Teeny tiny Nature Republic skincare haul

Hey guys ! 

While you're reading this post I am adventuring somewhere in Seoul with my family. I wanted to keep my blog somewhat active during this week so I wrote a little bit of something beforehand (at 1AM while packing my stuff and waiting to get to leave to the airport, to be exact) and scheduled the post. Admitting right from the start aht this is gonna be short and pointless. 

I ran out of absolutely everything essential to my daily life few weeks ago and just in time Nature Republic had a sale up to 50%. Everything in the store is green and fresh and pretty so I absolutely love shopping at Nature Republic. Plus their face masks are the softest, most deliciously scented masks I've ever tried. 

Lately I've fallen in love with green tea. Green tea drinks, ice cream, skin products, hand creams, you name it. So of course I wanted to try their green tea masks. Turns out few days earlier my friend bought the Acai berry mask pack so we split them in half so we get to try both. 

I also got a Jeju sparkling cleansing water and a Forest garden olive cleansing oil. The cleansing water has a slightly stronger scent than I thought it would have judging by the fact it's a Jeju sparkling water product, but I'm kinda growing into it and it's still really gentle on the skin. Definitely need to start shopping more at Nature Republic! Their products seem really good and I found like a bunch of new stuff I want to try out someday. 

On a side note it's been raining in Seoul for the last 3 weeks to the limit where I, the person who loves rain, is starting to get sick of it. Anyhow. Have a great week everyone !

xx,
Julia

Upcoming post plans

Hey !

I've had a crazy busy week and have another, even crazier week ahead, so I figured if I want to write before going back to Finland now is my only chance.  I've been, almost literally, studying around the clock the last few days. I had my final writing exam yesterday, and the listening & reading exams are next Monday. I have been stressing over it a lot because, well, 10 pages of questions plus 2 long essays and 2 shorter ones isn't easy to get done in two and a half hours. 

I thought I'd share some of my upcoming blog post ideas for the next few months that I am spending in Finland! Like I've mentioned here multiple times my family is coming to Korea next Thursday for 4 days and I have a whole lot of stuff planned out for us, and while in Finland I will write about each day separately. It's gonna be like a vacation for me too, because I haven't really had the time to do touristy stuff that much. So I'm weirdly too excited about taking a cruise along Han-river, visiting Namsan-tower and going to check out traditional Korean houses and wander around Insadong. 

I'm also gonna write the "Things that make me unhappy in Korea" - post as a second part to the "things that make me happy in Korea", and there's 2 more Korea one-o'-one posts planned out, too! Shopping in Korea and Hospitals & taking care of your health in Korea (Still open for ideas to write about, by the way). Also October & November through my phone - posts that I have yet to do are gonna be up too, as well as the ones for upcoming 2 months in Finland. For some reason I haven't been able to get pictures out my phone lately, so that's why I haven't been doing those for a while.  And of course since you all know I not so very secretly obsess over beauty products there's probably gonna be one or two reviews or hauls of some sort. 

So a lot stuff to write about, a lot of inspiration and to be honest, no idea how my 2 months in Finland are gonna turn out.  I'm either going to be really busy or have nothing to do most of the time. Nevertheless, excited to be going home. I will keep you guys updated and stay active on twitter, tumblr, instagram et cetera, et cetera! 

Next time I'll be writing from Finland. Have a great week everyone !! 

xx,
Julia

Restaurant recommendation - Jame's Chicago pizza

Hey ! 

Just a brief Saturday night update to cure my own boredom and tell you guys about this amazing pizza place! Nothing says Saturday like a proper Chicago pizza so that's how we spent today evening with my 2 girlfriends. We had planned to visit "Jame's Chicago pizza" place since last week and executed the plan on this chilly Saturday evening (it's seriously getting cold in here). 

Needless to say the food is ah-mazing. Very pricey for a pizza, especially a pizza in Korea, but definitely worth the price if you're craving something cheesy and  delicious every once in a while. The pizza prices start from 19 000 won and go up to  25 000, set menus from 29 000 to 45 000 won. We got the cheapest set menu, a couple set, that included a original Chicago pizza, chicken breast salad with sesame sauce and two drinks. They have restaurants in Sinchon, Hongdae, Hapjeong and Myeongdong, where we went. So if you're in Seoul and craving for something expensive yet heavenly delicious, this is your go-to pizza place for sure. Until otherwise proven, that is. Hahah! Plus they play EDM, which, you know, as a huge EDM fan, really got me.  

HOW TO GET THERE

Myeongdong station exit no. 6, then follow blue line. 

xx,

Julia

Seoul lantern festival '15 (서울빛초롱축제)

Good evening, world. 

Starting a blog post with something else than "hey guys" probably for the first time ever. So I'm one of those "New year new start" type of people and I already have one resolution for next year; Seeing and doing more stuff around Seoul. I want to visit events, exhibitions and festivals, take more pictures, visit famous places, find good restaurants et cetera. I've been studying really hard this whole year and haven't really had the time to explore and see that much, so that's something I really want to concentrate next year. I have only 3 weeks left before I leave to Finland for a 2 month winter vacation and a loot of plans with my friends, final exams coming next week and I've been writing speeches like a crazy person lately but I decided to start my project a bit early and made time to visit Seoul's annual Lantern festival. 

It's held in Gwanghwamun, along the Cheonggyecheon stream and runs from 06.11.2015 to 22.11.2015 this year. It's completely free for anyone so if you are in Seoul and haven't seen it yet you should ! They have lanterns designed by both regular citizens and famous artists and the themes vary from Korean historical palaces all the way to popular characters like Pororo. Cheonggyecheon is right in the heart of Seoul surrounded by high office buildings so it's absolutely beautiful. 

They had small paper lanterns you could buy, write small wishes / messages on them and then send off along the stream. Wanted to try that but the line was reaally long. They also sold other small lantern lamps and postcards and such and there was a lady doing airbrush tattoos. Not really related to the festival at all, but still a cute idea so we decided to try those out. Posted a picture of it on Instagram, you can check it out from the sidebar of this blog. 

In the end of the stream they had lanterns for the younger family members, like characters from children's movies and popular cartoons, and also some other random lantern designs. My absolute favorites were the cushion lanterns! Cushion foundations have been a huge makeup trend in Korea lately so it was amusing and very accurate at the same time. 

It was a great opportunity and I'm glad I made time to go see it. And Cheonggyecheong is gorgeous even without the lanterns and I haven't been there for a while so it was nice. 

Totally off topic, today is pepero day here in Korea ! Peperos are chocolate covered cookie sticks and the purpose of the day is similiar to Valentine's day; Giving peperos to your loved ones and friends. After a quick google search I found out the original purpose was to exchange peperos with each other in hopes of becoming taller and thinner...typical Korea hahah. Anyway have a good Pepero day everyone whether you do celebrate it or not !  

xx,
Julia

Goshiwon life

Hey guyyys ! 

As I mentioned in my previous post I moved to a Goshiwon this Monday. Goshiwons are practically like small hotels, but cheaper, and the rooms are tiny. They're all around Seoul and a easy, cheap option for students or travelers. I'm gonna stay here until my family arrives to Korea, 26th of this month, and then gonna live in a hotel for the last 5 days before going to Finland. It's right next to my university, which is pretty convenient. And the area is pretty nice, with a lot of shops, cafes and restaurants nearby. 

I have been going back and forth this week though because we're still in the middle of moving houses. I'm gonna put all my stuff in Sara's new apartment and there's still a bunch of cleaning to do before this Saturday, so I've been really busy and falling behind on homework a ton. 

Today I've been working on my presentation about Korea's clubbing culture (when I told my teacher that's the subject I choose her exact words were "why am I not surprised at all?") and just came home from a small walk to clear my head a bit. I also took my camera with me and snapped few pictures! 

So as you can see, the rooms are really small! It's kinda cozy though and for the first time ever I have my own TV and I can watch Korean reality shows and dramas. It's also messy at the moment cause I'm still kinda trying to settle down and find a place to all my stuff. 

I also did some grocery shopping in the nearby mart! Those sesame sticks are the best snack ever. I've developed a serious addiction to them. And ran into a bunch of Hanyang high schoolers, there's a Hanyang high called high school right next to the university, who were hiding between two buildings smoking and being badass, hahah. All in all I think I'm gonna enjoy living next to school for a change and the neighborhood is super nice so I'm excited ! 

Now I'm gonna go continue with my school projects, and let's just hope I get everything finished by tomorrow

xx,
Julia

Trip to Yangpyeong

Hey guys ! 

A week ago we had our culture lesson - day with our school and we headed to Yangpyeong, a city / county in Gyeonggi-province, to the right from Seoul, about a 2 hour drive away. We met in the morning and took a bus (with a TV so we could watch PSY's performance during the drive, so typical Korea) to the middle of nothing. We literally drove through mountains. The view was breathtaking though, and it was nice to see Korean countryside for a change. 

ps. picture heavy post ahead.

We stopped to eat at a rest stop that had a Korean food - buffet. They had everything from rice to fried stuff, soups and, honestly, things I didn't even recognize. We then continued to Yongmunsa - temple to watch fall colors. It was absolutely the best part of the day, even though that was what I was looking forward the least in that trip. The whole place was like straight from a fairy tale book. The amateur photographer inside me started squealing when we arrived because it was simply just too pretty.

We hiked up to the temple, ate ice cream, took a lot of group pictures and just chilled with our teacher. Who is, by the way, the best teacher I've ever had. She's probably around 50 years old but her mind is more like a 20 year old's, so we all get along with her super well. We watch the same dramas with her (and then talk about it with our class during class, and fangirl over the good looking actors, hahah) and joke around all the time. And most of the time it's the teacher who starts it, even when it comes to the dirty jokes, which is absolutely hilarious. So needless to say our class has a great team spirit, and getting together outside the classroom and getting to spend a day together was amazing. Almost amazing as the scenery.

This tree is a "Ginkgo tree"or a "Maidenhair tree". It was huuuge. Snapped this slightly blurry picture just to show you guys how incredibly big it was, compared to that Korean lady standing next to it taking a picture. 

After hiking up to the temple and then coming back down we had half an hour to kill before our bus left to the next destination so our teacher took us to Drink 막걸리, or Makgeolli, Korean rice wine / liquor. Drinking at 3pm with your teacher definitely made it to my list of weirdest moments ever. I'm not a huge fan of Makgeolli to be honest, so I was more excited about the 파전, Pajeon, Korean pancake with onions and vegetables. 

Our next and last stop was riding railbikes! A lot more fun that it seems, and every time we went downhill it felt like riding a legit roller coaster. I was riding one with our teacher and 2 of my classmates and we were just yelling nonsense and singing Christmas songs during the ride and acting like a bunch of 12 year olds (as some of you who follow me on snapchat may have noticed..). But it was crazy fun and I would do it again aaanytime. They taught us how to use the breaks but we just kept bumping into the railbike in front of us on purpose and laughing at it. So mature.

This was my last Culture class! In 4 weeks I will be done with language school for good. It feels kinda weird and honestly a bit scary to think that next spring is the real deal - I'm gonna have to study in a university in Korea, in Korean. To all you maybe considering Hanyang university for studying Korean, do it. This has been amazing, all the teachers are professional yet really chill and they know how to do their job. It's also effective - When I came here I knew how to introduce myself in Korean, now I'm writing essays about politics and gay rights. So yes, ten times yes, I would recommend Hanyang university. 

Now I need to get back to packing, because tomorrow I am moving to a goshiwon (a hotel type of a oneroom thing) for the next 3 weeks before my family flies to Korea for 5 days and I get to stay at a hotel in Myeongdong with them. I'm weirdly super excited about it, even though I've been living here for almost a year I feel like I'm going to Korea for a vacation too, hahah~ 

Have a good Monday everyone ! 
xx,
Julia