Monthly Life Update: April 2018

Hey everyone, Happy May! I hope you all had an eventful April, a great Easter and managed to see some Spring blooms. As most of you know, I’m writing this update from Seoul! I moved back to Korea late last month after 1 year of being out the country and, oh my god, it’s so nice to be back! Do you have a country that feels like your second home? That’s Korea for me.. and although I didn’t always love living here, it’s a pretty special place that I have all kinds of nostalgia for.

I’ve been back for almost 2 weeks now…. say, what!? And I’ve been up to a fair bit- but I’ll tell you all about that in due time. For now, here my chat from April.

Where I’ve Been

Chiang Mai

I spent my final month in Chiang Mai doing the exact same things that I spent every other month doing: saying I’d go places and then barely dragging myself out of Nimman coffee shops. By the time it was my big leaving day, I didn’t want to leave at all. A tiny part of me wanted to sleep right through my 5 am alarm clock and save Korea for another time but I dragged myself up and go out to the airport. It seemed like my 5 months in Chiang Mai went by so quickly and I knew there would be a lot I’d miss about the easy breezy city.

My friends. The low cost of living. The lady who made chicken fried rice on my street. My awesome yoga studio. KHAO SOI.

My experience with leaving places always sems to be the same. A month before I go, I can’t get wait to get away, then, painfully, a few days before, the place digs its claws in and I don’t want to go.

And this was unsurprising really since April was such a fun month.

Thai’s celebrate Songkran, Thai New Year, in April and it’s something I recommend you experience at least once in your life! In Chiang Mai, the festival lasts for 5 days, making it the biggest celebration in the country. I spent one of the days getting right in aboot it with my Hello Kitty water gun- which couldn’t really compete with the jetpack water pistols and buckets everyone else had! The rest of the time, I got involuntarily “in aboot it” since, you can’t really escape Songkran, even if you want to!

I didn’t realise that my auld street in Santitham was actually going to be a bit of an epicentre for all the action. There was a guy sitting outside my apartment with a massive bucket of water and a bottle of whisky all weekend having a rare time to himself. I literally had to change my clothes every single time I left the house and time my trips out accordingly.

I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life- in Scotland, we think we love New Year but I think the Thais are outdoing us. It was literally 5 days of constant celebrations, Sangsom and soggy pants.

And then a few weeks later, it was time to leave! I was gutted. I made a fab Irish pal in Chiang Mai who I was gutted to say bye too. I’ve made a lot of friends in my past 4 years of being an expat but can count the amazing friends on one, maybe, two hands. So, it’s always a bit of a sting when I need to let good pals go. I’d love to sit here and say, I’ll make similar friends again soon but I know that’s probably not true. It is what it is.

But, I’m still glad to say that as soon as I touched down in Seoul, all my jitters about leaving Chiang Mai stopped! Which leads me to my next destination…

Seoul

I’m now a Seoulite- can you believe it? I actually only visited Seoul a handful of times when I lived in Korea so it’s crazy to be living here. Seoul is actually my favourite place in the whole country (maybe my favourite city in the world after Glasgow?) so I kind of pinch myself whenever I catch a glimpse of Namsan Tower or hear the jingle music playing on the subway.

It’s a wee bit sad how starstruck I’ve been by everything.

I’ve been settling back into life here pretty easily and, tbh, can’t imagine being anywhere else right now. There’s honestly so much to do that its kind of overwhelming. Art parks. Mural villages. Themed coffee shops. Quirky shopping districts. And, of course, all the touristy stuff that I’ve never got around to seeing on my previous dashing visits.

Seoul seems to be the perfect place for me. I have super fast WiFi, a million places to work from, I’m surrounded by a language that I’m loving learning, there are great blogging opportunities, good swatch and all my favourite food is here, too.

I was going to make a cheesy joke about Seoul being my soulmate but I’ll spare you the cringiness.

Since coming here, I’ve met up with Marie from Be Marie Korea, hosted an online entrepreneurship to a group of 6 amazing ladies and I’ll F I N A L LY be meeting up with Samantha from There She Goes Again. Sam and I both started our blogs at roughly the same times and have been pretty close internet pals ever since- she’s one of those people who it’s kind of weird to think I’ve never actually met before.

So buzzing for us to finally meet IRL!

And I also had the perfect day out in Gapyeong last week- after living in eternal summer for a year, I managed to experience Spring and Autumn, my two favourite seasons, both at the same time at The Garden of Morning Calm.

Hoping to be reporting back with even more cute day trip tales next month!

Any Other News?

I’ve got nae chat actually. Aside from my big move, it’s been back to normality for a bit! I’m sure I’ll have drama soon or a major life derailment soon, though- don’t worry.

Most Popular IG Pic

Awww, it seems like everyone else loves multicoloured Mexico just as much as I do!

A post shared by Nicole Arnott (@weegypsygirl) on Apr 18, 2018 at 4:15am PDT

On the Blog!

The Perfect 1 Month Mexico Itinerary

What’s Happening in May

This month is going to be all about discovering all the places in Seoul I’ve still not been to, publishing more blog content and doing more work. I’m basically just going to be living like a Seoul kid and giving you all the chat on Instagram and Facebook!

Until next month, all my love,

Nicole xx