job interview...

So, the plan after our wedding is to move to South Korea for at least a year.

Naturally, I am ridiculously excited, and have already started applying for jobs!

Today, I had a job interview through a recruiting company.  Well, I guess it was more an interview to see if I'm suitable enough for them to place me with one of the schools they work with.

I am hoping to get a job in Ulsan, another coastal city (yay!).  I just loved living on the coast when I was in Korea, and I can't imagine living in a non-coastal city.

Of course, it's really early to be applying, so they're putting me on a wait list, and they will contact me when the time for applying gets a little closer.

I think the interview went well, anyway.  I can't wait to see what sort of job offers I get :)

In other news!  Here is a picture of the extent of my current loose leaf tea obsession:

I have a feeling that there will be even more tea in my future... this doesn't even include the cupboard full of tea bags that I have :/

Anyway, I'm off to watch a wee bit o TV... I'm having a lazy day at home, today :)

Toodles, lovelies! <3

wedding dresses...

I get to go wedding dress shopping on Saturday!  I'm so excited!

I'm going to a bridal salon here in Edmonton to try on some dresses to hopefully get a better idea of what I really want.

I have fallen madly in love with this dress, but, of course, it is much too expensive.  I'm really loving dresses with that sort of vintage vibe.

I'm probably going to order my dress online.  I found a few that I quite like... ALMOST as much as that Alfred Angelo.

This one.

This one.

And this one.

I'm thinking the A-line Strapless Court Train Tulle And Lace Wedding Dress might be the real winner here, I love the styling of it, and the mixture of tulle and lace.

Here's hoping I get a good idea of what looks nice on me!  I can't wait to try on some lovely dresses :)

Well, off to learn some more Korean!  I think it's starting to stick, finally!

Toodles, lovelies!

engagement photos...

OUR ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS ARRIVED TODAY!

I am so excited, they turned out great!

So, of course, I am going to share them with you all!  It'll be okay, there's only eleven of them...

Doing the photo shoot was so much fun, and our photographer was amazing!  I think she did such a great job :)  I can't wait for her to do our wedding photos.

Also, here is a picture of a peacock that I took at the Calgary Zoo... it has nothing to do with this post, I just like it.

In other news, I think I pulled a muscle in my neck, because my neck, shoulder, and upper back are totally flashing with red hot pain, and I am basically immobile.  It's the same shoulder that I dislocated last summer... I hope I didn't re-injure it.  Yikes.

Anyway, I am going to carry on learning Korean, and trying to make sense of the stuff I just learned.  I am currently in the midst of learning subject marking particles and topic marking particles, and they seem entirely irrelevant and unnecessary to me... so I gotta try and make them seem necessary, I guess :/

Toodles, lovelies!

my brain is swimming...

I've been trying to learn Korean, because I want to actually have a grasp on the language for when I make my return to Korea next September... and my head is swimming.  Why is learning a new language so difficult??

I do a few lessons each night, and then, on my lunch hour at work, I review the lessons, hoping to retain just a little more information.  This seems like it will be a lengthy process, but I don't want to quit!  I want to have a working knowledge of the language!

Hopefully it starts to all come together.

Right now, I'm using Talk to Me in Korean.  It's a really great website, and all of the lesson include audio and pdfs.  The narrators speak excellent English, and they speak slowly enough and repeat themselves often, so it makes it a little easier.  I'm going to work my way through the lessons on here, and then work my way through the Rosetta Stone lessons... I ordered them the other day.

I'm excited to be learning Korean, but part of me worries that I will just get frustrated and quit... I really hope not!

In different news, I've become tea obsessed lately!  Fiance and I went to this new store in West Edmonton Mall called Teavana, and it was like out own little slice of heaven!  I've been to David's Tea before, and bought a few things... but it wasn't until my trip to Teavana that I got all tea crazy.  I bought a few satchets of different types of teas, and and iced tea pitcher/steeper combo... and I just can't get enough!  Neither can Fiance.  He loves unsweetened iced tea, and I like mine a little sweeter, so I steep some tea in the pitcher (experimenting with different tea combinations, of course), put it in the fridge, let it cool, and VOILA!  Unsweetened iced tea for fiance, and all I have to do is add a packet of Splenda!

It really is the perfect weather for iced tea, read: too hot!  It's definitely a refreshing choice, and much healthier than all of those pre-made iced teas or iced tea mixes!

Well, I'm going to carry on with my Korean lessons!

Toodles, lovelies!

well, well, well...

Where to begin?

Well...

I met fiance on OkCupid.  He was date number eleventy billion.... I was losing hope by this point, to be honest.

Our first date was kind of impromptu.  Well, I knew it was going to HAPPEN, on the DAY that it happened... I just didn't know what TIME.

I was in the midst of writing my final exams, and I had just gone to McDonald's for iced coffee and a cheese burger, and was just getting into my apartment where I was hoping to enjoy these delicacies (hah!), when my phone rang, and fiance was on the other end of the line.  He wanted to meet up right then to hang out.

"But... cheeseburger..." was my first thought.

Then I put it in the fridge, sacked up, and told fiance I would meet him at the normal coffee shop where I met every single other guy... I AM TERRIBLE.

He sounded nice enough, anyway... I had a good feeling about this one... just like the rest, haha.

I got to the coffee shop super early, as per usual, and sat waiting for him to show up.  When he arrived, he showed up with this beauty:

Yes, lovelies, that is a bouquet of fruit!  How adorable is that?!

In all of my first dates, not a single guy even brought flowers, let alone something as creative as a bouquet of fruit!

We talked for hours, and it only seemed like minutes... we had the amazing connection that I had been hoping for, and things just grew from there.

Fiance drinking coffee, not our first date.

We had our first date on December 20th, by April, I was living with him, by May we were discussing what we thought would be nice places to get married, then we got engaged, started booking things for our wedding, and now here we are!

The ring he gave me is lovely, it was his mother's ring:

I love it so much, and I get goosebumps every time I look at it and think of him!

There is fiance and I during a hike at Mount Edith Cavell.

Our wedding is going to be at the Devonian Gardens in the Japanese garden... it's such a beautiful venue, and I am so excited that we were able to book it!

Those are just a few photos from a previous trip to the garden!  It's such a great location for a wedding, and we were able to do our engagement photos there, as well!  I can't wait to share those with you all!

Well, that's the long and the short of our little love story so far... the future holds big plans for us... he's agreed to give Korea a try for a year!  I'm so excited to take him to one of my favourite places in the world, and to share that adventure, again, with you all!

Anyway, I should be in bed, I have work in the morning.

Talk to you all later!

Toodles, lovelies <3

it's been a long, long time...

Hello, blog friends!

I'm sorry it has been so long since we have had a chance to catch up. I know I made promises to keep in touch, and I clearly broke those promises, so here's hoping a simple apology will suffice... I'm sorry!

Well, I have been incredibly busy the last while. I went on a series of rather terrible dates that lead up to me meeting the man of my dreams, and I am now proud to call him my fiancé...

Yes, that's right... Fiancé!

I am now in the midst of planning our dream wedding, set for May 18th of next year. We have the location booked, the caterer booked, the invitations made, the guest list decided upon... And I get to go dress shopping this Saturday! Every day I wake up entirely excited for what is to come!

Well, I am going to try my damndest to keep this little blog updated, and maybe tomorrow I'll upload some pictures from our latest adventures, and introduce you to fiancé!

Toodles, my loves!