So long 27!

Today I am 28. It seems crazy to me that it's been a year since I wrote a post on my 27th birthday. I had just arrived here in Korea and it was all new and crazy. Its been a whirlwind of a year that some how has become normal. I've traveled lots and met many people I now call close friends.
I am not scared of 28. I find there are certain ages that don't scare you. You are just in them as if you are prepared. 22 and 24 were like this and they were some good years so hopefully 28 will be the same. I like being in my late twenties. You aren't old enough to be expected to have responsibilities but you aren't young enough to feel lost. Obviously its scary as 30 is fast approaching but I am happy and surrounded by fantastic people so I am just enjoying the moments as they come.
I do have to slap 27th year old Tania on the wrists as the normality of life has let me become lazy with the blog so I will get back into writing.
But here are some of the things I got up to as a Travelling 27 year old:

. Experienced one of the hottest Summers I've ever known
. Met even more fantastic people
. Made lasting friendships
. Visited Busan
. Wrote for 3 different magazines
. Had Photo's published
. Went to a rave
. Visited Pohang
. Went to a mud festival
. Lost all our money in Bangkok
. Washed and played with Elephants
. Trekked through the jungle.
. Visited Koh Samui
. Ate the worlds best Pad Thai
. Tried PatBingSu (Korean Dessert)
. Visted three of the best temples in Korea
. Visted Tokyo
. Ate the worlds best Mando
.Stood on the busiest traffic crossing in the world
. Visited Tokyo Disney
. Tried Sake for the first time
. Ate Ox Tail for the first time
. Got to use my camera A LOT
. Learnt a lot more Korean
. Went on 14 planes
. Met the worlds smartest robot
. Went to a Sumo tournament.
. Visited Scotland.
. My brother got Engaged.
. My sister passed her music exam and wrote some incredible music
. Had my first Wendy's
. Went to my first baseball match
. Had a lot of girl's nights
. Ate bugs
. Ate fried arsehole (?)
. Had a food weekend in Seoul
. Taught elementary students
. Had my best friend visit me in Korea
. Made Clamato Juice and tried a Ceaser
. Learnt some of the best recipes I've ever tasted.
. Climbed 30 feet off the ground in the tree tops
. Had my first Christmas with Lee
. Had my first Christmas with friends
. Had a house party.
. Tried Yoga for the first time.
. Ran a 10k
. Spent a weekend in London with my girls
. Visited Wales
. Tried Snowboarding
. Walked on a frozen lake
. Went to the DMZ
. Made a human pyramid.
. Said a lot of hard goodbyes
. Went Blonde
. Moved house
. Owned 4 mac lipsticks
. Started teaching Art
. Celebrated my first Saint Paddy's day
. Celebrated Holi Hai
. Shot a gun
. Watched my best friend get married.

These lists feel silly and self indulgent but when you write the things you have achieved down like this. You realise how many first you can still have at 28 , it does make you smile. The world has been kind to me this year and I have made friends I will treasure for a lifetime, I miss my family every minute of the day but I've also found my own little family and my own home.
I can't imagine what the next year will bring.

Going home - a brief interlude

Tomorrow I will be heading off on my first long haul trip across the world. Its extremely daunting and its taken a huge amount of time for me to get this trip on the road but now that its happening I am a little dazed and confused.
I will be leaving Korea for 7 days to go to the UK. It will take 3 days to travel back and forth so I have 5 lovely days at home to see my family and to see my friends.

I have traveled a lot in the past but the longest flight I've taken on my own is an hour so this 12 hour flight is a little scary. I never use to be scared of flying but the older I get the more crazy it seems. understanding physics makes physics seem more impossible some how.

I am sure everything will be grand. I will get my complimentary drinks, watch great movies and eat lovely food (yes I love airplane food). I will get off the plane, get a bus home and hug my family. It will be amazing to see them all and I can't wait to make memories with them.

I have been lucky enough to receive and early birthday present from the lovely Lee so I will be able to take Polaroids of my friends ad family and share their beautiful faces with you very soon.
I was trying to describe to someone why I love Polaroids.
I think its a bit like travel. Its a individual item that is a second of memory. Only you have it and it helps you remember the experience. Its real and although I love my digital SLR I love watching a photo develop.

I think on such a short trip like this keeping hold of the memories will be extremely important.

Things To Get At Home

Things To Get:

Tomorrow I will be embarking on a 24 hour trek to get to my lovely Welsh homeland. I cannot wait. I want to jump on the plane now but I still have two days left of work. As you may remember from the last few days of school you mostly watched movies and played games. At the time I thought it was because my teachers were kind and fun loving people, now I realise it’s because they were hung-over, stressed out teachers who wanted to sit the kids in front of something silly for an hour.

When I’m not being a fantastic teacher and sharing the joys of Mr Bean (How I love you Rowan for the hours of silence you have granted me) I am at my desk ‘desk- warming’. This is the name given to the Korean school process in which foreign teachers have to stay in school for certain amount of hours whether the school is open or not.

My desk warming for the next two days will consist of old Hollywood movies (currently it is The Seven Year Itch and The Big Sleep) and dreaming of the lovely things I will be buying when I get off the plane. So here is my shopping list:

1. Eggnog Latte….this one will be the most upsetting one if it’s not available since this is the taste of Christmas to me and not something you can find in Korea so my plan is, get off the plane and run to Starbucks.

2. CHEESE – cheese is available in Korea but its expensive and rare so I am going to get a shopping cart and fill it to the top with lots of English treats including blue cheese, cheddar, Halumi, brie, camembert and anything else I can lay my hands on.

3. Underwear – The weirdest experience while shopping for clothes here in Korea was being laughed out of a shop when I told them my bra size. In the uk I am not only average but a bit below average. Some would go as far to say small but here in Korea I am like a Russian Hooker. The only bras I can buy come in a special hidden section and are covered in dust. The other weird edition to the problem is all bras in Korea are padded so when I finally do find one to fit it’s padded up to my ears. I shall be happily wandering into every vintage underwear shop I can find in the UK. What Katie Did on Portobello road will definitely be getting a visit.

4. Shoes – This one will be essential to survive next year in Korea. My feet suffer from the same problem as my brassieres. Very very big in Korea. I luckily have a supply of shoes waiting for me at home since my luggage when I moved here was too full for lots of pairs. I will be like a kid in a candy store (but with the added advantage of knowing they all fit perfectly as I’ve worn them all before)

5. Herbs and Spices – I’ve recently discovered a few places that sell the basic herbs and spices in Korea but since I am hoping to ‘Get my Cook on’ next year I really want to bring a big collection. Ginger, Nutmeg, Chicken stock and Rosemary to name a few. I might also get lazy and just bring ‘Chinese 5 spice’.
   

6. Chinese food – the most ironic item on the list is definitely Chinese and Thai food. The irony of having to leave Asia to get good Chinese food isn’t wasted on me but it’s very true. Koreans have their own version of Chinese food that is probably more authentic but doesn’t represent the type I’m use to at all. It is easily my favourite food so when I get home I shall be feasting on Pad Thai, Black Bean and Chow Mein’s as much s possible. Mmmm

7. Dresses – for no reason other than I want to go to London and buy pretty vintage dresses

8. Tights – While I love a good stocking as much as the next girl I need some tights to get me through the cold winters and the average day while teaching. In Korea tights are a mysterious item that doesn’t exist. It’s actually extremely hard to find stocking too. They only have circulation cutting off stockings up to the thigh. I have seen my leg turn blue more than a few times.  

9. Christmas Party food – Smoked Salmon, Pate, French bread, mozzarella sticks, tomatoes salads, potato wedges, salt and vinegar crisps, chip shop chips, pasties’, scones, crumpets, butter…all of the above. I’m craving it all and can’t wait for my own little party when I get home.

10. Good Coffee – although there are a million coffee shops (and I mean a million) none of them do a good coffee. It’s very rare and expensive to track down a place that is willing to make you a beautiful Dutch drip coffee. Starbucks can give you a good one as well as a restaurant called ‘Butterfinger Pancakes’ in Seoul but apart from that , I’m stumped.

Tokyo, I heart you.

What can I say about Tokyo? Simply put, it felt like home.

That isn’t too say it felt like South Wales because two countries have never been further from each other but it did feel like my London. I only lived in London for two and a half years but every moment of it was amazing.

London as a city has life and is relaxed at the same time. It’s a confident place that feels like its grown up over time. It feels like a city that’s had its crazy teenage stage and is content in its late 20’s.

Tokyo felt the same. Shops looked like they were established; people knew where they were going and had confidence in how long they needed to get there. The buildings were old but stupidly clean and you could see the pride its residence had in their home.

I fell in love the second we stepped onto the subway.

The airport was a throw back to the 70’s. As my friend put it ‘it’s what we thought the future would look like in the 70’s’ which is a perfect description. Coming from super doper modern Seoul airport to this little concrete building was a bit of a shock but then we got the subway and hit real Tokyo.

I’ve heard people complain about the Tokyo skyline but for me it looked like it was designed. Each building was well spaced and picturesque. IT was more like a lovely painting than something I believed was in front of me.

I liked it but the quirks of the city and its people are what made me fall head over heels.

Their individual style and differing personalities made every subway journey a new adventure. The cos-play kids blew my mind with their detailed costumes and the hipster crowd was elegant in their tailored suits. There were even a few old men in Hawaiian shirts that made my day.

Korea is still in its very first steps of economical boom so it’s hard to judge but in Korea people have more of a group mentality. A trend is done by everyone and I mean everyone, men, woman, children and teens. There are a lot of similar looking people on the streets. Korean woman are stunning so they are dressed in clothes that enhance this but it was nice to look at someone and know a little about them from their attire.

I won’t bore you with the actual ins and outs but let’s say there was good food, amazing sights and a lot of fun had. Sumo is something I’d recommend to everyone. It involves a lot of pageantry but it was fascinating and a throw back to exactly how it would have been a 100 years ago (apart from woman could watch obviously).

I did drag my group to Disney Tokyo which might seem weird but as an animator and a big kid I have only experience Disney very young and wanted to have a little childhood indulgence. It was fantastic. They celebrate Disney in a way only Japan could. Every person was dressed to the nines in Disney memorabilia. Groups of girls as Minnie, boys as villains and babies in such cute costumes that my broodiness almost became a problem, that sounds weird but wait until you see 27 babies dressed in little fat dumpy duck costumes including little waddling tails and you will get the idea.

I had a memorable and fascinating time in Japan. I’d go back in an instant for a thousand million reasons that add up to the fact I feel I could be happy there.

If time and money weren’t a problem, I’d be living there right now.

Japan, you felt a little like home.