Everyone is saying this and yes, I am going to be one of those people, but seriously, where did 2017 go!? It literally feels like yesterday we were out with friends on New Year's Eve celebrating the coming of 2017. As I look back through my year, it all feels like a blur. I had a great year though; I know for a lot of people and a lot of the world, 2017 wasn't great, but for my own personal life, 2017 was wonderful. 2017 was a year of completely new adventures. This was the first full year, in the 5 years we've been together, that Mark and I have spent together where we weren't long distance in some way. Which means everything we did was new from small stuff like grocery shopping to big stuff like exploring South Korea and international travel.
During this time together, we got to explore and settle into life in Seoul, South Korea. We found our favorite spots walk around and visit, our favorite places to eat, our favorite Korean foods, and many new places. We've come to appreciate so many things about Seoul, like the amazing subway system, the convenience stores on every corner, the street food, the huge malls, Lotte Tower in the skyline, the well-kept bike trails, and so much more. Korea truly became a home this year.
2017 brought us on our first international vacation together. We were blessed with the ability to travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia; Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Nha Trang, Vietnam for two weeks. We experienced cultures and foods we, especially me, never thought we would ever experience. This vacation was one of the highlights of my year; as someone who always wanted to travel, I'm so happy we were able to travel to these countries.
Now that 2017 is over, I'm excited about what 2018 has in store. We are in our last 6 months of our South Korea tour and we will be on to our next duty station. We're spending the last 6 months in Seoul trying to enjoy it as much as we possibly can. We know that if Mark ever comes down with orders to Korea again, we know for sure that we won't be in Seoul, so we plan to enjoy our last 6 months we will ever live in Seoul as much as we can. We will be travelling to our next duty station and visiting home in Summer 2018 and we're hoping that we will enjoy it. I'll announce where we're off too when its more set in stone and we have hard orders, but we are excited.
I currently don't have super planned resolutions for this year, but I have ideas that I'm working on solidifying. I want to read more and read books I wouldn't normally read. I want to spend more time working on my blog and interacting with you and other bloggers. I want to do better with documenting my life; I plan to take more pictures and more videos. I also want to be healthier, so cliche I know, but I need to start adulting and actually work out and nourish my body and my mind.
Overall, I have a good feeling about 2018 and the new adventures we will embark on.
How did 2017 treat you and how are you feeling about 2018?
See you soon :)
Kylie <3
A lifestyle blog covering many topics. Here you will find a abundance of different topics to include my life living in South Korea with my husband, tips, reviews, planning, cooking, and much more. Blogging about different subjects and my general life helps keep the blog fresh and interesting.
Showing posts with label Wrap Up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wrap Up. Show all posts
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Goodbye October 2017
Did it seem like October seemed to go by faster than any of the other months? It’s one of my favorite months since it starts my favorite time of year but I feel like it went by so fast that I didn’t even get to enjoy it. I still had a good month though.
Reading //
I read two books and got mostly done with one and halfway done with another. I read the second book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series and it was great. I had a hard time with it at first because I had read Daughter of Smoke and Bone freshman year of college, four years ago, and it took me a long time to remember what happened and get back into the world. Once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it but it took me a while to read because it was so hard to get into. This is not a series you should wait too long between books with. I also read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets because it was free with Kindle Unlimited and I really wanted to start using my new Kindle!
I am nearly done with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The Harry Potter books have been what I read in bed at night before I sleep since I can read on my Kindle without waking Mark up. I am also halfway through Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. I really wanted to finish both but didn’t in time.
Watching //
There haven’t been that many good movies in Korean theaters this month and the on-base theater hasn’t played anything good either, so no new movies this month. We did watch some Halloween movies from my Halloween list and that was a lot of fun. We also watched more of The Flash and of course, Stranger Things. We are watching it slowly since it’s only 9 episodes long and season 3 won’t be out until next October. But we’re really enjoying it.
Doing//
I decorated for fall and Halloween, of course. I would have gotten some more decorations had I had access to Target but alas, putting out the decorations we do have was fun. I also got a couple new Halloween mugs.
We went on a little mini hike with some friends to a little temple near where we live and we explored a botanical gardens which were beautiful.
We tried Indian food for the first time ever and really enjoyed it! We love finding places to eat that are close to us and not on the other side of Seoul. We also at a Beef & Leaf that’s down the street from our house that I originally hated but enjoyed this time around. So yay for finding new places to eat!
We live right by an Air Force base and they had an air show this month and the flight path was over our house. So we got to sit on our balcony and watch the jets do cool tricks and fly-bys. We also got to ride in a helicopter around Seoul for free through the military base! It was an incredible experience and such a great way to view the city.
Finally, we carved pumpkins and watched Charlie Brown. Mark did the Halo Game symbol and the Bat, I did the Jack-o-Lantern. It’s not Halloween for me if I can’t at least do those two things.
Overall, we had a fun month with a few new experiences and great new food!
November //
I’m so looking forward to Thanksgiving! This will be our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple, while he works that day, either we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving on another day or I’ll have Thanksgiving dinner cooked for when he gets home. I also can’t wait to start our Christmas celebrations as I am a Christmas fanatic.
How was your month and what are you looking forward to next month?
Talk to you soon!
Kylie <3
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Goodbye September 2017
Going through the month of September, it felt slow. Mark was gone on TDY for two weeks and while I can function without him, life is so much more fun with him. So those two weeks were long and sucked. However, the rest of the month was good, we had two four-day weekends framing his TDY which were wonderful. But also because of him being gone, we didn’t get to do a whole lot of stuff this month. Regardless, September was good and now that it’s over, it seems like it went by in the blink of an eye. Now that we are heading into fall and holiday season, my FAVORITE time of year, is going to seriously fly by.
Reading //
Last month was a good reading month but this month was kind of meh. I’m still in a reading rut, especially because I’m mainly in the mood for specific books and finishing series. However, I absolutely loved what I read. I finished the second half of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I started in August. Of course I loved this, it’s Harry Potter.
I also read the first book in the Percy Jackson series which I reviewed here. It quickly snagged a place in my heart and I’m super excited to have another series that struck me like the Harry Potter, Mistborn, and Chronicles of Nick did.
Finally, I read Endless by Jessica Shirvington which is book 4 of the Embrace series. This is a series that I love but forget that I love it when I’m not currently reading it. This book was so good and really kept me glued to the book. Especially the last 150-200 pages where I cried the entire time. The. Entire. Time. I sat for two hours while Mark played video games and read and cried and cried. My heart hurt after finishing it. Right now, I’m mad at the ending and I hope that book 5 ties up the series well. After finishing the book, I needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air and spend some time with Mark to get my bearings back. Even trying to tell him about it made me cry. I’m making it sound horribly sad but it was so good and not sad like Nicholas Sparks books.
Watching //
We didn’t go see any movies this month. I think it was a mixture of him being gone for two weeks, the theater on-post closing down one of their screens, and there not really being any good movies out in Korean Theaters.
I did watch more Gilmore Girls of course. I’ve made it through seasons 4 and I’m very upset and not liking Rory at the moment, but I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t watched it.
We also watched a lot of Rick & Morty. A few months ago, when Mark started watching it. I immediately decided that I didn’t like it because I normally hate adult swim type shows. The only ones I liked were Futurama and Bob’s Burgers. Eventually, I decided to try Rick & Morty because it seemed like EVERYONE loved it. Once I gave it a chance I loved it. We watched through seasons 1 and 2 over the past two months. Then when we started watching season 3, I realized that I wasn’t catching a lot of the references that season 3 made to seasons 1 and 2. So we went back and re-watched them and wow, I missed so much. I think because Netflix would move the show to the corner of the screen while it counted down to the next episode and we would miss the little ending bits that are after the credits. Now that we’ve re-watched it, I understand so much more and we’re almost done with season 3 which is really sad since who knows when season 4 will come out.
Doing //
We went swimming at the new Camp Humphries water park and it was so fun. We didn’t get to swim this summer because the pools on the bases closer to us suck and the pools off base are even worse and the water parks off base are insanely expensive and super crowded. We are the kind of people who are super active in the pool, we like diving, swimming, going down slides, and whatever else is available. So going to pools that are just a big square is pretty boring to us. The water park at Camp Humphries had slides and diving boards and was huge for an on-base pool, was cheap, and when we went, was practically empty! There weren’t lines for either slide or the diving board. It was great.
When Mark came home, we went to Oktoberfest on base and it was…pretty bad. The food wasn’t that great, though they had great mushroom gravy; the beer was okay, they had a local on tap and bottled German beer. There were also no activities like ones in the states that are like mini fairs. So, it was pretty boring. We ate and left and went our favorite pub to play some darts and just spend some time together.
We explored Namdaemun, Myeongdong (our favorite), Yeouido Park, and Yeouido Hangang park, went for a bike ride, ate a lot of food, and even tried a churro dog (a hot dog but the bun is a churro without the cinnamon) which was delicious.
Finally, we got couples pictures done and they turned out so great. It was our first time taking professional photos so we were really excited. Photos courtesy of Byrd Nest Photography taken at Namsan Park.
At the very end of the month, we went to our first Korean baseball game. I’m not into sports like at all, but some friends of ours invited us so we went and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The concessions were cheap which is so nice compared to America. They have cheerleaders and a spirit section for each team and it made the game much more interesting. The crowds really get into it and sing and dance. They got livelier as the night went on and even after the home team was for sure losing, they were still super lively. It made it so much more fun and it was funny watching Mark and the other husbands dance and act silly. It was worth it, even for someone who doesn’t like sports.
October //
I’m so excited for this month. I love Halloween. Normally, I go to 3 or 4 haunted houses but I don’t know if they do that here. I know for sure we’ll watch Halloween movies and carve pumpkins. I don’t know what else we’ll do since once again, Mark may be gone for training for two weeks.
What was the highlight of your September?
See you next week! :)
Kylie <3
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