeans are just inferior.
4. Wear Everywhere. I can wear leggings literally every place.  I can dress them up to wear to work or dress them down to hang with friends.  I can even work out and (as previously mentioned) sleep in leggings.  It’s a win-win.
5. Wear with Everything. Similarly leggings can be worn with any conceivable top: a hoodie, a dress, a tunic, and even a t-shirt.  (I acknowledge that perhaps not everyone should pair a t-shirt with leggings though.)  Any footwear can also be worn with leggings and still manage to look good, including crocs which—let’s admit—is a huge feat.
6. Do Anything in Them. In part because they allow for a wide range of motion, I can wear leggings and do any activity I please in them.  (Granted I can do this in most articles of clothing…)  I can climb a tree, ride my bike, go to work, dance, or sleep in leggings, among other activities except shower.  I wouldn’t recommend showering in leggings; nope, nope.
7. Match Everything. Maybe it’s just me, but the vast majority of my leggings are black (and grey), so they match everything else.  This makes getting dressed a lot simpler and I happen to like simple.  This is why I own as many leggings as I do jeans…if not more leggings.
8. Lookin’ Good. (Warning: A vain moment approaches.)  Personally, leggings just look great on me, thus I look great in leggings and who doesn’t love when their clothes look rockin’ on their bod 😛

So basically, I can do whatever I want whenever I want, be comfortable (and kinda lazy), while looking good doing it…if I wear leggings 😀

11 Pairs of Leggings + a pair of shorts 🙂

Reasons Why I Love My Mummy

Moms are superhuman considering everything they do and how little appreciation they’re shown.  For as much as I love and admire my mom, I still don’t show her the appreciation she deserves.  Thus in honor of Mother’s Day (and all the headache/heartache I’ve put my mother through), I decided to publicly pay tribute to my mum by listing 10 of the reasons why I am eternally grateful to have her as my mama.  These are also reasons why I’ll forever love her, despite sometimes having our differences.

1. She’s My Biggest Supporter.  Who else would spend every soccer season for a decade and a half sitting in the wind, heat, and the sunshine, thunderstorms and even flurries watching me play soccer.  In all seriousness though, regardless of the decision (including those with which she didn’t necessarily agree), my mom supported me.
2. She Spoiled Me.  At a very young age, my mom frequently read to me; she instilled a love of books that I still have today and I became spoiled through that love of literature by always having somewhere incredible to venture off to.  She also spoiled me by moving to district with good schools, so I was privileged to a great education and a wealth of opportunities.  I played a variety of sports, took classes during the summer, had a playground nearby that provided endless entertainment, and participated in an array of stimulating school clubs.
3. She Provides Financial Support.  She, of course, paid for all my childhood activities, always bought me new soccer cleats when I needed them, paid my activity fees, bought me clothes, food, toys, books, etc, but she also helped me out during college.  I grew up under the impression that college would be my financial burden to bear alone; however, being such a big supporter, she helped provide the money to achieve my dreams and goals, specifically studying abroad and graduating early.  Gracias, Madre!
4. She Taught Me Life Skills.  As most moms do, she taught me to be responsible for myself and my actions, to look out for others, to cook, to be polite, to pick up after myself, etc.  Albeit some of her other lessons were a bit unorthodox, such as allowing me to quit swimming lessons at age 8.  Considering this is one of the only things I’ve ever quit, I learned that nothing good comes from quitting and that I needed to preserve through challenges; this lesson wouldn’t have sunk in nearly as well simply be telling me or by not allowing me to quit.
5. She Understands Me.  Unfortunately, I will forever make mistakes, some bigger than others and some with worse consequences than others.  None of this matters to my mom though; she understands that making mistakes tends to be the best way for me to learn my lesson and is part of living life.  She also understands how I think; with one sentence she can make me realize I’ve been lying to myself about a situation or another sentence can take an everyday compliment and make it sound extraordinary, leaving me beaming 🙂
6. She Gave Me My Skinny Body.  I’m aware this sounds vain: I love my skinny, athletic body.  I wouldn’t trade it for any other body type and I know my mom had a similar body type (before her love of chocolate combined with a desk job and slowing metabolism betrayed her).  Despite this, I always take the sentence “you look like your mom” as a compliment.
7. She Gave Me My Best Qualities.  My mother is a strong-willed, hardworking, independent, caring woman.  I admire her for those qualities; I also thank her for passing them along to me.  Coincidentally, these happen to be some of my favorite qualities and the ones that helped me accomplish as much as I have thus far in my life.  Merci, Maman!
8. She Has Faith in Me.  And she sees qualities in me that I don’t necessarily see in myself.  For example, I’ve never considered myself an overly persuasive or motivating person; my mom believes differently.  She also trusts my judgment and professional abilities more than I do.
9. She Allows Me to Be Me.  My mom never pressured me to change who I was or to behave differently.  She let me climb trees in a dress and be the aggressive girl who pushed the boys around on the soccer field.  She also never forced me complete my homework on-time or guilted me for my mistakes.  My mom allowed me to grow up as I was with my outgoing, free-spirit and to have an equal say in what I did and who I wanted to be.  Yes, she’d advise me to listen to my teachers and raise my hand during class, but she never forced me to listen.
10. She Has Always Loved Me Unconditionally.  I’m thankful my mom and I never went through the “I hate you” stage.  This isn’t to say my teen years (high school especially) weren’t a rough patch for our relationship, but she always loved me and was always there when I needed her.  Even when I didn’t deserve her love and attention, I still received it without asking.  Her loving acts still make me cry, especially when those acts include forgiving my mistakes or looking past them :’)

Thank you, Mommy, for everything you’ve done for me.  I know it hasn’t been easy raising me, but thanks for hanging in there and making the most out of the given circumstances.  I don’t know what I’d do without you or who I’d be if it weren’t for you.  I love you!!!

I Love You, Mommy!!!

Une Vie Différente

“Life isn’t about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself.” –George Bernard Shaw

Another post inspired by French class, but this time, the post will be much more than a simple translation of my writing.  One option for my most recent composition was what would be different about your life if you had attended a different university.  This was a much more challenging prompt to address than most because attending UW-Milwaukee has been extremely influential in who I’ve become.  The list of potential differences wasn’t going to fit on one page (the length requirement) which is why this post will be an elaboration of the actual assignment.

My other option (at the time), if I didn’t attend UWM, was UW-Madison.  I’m skeptical if I’d have liked Madison enough to complete my degree though.  It’s not that I have anything against Madison, just that I don’t think it would have been a good fit me personally.  There were numerous differences regarding the campus culture that I discovered when touring; I’m sure I’d have found several more if I actually studied and lived in Madison.  The tidbit about most of campus being drunk before noon on football game days still gives me pause when I consider I almost attended that school.  The drinking lifestyle was never for me.  There’s also the possibility I could have avoided the drinking or it might not have been as bad as the tour guide said (and my imagination imagined).  However, I have a low tolerance for drunk people, especially noisy and rowdy ones.

If I disliked the environment and culture enough, there’s a good chance I would have transferred.  The question is where.  I know I wouldn’t have transferred home; I refused to move home even when I didn’t have a job and could barely support myself immediately after graduation.  A part of me thinks I’d have transferred to UWM.  I loved almost everything about my three and half years of undergrad and firmly believe I was meant to end up in Milwaukee.  However, there’s another part of me that considers my love of travel and distant lands; thus I could have transferred abroad.  There are an uncountable number of factors that would have played into my decision though: how old was I when I chose to transfer, was I dating someone, had I studied abroad already, how were my relationships with certain family members (my mom, my older sister, and my niece), where were my interests, etc.

Not only would my relationships have played a definite role in where I transferred, but these relationships could have been extremely different than they are today.  I couldn’t have afforded to take the bus and frequently visit my sister and newborn niece my freshman year, so—unfortunately—neither of these relationships would have their current resilience.  The positive influence they (and my brother-in-law) have had on me is immense.  The amount of patience I gained by spending time with my niece (now nieces) is reason enough to say their impact was huge.  By having a stronger relationship with my sister, I sought out her advice and took said advice seriously—as well as my brother-in-law’s advice.  This advice helped shape other decisions I made.  None of this would be the case without the current strength of our bond though.

My Eldest Niece and Me

Then there’s the relationship with my mom.  I have no idea how that would have differed because regardless of where I attended university, I still would have gone home for as many holidays as possible and talked to her the same amount.  The difference would have been that I have since learned she didn’t support the idea of me going to Madison.  However, she also isn’t one to hold a grudge, so I’m confident she wouldn’t have held this against me; she may have been overly supportive if/when I chose to transfer though and thus influenced that decision.

Returning to going abroad, I might not have studied in New Zealand.  Almost my entire life, I had my heart set of going to England and I didn’t because I needed an international internship for my Global Studies major (a major Madison doesn’t have), and UWM has a program to New Zealand that included help securing internship placement.  New Zealand was still on my bucket list of countries to visit, but it wasn’t my first choice; I realize now it should have been though.  Similar to how my relationships shaped me, so did my time in New Zealand.  Some of these results would have happened regardless of where I studied abroad: sense of adventure, increased independence, appreciation for other cultures, etc.  I wouldn’t, however, have met the same people and had the same internship/learning experience.  My internship in New Zealand gave me confidence in my work that my classes hadn’t.  Since neither of my majors exist at Madison, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have completed that internship anyways.  Madison has similar majors, but I still could have taken my education (and thus my life) down a completely different path.  Either way though, I would have found something I enjoyed.

Christina, Me, and Gavin in NZ

All these potential differences mean I might not be friends with some of the wonderful people I am today.  I happen to really like my Milwaukee friends, especially considering the majority of them have one very distinct similarity: French.  There are one or two friends I don’t know directly through the French Department who also happen to love French, if not the language then certainly the culture.  Aside from these friends, I’ve only made a few other friends in Milwaukee.  In recent years, French has definitely made a big impact in my life.  Regardless of where I could have attended university, hopefully I still found the delicious eloquence of French 🙂

Oui!sconsin

Then there’s Alice, who I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t attended university in Milwaukee.  I also wouldn’t know all the great people from my jobs or from the student organizations in which I was a part.  Nevertheless, a lot of other people inhabit the world, so I wouldn’t be friendless and I would have had other jobs in which to meet people.  Plus living in Madison would have allowed me to assist more with my high school forensics team as one of the assistant coaches lives in Madison and the team competes in Madison almost every season.

Ultimately, I hope I would have either found my way to UWM or found myself happily living abroad, travelling with any spare money I have while learning/perfecting my knowledge of other languages and making friends along the way.  Also I like to think that somewhere in creating myself and seeking happiness, I would have developed the strong relationships I have with my family.

Some Sisterly Love

Six Months with Alice

Six months ago today (February 17), I adopted Alice from the Wisconsin Humane Society.  She’s just as wonderful, lovable, and playful as the day I brought her home.  We’ve grown and adapted to each other while learning along the way.

Ma chéri, Alice

One of the first things we learned and adapted to was our daily routine.  Alice enjoys her morning cuddles (especially pre 8:30am) before she has breakfast and soils her freshly cleaned litter box.  Then she joins me for breakfast.  Being the spoiled cat she is, Alice enjoys a small bit of milk with me while I eat.  She also receives a very small bowl of canned tuna for dinner; a can lasts seven or eight days, so it really isn’t much tuna.  (She will meow and walk into the kitchen, stare at the fridge, and walk into the fridge after I open the door when she wants tuna.)  At night, our routine now includes Alice curling up in her corner of the bed and sometimes playing with my feet as she gets comfortable.  Many times, Alice is still sleeping in her spot the next morning—or she returned to her spot during the night 🙂

Another part of routine includes when I arrive home.  Alice is a sweetheart and almost always comes to greet me.  After I set my purse and other items down take my shoes off, and put my winter coat away, I give Alice a hug while holding her in my arms, petting her, and sappily loving her.  We cuddle like this several times a day as Alice is very lovable 🙂

She also loves people and is great with kids.  Alice has met numerous new people during our six months together and has taken well to all of them, including my young nieces.  My youngest niece still prefers to pull on Alice’s fur rather than pet her gently.  Alice has never retaliated against the noise or the pain, except once when my niece had a fistful of fur and Alice gave her a look before putting her open mouth on my niece’s hand.  The action was gentle enough that my niece didn’t let go because there was no pain inflicted; the action drew attention to the situation though, so Alice’s fur could be returned to her without tears or bloodshed.  I was quite proud of Alice.

“Look how cute I am. Pet me?”

However, Alice isn’t as fond of other animals, at least not cats.  She and I house-sat for my mom earlier this winter; Alice and my mom’s cat didn’t get along for the first week.  At first he didn’t realize she was around, but then Alice started antagonizing him and he wouldn’t leave her alone.  There was lots of hissing and growling with the occasional swatting at each other (most from Alice).  She felt comfortable as long as my mom’s cat wasn’t around, and as they adjusted to each other, Alice was fine as long as she had some space.

Overall though, Alice is extremely chill.  Even traveling around during the holidays, Alice rode great in the car, went in the carrier when she was asked, and somewhat enjoyed exploring the car on our long drives.  On our drive back to Milwaukee, Alice spent most of the drive asleep on my lap.  Even while I was driving, she kept asking me to pet her.

When we aren’t venturing all over Wisconsin, Alice spends her days at home mostly sleeping on my bed, sleeping on a chair, sleeping on the couch, sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a box (she has three to choose from), sleeping on a box, and sleeping in front of a window.  I absolutely love watching her sleep; she’s so peaceful.  Consequently I have an overabundance of “sleeping Alice” pictures, particularly because she tends to sleep in interesting ways.  She does the typical curl in a ball to sleep, but Alice also lays sprawled out in a manner reminiscent of a dog or even a human.  Interestingly Alice’s favorite sleeping place changes frequently.  For several weeks, she preferred the loveseat armrest, then there was the dining room chair, the living room rug, the red chair, my bed, inside or on top of any box, my headboard or backpack, back to my bed, and now the couch by my feet.  Despite where she sleeps, she moves and switches places every-so-often and she frequently moves to within arm’s reach of me.  Alice has even been known to relax on the bathroom rug while I shower; this desire to be near me never ceases to amaze me and continually makes me smile.

Dozing in the living room

When Alice isn’t sleeping, typically she’s grooming herself, playing with her toys, looking out the window or scratching.  Despite being a long-haired cat, Alice grooms herself more than any other cat I’ve ever had (which is a lot consider my family almost always had cats).  Her fur is so soft and warm though; I enjoy burying my face in her fur after being outside 🙂

The most entertaining thing Alice does is definitely play with her spirals (basically a spring).  She swats them all over my apartment, races after them, leaps over any furniture that impedes her, and will carefully carry them in her mouth when they “out of bounds.”  Watching her reminds me of myself playing soccer, the way she races all over like a crazy girl and slides under the couches attempting to keep the spiral in play 🙂  Watching Alice wrestle is also quite fun, as is tempting her to chase a string in circles.  Alice and I are excited for spring, so I can open the windows.  She simply loves sitting in the window watching the birds and squirrels.  Alas it’s currently far too cold to have the windows open.

Playtime

To vent her frustrations regarding the lack of open windows and breeze, Alice chooses to scratch…on the furniture.  If I keep her claws trimmed (an activity she is fairly patient with), she scratches on her scratchers instead.  A firm voice and water also help as a deterrent; theoretically praising her for using her scratchers helps too.

The only other trouble Alice tends to cause involves my laptop.  She enjoyed cuddling on my chest, but that sometimes involved her walking across my keyboard.  This caused my laptop to behave strangely; thus Alice is no longer allowed to step on my computer.  Unfortunately this seems to have extended to laying on me, as she rarely cuddles with me while I’m on the computer anymore.  Instead she enjoyed flopping across my homework last semester.  Her favorite homework to obstruct: French.  Alice wasn’t picky about which French class she distracted me from, but it was always a French class.

“Hi, this looks like a nice place to relax.”

“Really? You work too hard; how about pet me.”

 

Alice’s love for food leads her to joining me at the table for meals.  She literally sits at or on the table while I eat to sample whatever I’m eating.  She attempted to take half a quesadilla off my plate (that didn’t work so well for her); she tried to eat pizza crust out of my hand (I was currently also eating it); and at least once she ate a piece of meat off my plate (like it was sitting there on her plate).  We’re working on not stealing my food.

Random fact: Alice gives me funny looks when I stretch, workout, or dance in the living room.  I think she thinks I’m strange.  Although, she’s stopped giving me these funny looks when I talk to her in French.

Typical Alice

Alice and I have enjoyed our six months together and will hopefully have tons and tons and tons more months together (she’s only two and a half years old).  Whenever the weather improves again, Alice and I will try going outside again.  She wants to go out now, but she only ever asks when I’m in the morning or late at night (at which I’m in my pajamas).  Now to cuddle with my furry baby 🙂