Five for Friday

Where have I been all month? Good grief! It's two days until the end of July, which means I'm 34 days away from my new adventure in New Zealand. How close am I to being ready for this? Yeah....not so much. I've been really slow about packing and sorting my things. I keep getting more sewing projects to do instead of finishing them so I can pack up that stuff and the last week has been spent with my brother John. He leaves tomorrow to head back home and then I can spend a few days cleaning/packing/organizing my house again. It's been a bit of a disaster since he got here. I've had more escapades with him in a week than I did on my own in a year and a half here. I'm exhausted and now I've got a major upset stomach because of it (that and eating out too much).

Oh, yesterday I went to North Korea. Yep, I stood there for a few minutes. We went on the DMZ tour with a company in Seoul and we got to visit the JSA (Joint Security Area) where the North Korean border and South Korean border meet and where talks can go on with both countries. It was weird being there, but really cool as well. That was the last big thing I needed to do before I left Korea. Now I can check that off and be happy with it.


I'm ready to work on a house and work on making said house a home. How cool would this be?





I want to do this for my house! How fun?


I love the old floor here...I'm falling in love with wood I think.


I hate my current dishes...these I could never hate.

Five for Friday

How is it that life doesn't seem to slow down at all as we get older? I could have sworn yesterday was Monday. With so many things going on in my life right now, time just seems to be slipping through my fingers like dry sand. I'm almost finished with my current online class. I have a lot of work to get done with it this next week though! Four projects, two discussion posts and three chapters to finish reading. But the next class I do will be my last general education course and the last class before I move to New Zealand!

Accomplishments this week-

1. Got word that I can apply for my visa after the DMZ trip at the end of the month and get it before I am set to fly out of here.
2. Sorted out my health check paperwork with my local hospital. I don't care how much I struggle with Korean bureaucracies to get anything done (still waiting on my tax refund from three years ago), I am so grateful that the national health insurance is covering the majority of the costs for my visa health check. I paid 56,126 won for the testing this week. *(that's about 50 dollars!) I got another chest x-ray, EKG, urinalysis, and extra blood work. I'm on an I-love-Korea kick because of this. Most definitely.
3. Most of my friends will be able to hang out with me next weekend for my birthday party.
4. I did yoga two nights in a row, and managed to do a complete head stand the second night. My body is stronger than I thought.
5. Got to talk to Jeff twice this week. Phone call on Monday (good start to the week) and then he was online Wednesday at a friend's house and we proceeded to waste my afternoon at work talking about silly things like vegetables we don't like, cheesecake flavors and the possibility that I am a Greek goddess with all my lounging around at work. lol.

Here are this week's top five...enjoy!





I decided I'm buying purple wellies tonight after work. I really am. I've been wanting them for awhile and they're just so darn cute! And cheap too, only about $25.


I need more of this in my life...patience that is. The waiting time is definitely the hardest. Waiting to move, to see where my life takes me next, waiting to settle down and sort out things. Waiting for word on whether the local hospital was going to help me out or not. I'm not a very patient person sometimes. If there's something I want, I am usually pretty impulsive and just go ahead and jump at it.


This kitchen is just so bright and comfortable. I've been looking at rentals in Nelson, NZ recently and am sometimes saddened by the pictures of kitchens I see there and how they fall into one of two categories: the most boring space ever or eye-burning colors. This one is neither of them, but has possibilities that I could incorporate into either of those depending on what I end up renting.


This week I've been listening to Ingrid Michaelson and Adele A LOT. Most of the songs I put on repeat tend to be either solo guitar songs or simple piano accompaniment tunes. It's a simple time this week I guess, music-wise. Nothing crazy or really wild. Next week might be different and that's okay.

happy day

I love it when I'm having a mediocre day following a somewhat blech weekend. Well, not really. The good part is how all it takes for my point of view to be turned around is an evening spent on the phone. That's it. Somehow the problems seem smaller, goals seem much more attainable and the good things appear larger.

I told J last night that I would call more often if it didn't mean that my evening would be completely unproductive around the house. I think he liked that.

Getting ready for summer camp soon and my vacation before that point. I am pretty sure July is going to speed by much the same as June did. I'm kind of excited about it though, only 57 days now! At this point in two months I'll have successfully moved back to New Zealand and hopefully overcome any jet lag I have. I'm really looking forward to seeing J again and starting my life there. Excited to see what happens and settle down finally.