Monday, September 12, 2011

Blame It On The Lice

My friends and colleagues here have not stopped hearing me complain about it, so to give them a break, I'm gonna jot it down and vow to stop moaning about it from here on. Here goes:

I've put on soooo much weight since arriving in the land of Lice and Bling. I would love to blame the Lice alone, but I've certainly been over-excited by all the amazing restaurants that call my name on every damn corner. With perfect pronunciation and all, I hear them "Keke! Yess. You! Ke-ke-tso. Come hither!" in a British-Australian accent even. How can I resist??

I could make the issue something light and irrelevant, but the fact that I talk about it so much is something that set off a 'uh-ow' alarm in my head. I was so obsessed with this old me, that I was seeing new Kex as a lesser being. Ridiculous, I know. Simply put, the challenge I've given myself is to refocus my 'what gives me value' energies on the only thing that will never change, and that's my Creator. Real talk. It's too easy these days to sum ourselves (and others) up by kg's and cm's so I'm going back to basics and reminding myself of the straight and narrow. Of course, it requires constant reminding, but I'd rather that. 

BMI calculations say I'm over my height's healthy weight (oh dear!) and being in Korea where the women are soooo tiny, it's easy to get lost on that 'if only' train of thought. 

As a result, I've taken up swimming lessons (3 times a week), invested in a blender for my fruit smoothies, and shoved my gluttony hat away. It's not cool to be eating the way I've been. But amidst that, I always have to remind myself of what's really important: I can't let the weight consume me when my Creator loves and uses me As I Am. (Yes, I said it.)




All pics from weheartit

No more blaming it on the lice. 

x


We Heart Long Weekends

Weeehaaa! It's a long weekend here in the land of Lice and Bring, and I'm having a great time doing absolutely nothing :D While most of other teachers are visiting nearby cities countries (Japan, China, Taiwan) for their 5 day weekend, I am sitting at home and literally pantsula dancing on my refresh button. It's awesome.

It's Chuseok here on Korea, which has been compared to the American's Thanksgiving, but because I'm just a little South African girl, I'm still not sure what that means. Who better to ask, but Mr Google himself?? Wiki says:

Chuseok..., is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar... As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food such...


Building up to this holiday, there have been sales for Africa, especially in the food stores with the strangest gift packs, from well packaged and ribbon bow tied cans of tuna to bulk packs of tofu. Awesome. I got a lovely body wash thing from one of my colleagues (because she thought the whitening face wash she got for the others wouldn't be suitable for me. Spot on! hee). 


I can imagine all the Koreans are having a lovely time with their families coz the shops are closed (this NEVER happens) and the streets are a tad more peaceful (also NEVER happens). 


While they do that, I'm catching up on Season 4 of Brothers and Sisters, chatting and laughing with Raquel, watching Trevor Noah's Crazy Normal (I died!). Yesterday we also got to watch the Boks vs Wales game at a bar downtown and there were so many South Africans there, I wondered if there are any left back home o_O I'm not complaining, just saying. 


Here are some pics to fill you in :)




Google does Chuseok


My nice Chuseok gift from Mrs. Jeong. 
Coffee from Missouri (where our new English teacher is from). Interesting flava, huh?!


September babies (Gabi Boy, Mingki Tipton and Greg Boy) celebration on Friday night
The work of the awesome Sarah Watt


On my calender this month (gift from Legend Tlale Matseke)
Pointless post, right? A girl's aloud to yap yap yada yada mkay.