I’m bored.
Again.
Itchin’ for a change.
First, Santa Monica right after college. Modeling, acting, hosting by day, hauling myself around LaLa land to auditions all day, (and actually making a decent buck, enough to get by anyways), and working at the Huntley Hotel at night. It was a grind for sure but enjoyable looking back. Had a great apartment between Montana Ave and 3rd Street, had time to go to Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga nearly every day AND sometimes take a long walk or jog.
So I went with it.
From now on, I’m going to focus on what is good NOW.
So, here is what is cool about my life here in Korea:
– People.
A fab community of artists, musicians, creative, yogis, and like-minded foreigners that I’ve met throughout Korea and also right here in my neighborhood of Haebangcheon and Itaewon. It took a while to find them, but they’re here!
And the friendliness of most folks brings a smile to my face 🙂
– My apartment is a yoga studio.
And is quiet (although there are no windows :(…and is all my own. And did I mention that it’s FREE?
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| produce stand just across the street for cheap veggies and nigari/seawater dubu (tofu). |
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| kimchi varieties at a “well-being festival” |
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| “well-being” drinks, supplements, etc |
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| just a typical 7,000 won ($6.50 about) meal full of raw and semi-cooked veggies, fermented bean stews, dotorimuk, and dubu. |
–My cute 3 and 4 year olds who adore me, say “I love you, Elisa teacher”, and give me hugs and kisses and play with my hair during playtime.
And my amazing co-teacher, Luna, who has really taught me to teach little ones. She also works her magic with the kids when my patience wears thin!
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| K kids are really cute. |
–A secure job, with a certain end date, in which I get to move around all day long, run after little ones, dance and sing with them. Fun, pretty physical, keeps me in pretty good shape, I think. No secretary spread gonna happen this year!
–Korean flowers are pretty.
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| I think these look like dragonflies. |
– The ability to buy a new outfit for $10 on a street corner (this is good and bad…a half-Jewish, bargain freak like me has to practice self-control).
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–Muii-do and Deok Jeok-Do
Islands an hour subway and ferry rideaway. not bad.
– Insadong and the general Downtown area. I love it there for the art galleries, the Temples. The people watching.
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| oh, just visiting a historic temple that’s 10 mins from the apartment. gotta love that. |
–Rooftops!
–Hiking!
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| hiking is fun and free. |
–Tour groups.
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– No car payment, no paying for gas, oil changes, and hauling my car into the repair shop when there’s a prob. A break from driving, which for me was gettin worse daily…I had 3 points on my license just for running into stationary crap! For now, worry-free transportation for the most part!
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| the long gone volvo s40. we had a good 50k miles together, but i don’t miss your “check engine” light that came on every 1,000 miles and your service center that happened to be an hour’s drive away. |
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| Subway sardine can in the AM… |
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| …is tolerable due to a walk along Yangjae stream afterwards! |
– Makgeolli and Dongdongju!
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| Who needs California wine when you’ve got Makgeolli tasting for $1.75 down the street?! |
– Being able to live on a budget of $100 (or less sometimes) a week. Sweet.
–Cicadas chirping during the Summer!
–Let’s not forget that the beaches of Thailand are a relatively short and cheap flight away…
– there’s more that i’ll add to this list later.
-but most of all, just feeling quite healthy…
Although the air may be sub-par here, I get a sinus infection every so often, and just the 24/7, unrelaxed energy of this city drives me mad sometimes, my bod feels really healthy and I have lots of energy to do the stuff I wanna do!
Good stuff.
