My one year anniversary since moving to Busan, South Korea is less than a week away. HOLY SMOKES! Fellow English teachers have started to pack their bags and will be traveling South East Asia or going back to their home countries doing, whatever adults do to progress their lives nowadays. I will be living and teaching in SoKo for one more year and looking forward to new adventures, collecting more passport stamps, and meeting friends the universe will put into my life next.

Even though there will be a handful of changes happening in the next few days, some things will be staying the same. I’ll be living in the same apartment, teaching at the same school, and continually getting lost while navigating the city streets but making the best of it by finding a pretty place to sit down and take a picture.

On January 28th, my cousin Melissa and I traveled to Seoul for Seollal, otherwise known as Lunar New Year. The best part of the weekend was our visit to Gyeongbokgung where we took an audio tour around the palace, which I highly recommend doing and it’s only ₩3,000. I went to the palace back in October during Chuseok but this time around there were traditional song and dance performances and cultural activities for kids too.

If you ever shop in South Korea, especially Seoul, you’ll love the handful of freebies you’ll get with every beauty purchase. I only bought a Lip Treatment from The Face Shop and they threw in samples of essences, lotions, and a sheet mask. #bless

On a whim I dyed my hair ash purple for a week. It’s back to brunette now, but I do highly recommend the EZN Pudding Hair Color in Ash Purple if you want to give it a go. I got it at Olive Young for around ₩14,000. My hair was already bleach blonde so that helped with the final results of the dye job.

I took the below photo when I was taking a morning stroll in the Bu. I loved the colours of the white high-rises and blue sky together. Most Koreans live in an apartment because the entire country, which is approximately the size of Indiana, HAS to build itself up since 50 million people live on 30% of the land, 70% of it being taken up by mountain.

Watch Melissa and I explore Seoul in my vlog below, including taking pictures with K-pop stars and going to a dog cafe in Hongdae. Typical. Where’s your favourite spot to hang out in Seoul? Let me know in the comments below, or tweet me @Jessica_Moy!