HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! And if you don’t celebrate the commercial day of love, um, happy Tuesday? Or, best of both worlds, Happy Valen..Tues..Day. Heh heh. I’m not funny, but these cards from Emily McDowell are..

I’m currently desk-warming and spent three consecutive hours catching up on the latest season of ANTM.

A few notes:

1. I need a new wardrobe, specifically cute crop tops and bralettes because all of the contestants wear them in each episode and they look fly AF.
2.  Rita Ora and I need to be BFF’s.
3. I appreciate that the show is focusing on branding these models by incorporating their business and social media skills and not just producing a pretty face. #slay

Beyonce’s Lemonade album is currently blasting in my ears, and I’m trying to kill another couple hours until I can escape from this desk. TBH, I have no game plan when I started writing this blog post so I’m going to go ahead and do a stream of consciousness.

It’s V-Day today, and throughout the week I drafted two posts about love and relationships but trashed both because they didn’t seem quite right. It felt forced because I am soooooo far removed from dating and romance that anything I wrote was cliche and didn’t feel authentic. If you want to read a V-Day related post, I wrote one last year: 5 DATING TIPS TO CONSIDER OR WHATEVER.  

At the end of the month I will be attending three EPIK orientations – Busan, Daejeon, and Kongju. EPIK has invited me to critique lesson demos which I am excited to be a part of, especially because I get to meet, answer questions, and interact with some of the incoming teachers. It will be a lot of traveling and early mornings but should be fun, looking forward to it.

My one year anniversary since moving to Busan, South Korea is this Saturday and you best believe I will be getting myself a cake and eating it on the exact same place on my apartment floor where I ate ramen on the very first night I officially moved to Asia. Wow! That was a year ago.

I remember my co-teacher picking me up from orientation and dropping me off at my place late at night, leaving ramen packages for me to survive off of, a serious lifesaver since the direction to the grocery store was unknown to me at the time. As I ate the ramen I looked around at my empty apartment, it was dark and quiet. There was nothing in my closet and walls were bare. After I finished eating I pulled out the biggest sweaters I had from my luggage and put them into a pillowcase I brought from home. I had to sleep on THAT the first night because I didn’t have a proper pillow.

I felt slightly paranoid because I’ve never lived on my own before. I made my rounds and locked EVERY door and kept the bathroom light on like a nightlight. I put on a baggy t-shirt, texted my mom to tell her I was fine, and fell asleep.. sort of.. I woke up every now and again when I heard the wind clattering my windows or when a cat meowed (those damn cats still make noises during the night).

The below photo is me the morning after, ready to seize the day, and then unexpectedly dropping $300 on bedding. LOL. Good times.

Fast forward 365 days and here I am. Here, we are.

This will be my last year in SoKo.

In another 365 days I will be back in Toronto, Canada figuring out the next stage in my life. I’m not quite sure what those next steps are but, the only thing I’m concerned about is what flavour cake I want to eat on Saturday.

xo

Jessica