Spring Cleaning

The cherry blossoms by night are quite as beautiful as by day

Seoul is in full bloom and after such a crappy winter it's really uplifting.

The magnolia flower is something I've never seen in real life before ... just stunning!

This is one of the national flowers of Korea. It blooms in bunches along the sidewalks in many different shades of pink, purple, white and red. Love it!

More cherry blossoms! They're everywhere! They're everywhere!:)

The young'uns of the English Department Staff ... note I was the only one to make it to the top of the mountain. lol!

Brunch at the "Flying Pan" in Itaewon ... an almost real North American brunch:)

Andrews' inspired poetry party. It's always good to have equally nerdy friends.

Desert and coffee with Kami in Hongdae. this place was so sweet with its' 40,000 W coffee filters

The lovely Kami, enjoying a kiwi smoothie. Wish that girl lived in Korea! KAMI, I'm coming to Hong Kong before I go back to Canada!

Maybe it's the change in the weather? maybe it's a change in attitude? Maybe it's more possibilities presenting themselves to me, or rather that I am actually making bigger plans? What ever it is, Spring is here and it feels good.

In the tradition of Spring cleaning, this is the perfect time of year to really shake things up and make an effort to make positive changes in your life. I don't know why everyone thinks to make New Years resolutions? January is a very difficult month and no one feels inspired burried under a mountain of snow, dark weather and consumer debt. However, Spring is a good time to lighten up and cheer up, because that is what is reflected in the natural environment around you.

Now I realise that Seoul has its issues, but one thing that can be said is that they have made some great efforts to beautify this city with an abundance of flowers in every colour and description planted along every street. It has been so refreshing to see everything coming into bloom. very different from Canadian Spring, which is generally less colourful outside of private backyard spaces.

I feel as though now is a good time to make an effort to put the past behind me and to look towards a positive rest of my contract here and new more fulfilling experiences. I heard these lyrics in a song and they kind of sent a jolt through me:

"If I don't do this while I'm young, I'm sure it wont get done."

That got me thinking about the fact that I am no Spring chicken myself. My 26th birthday is in a month and a half and I feel as though I still have not done very much self exploration and adventure seeking. Now I can safely say that is because above all I am an extremely cautious person who does not like to take risks, but also because I have been trying to do the responsible thing by first hammering through all of my degrees on a tight budget and now trying to live on an even tighter budget while working here to make some headway into repaying my student loans.

But I am young, and youth is fleeting, and although it is very hard for me to do... verrrry hard, I am going to try to cut loose a bit more and take more advantage of being in South East Asia and having more adventures, even if it takes me another coupple years to get out of debt. If I keep telling myself that I will play after, then I will effectively have been spending all of my 20s working without playing, and well that's kind of backwards isn't it?... That's something to think about now isn't it?

So I ave been making more effort to be more involved with all things Korean and really think about what I want to do with my time here. I have been getting out with friends a bit more and also trying to be well informed about cool festivals and shows going on in the city. The trick for me is to make things happen, rather than just theorizing about them. That includes everything in my life from exercising, cooking and cleaning, to school and socializing. Too many theories, not enough action. But really, I gotta give myself a break here. It's not exactly like I've been sitting on my ass since I got here. But maybe not running around quite enough either... It's positively exhausting to have such high standards for yourself. Time to get the jogging shoes on and leave the winter coat in the closet I think.