What beautiful sunlight we have.
What nice breezy weather there is.
What pretty flowers are a bloom right now.
How nice to meet you again, Spring.
I am alive! If anyone here follows me on Instagram, there were a few more updates there than here in the past half a year or so. This seems to happen a lot doesn't it? But inspiration comes and goes with me I guess.
With the nice weather and bright sunlight around more often now, I felt like my room needed a little clean up. Hey, it isn't called Spring cleaning for nothing! Sunlight definitely makes all the dust specks more noticeable.
I also realized that I haven't shared how I stored my beauty goodies since 2012...that's a whopping 4 years time lapse! To be honest though my storage setup didn't change much in that time period. (If anyone is interested in the before situation, here's a link to my makeup and skincare storage in 2012.)
This bedside table I have has come a long way. Back in 2012, when I first moved in, it was my computer desk. After I finally found an actual table, it became a typical beside table..."Knick-knacks and Other Junk" drawer. As of now this single drawer system is the home to a good part of my beauty stash.
All my daily (or try to be daily) makeup and skincare goodies have a permanent home on top of the table. Everything is plain to see and easy to grab. I have found that I am super inconsistent with skincare, let alone makeup. If things are hidden or difficult to get to, it is more than likely that I will not even bother to reach for it. This way I set myself up to use these products. So far, so good!
Other than the repurposing of the bedside table, my makeup organization situation really had not changed much over the years. However, last year, I had the sudden urge to go through everything in my makeup collection. This was in the midst of the whole "simplify your life" and "downsize now" trend. Plus, I knew in the back of my head that there were just some things that I was holding on to for way too long. So it herald the "Great Beauty Purge of 2015 for Mandy"!
I tossed away many many tubes of old BB Creams, powder products, and lip products during the purge. It felt so nice afterwards to be left with a somewhat reasonable collection. The process knocked some sense into me: don't buy so much since you can't use it up fast enough! (Hence the lack of haul posts. But don't be fooled, I have bought beauty goodies here and there. The purchases are just so sparse that I forget to take record of it.)
Now all the makeup items that used to sit in 4 separate drawers (1 for foundations and concealers, 1 for powders and blushes, 1 for eye and lips, and 1 for brushes) sit perfectly in 1 giant drawer. The location of it also helps since I do my day and night routines right to the left of this bedside table.
Now the IKEA Expedit drawers that used to house my opened makeup stash has been filled with the new and unopened items in my collection. All the cushion refills I hoarded in Korea, eyeliners and mascaras, masks, etc. everything separated to, again, be more easy to see. I used to keep everything in one basket but it is really hard to tell just how much of what I was hoarding when things are piling on top of everything else.
*Imagine another image with a drawer of nail polishes and nail decorating things. I forgot to take a photo of that and am too excited to post to make up the shot now.
The other part of my skincare routine of course are the very important cleansers. Ever since I started using makeup and sunscreen, cleansing oils have been my one and only remover friends. (Okay, I strayed once or twice with cleansing waters but I figured out oils were the ones for me.) As the trend of my storage goes, these guys sit out in the open as well on the bathroom counter. No excuses! Must take off everything before bed!
*Again, please imagine inside the bathroom cabinets there are other new cleansing, exfoliating, and hair products waiting to be used.
Ahh, there! My first post of 2016. My new and tidied beauty collection and storage.
Hope you enjoyed if anyone is still following my little blog!
How has your makeup collection changed, if it has?
Yonsei University campus
The lovely campus of Yonsei~ This city girl was thoroughly amazed by how well kept the landscaping was. One of my regrets of the study abroad trip was not taking the chance to fully explore all of Yonsei University.
Chicken doshirak from Obong Doshirak at SK Global House
Obong Doshirak is apparently a chain lunchbox restaurant in Korea. I have only seen (or noticed) it at the SK Global House dorm building. My friends and I loved the convenience and variety they had to offer. Even though some of the portions may look to be on the smaller side, it was actually a very fulling meal. For those that are bigger eaters, they also offer combo lunch boxes.
Day 11 marked the first day of Korean language classes. After the fact that I was actually going to be in Korea, being able to learn Korean in an official class setting was the second most exciting part of my study abroad experience. The first lesson we had involved a lot of emphasis on pronunciation.
I don't remember exactly the situation, but judging by my dinner meal it seems like everyone had a busy school night. Eating in? No problem! A few convenience store food options can make a hearty meal.
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What I thought would be a not-so-interesting school day on day 12 ended in a surprising way.
Sogogi doshirak from Obong Doshirak
Since this was our first week of classes, I wasn't daring enough to venture outside of school grounds for my meal between classes. Obong Doshirak seemed like an obvious choice since the first lunchbox was pretty tasty and it's right by the dorms and Korean language center.
The second day in the Korean language course was all about forming words. From the way different letters of the Korean alphabet (hangul 한글) can and can't be combined to how the combinations are pronounced.
Once the Korean language course ended and I made by way back to my dorm room, my computer greeted me with a charging issue. Wonderful!...Where was I going to get my MacBook issue resolved in Korea at night? The hunt was on.
Jeju doshiak from Obong Doshirak
Before trekking to fix my computer issue, the tummy needed to be filled. A quick dinner was definitely much needed. Thus my third meal from Obong Doshirak in 2 days! Perhaps this is some kind of food record for me? So much fried food and eating from the same restaurant so frequently is not ordinary for me.
During my frantic research, I found that Apple didn't actually have an official store in Korea. Considering that Samsung and LG are Korean companies and the most popular brands in Korea, it makes sense that there wasn't an Apple store.
I only managed to find a bunch of authorized Apple retailers via blog posts. Most of which seemed like they were near Gangnam, which was a good 45+ minute subway ride from Yonsei University. Luckily I recognized a name of one of the retailers, Frisbee, being in Hongdae. I didn't notice when we first passed by it but Frisbee in Korea is practically like the official Apple store.
I was shocked by the cost of the laptop charger that I needed (close to ₩100,000 or ~USD$100). If I didn't already research how much this would cost back home (USD$79) and this happened near the end of my trip, I would have seriously considered not purchasing the replacement whilst in Korea.
What happened on the first day of class probably isn't the most interesting of days to share, at least not in my case. But food-wise, I think this day deserves it's own dedicated post.
Convenience store breakfast
A simple breakfast from the GS25 convenience store in the dorm building. In the mornings, students clear out the kimbap section to fill their tummies. I don't normally eat rice for breakfast but I ended up having triangle kimbap and rolled kimbap almost daily on school days. Most likely because of how abundant & affordable they are in the convenience stores, cafes, and cafeterias on campus. It is everywhere!
Stationary store buy
Asia's the land of cute stationary! How could I resist? Brings back memories of when I used to buy loads of cutesy paper, notepads, stickers, and mechanical pencils. Now that most of those stores have closed shop in New York, seeing similar stationary shops in Korea made me feel all giddy inside.
Student Union lunch - Bulgogi gratin
School cafeteria food, at least from the accounts I've heard, always tend to be just alright or even not that great. But the cafeteria eats at Yonsei was far from it. Most buildings on campus have their own cafeteria or small chain restaurants/cafes. If I remember correctly, all the cafeterias serve something a little different: Korean, Japanese, Western, etc.
The bulgogi gratin from the Student Union building was so delicious and hearty. Layer of rice, bulgogi (beef), onions and peppers, melty cheese, and tteok (rice cake) all in one dish. This was definitely calling my name! While I ate this during the hot summer, I can imagine enjoy it so much more on a cool fall or wintery day.
Korean Placement Exam @ KLI
I ended up taking 2 courses during my summer session at Yonsei: an Asian Art History course and a Korean language course. The first day of classes meant taking a placement exam to figure out which level of Korean I fell in. There is the option to opt out of the exam for those who know absolutely no Korean at all. But since I was capable of at least reading some words, just not understand what I read, I gave the placement test a try.
Once I went into the exam, I was immediately overwhelmed. Even though I could make out what the words said, I had no idea what it meant or how to respond. I wasn't however regretful of attempting the exam because I was placed with other students who were in the same position as I. This meant our class didn't cover the basics as intensively as other classes, which I was very content with.
Since it was the first day of class, we ended up trying to find dinner somewhere in Sinchon near Yonsei-ro (yup there's a car-less road near the university that bear Yonsei's name). I think this was the first time our group was surprised by how quickly restaurants close shop. We found recommendations for restaurants on blogs that were probably only a year or so old, yet when we got to the address it didn't seem like such an establishment ever existed.
Yukhoe Jijon 육회지존
Bossam 보쌈 & Tteokgalbi 떡갈비
After wandering around the small neighborhood streets of Sinchon, Yukhoe Jijon was our ultimate decision. I don't think we realized at the time, But this restaurant is apparently famous for their yukhoe (beef tartar). Most tables had ordered the raw beef dish. I think our group wasn't too keen on eating raw meat and passed up on that opportunity.
We ended up ordering bossam (boiled pork belly) and tteokgalbi (minced beef and pork patty) for our dinner. Unlike other bossam I've had, Yukhoe Jijon served theirs on a steamer to keep the meat warm. They also do not skimp on the meat portions either.
Korean convenience store ice cream - Hershey ice cream cone
Oh the dangers of having such easy access to ice cream at night. Let's just say this is one of the many ice cream and ice cream-like items I had in Korea that summer, ssshhhhh!
