Four Tips to Make Getting Up Early Easier

Last week I wrote a post about Four Things I Should Stop Doing In My 20s and one of them is sleeping all day. I usually stay up all nights and it’s a real struggle to get out of my bed at a reasonable time in the morning. Here are a few tips that make getting up early easier.

1. Go to bed earlier: These days instead of going to bed at 1 or 2 A.M. or sometimes even later I go to bed at 11 P.M. at the latest. That way I get enough sleep and it makes getting up a whole lot easier.
2. Put your alarm on the other side of the room: I am one of those persons that hits the stop button instead of snooze, rolls over and sleeps for another 4 hours before realizing I am horribly late. Even though having to jump out of bed to turn the damn thing off, it was one of the best decisions I made.
3. Implement a 30 buffer: I usually set my alarm on 7.30 but while the music is playing I usually roll around in my bed for about 30 minutes before actually getting up. And even though I did this I am still up early.
4. And last but not least, once you are awake and got out of your bed make yourself a majestic breakfast, my current favorite is French Toast topped with banana and syrup. But even a simple slice of bread with nutella could be a real treat.

What methods do you use to get out of bed? and what time do you get up?

Love, Wietske.

5 Ways to deal with Reverse Homesickness

Everyone knows the feeling of being homesick, longing for home, for a place where you feel comfortable and at ease. People feel sorry for you, try to comfort you and eventually send you home.

However reserve homesickness is something that gets laughed about. People keep on telling you that you just need another holiday while in fact you feel lost, not at home in a place other people tell you is your home. That combined with an extreme longing for in my case Korea caused me a serious depression.

A depression that would only go away when I was back in Korea and would come back as soon as I came back home.

However I finally feel that I have overcome this feeling of sadness, I still know and feel that I don’t belong here in the Netherlands but I can deal with it now. And here are 5 tips how you can too.

Go sightseeing; Yes, in your own town. Go on adventures, try new bars, new restaurants, new stores see your place not as a town where you return to your same old boring life, see it as a new adventure.

Get active; By exercising your body releases pheromones which make you feel happy, even if you hate exercising, find something you like, such as walking, dancing around the house, riding your bicycle.

Meet Friends; Whenever I feel extremely homesick I just want to sleep all day and cry in a corner. This is not a solution to the problem. Go out, meet your friends, take you friends to said new bars and talk about past memories. Laugh together and make plans for new adventures.

Be Sad;  There is nothing wrong with crying your eyes out every once in a while. There is nothing wrong with wanting to go back to that time and place where you are happiest. Just make sure you don’t get stuck in the moment and if you are really slowly rolling into a depression seek help!

Go back; That doesn’t mean you have to go back tomorrow. No, just make plans. Think about it; talk about it. Tell your family how you feel about it and your absolute need to go back. Ease your family and friends back into the idea of you going back for a longer and longer.

Did you guys ever suffer from reserve homesickness? What did you battle this?

Love, Wietske

All About Hangeul

Last week while I was going through piles and piles of paper and notes of my time as a Korea studies mayor I found some quite useful information.

It was a piece of paper my Korean language teacher gave me with links to websites about  Korean alphabet or Hangeul.

The first one is all about the history of Hangeul and the Korean language in general. There are also great recordings of pronunciation of the Korean alphabet. Please note that with the pronunciation of the consonants they say the name of the letter and not just the pronunciation of the letter. However here is a quick tip for you; the way the name of the letter is pronounced reveals how the letter itself is pronounced at the beginning and the end of a syllable. For example the ㄹ or r/l it is pronounced as rieul or 리을 which means at the beginning of the word is pronounced as an R at the beginning of a syllable and at the end it is pronounced as an L.

The next two websites are both have great explanation of how each letter fits in a syllable with the only difference that one has audio that explains the pronunciation and the other has not.

Last but not least for the people who thrive by someone explaining it in a clear manner in a classroom like situation here are 2 videos for you . The first  explains the principle of creation of Korean alphabet and its historical background and vowels and consonants and their phonetic value.

The second video explains ending consonants and its phonetic value and write and read syllables.  The videos are a bit on the long side but defiantly worth watching for someone who really wants to learn Korean.

I hope you find this information useful, if you have other great websites explaining Hangeul. Feel free to share in the comment section below.

Love, Wietske

6 Tips for Friendship

Inspired by this particular post I want to write about friendship.

Since I live abroad,  friendship for me is probably more important than my family bonds, however it is way more fragile and not as everlasting. Here are some tips on how to get most out of your friendships.

Pay the bill: Don’t go Dutch on your friends. I don’t ever split the bill with my friends, unless we are with a large crowd. Take turns in paying the bills, it always leaves me with a special feeling. Either I treat a friend or my friends treats me to something nice while we had a good time together AND most importantly we don’t have to fight about how to split the bill to the last penny or get out our calculators because one of us had one more drink.

Give: I love giving gifts and receiving them. I love to see the excitement on my friends face and it leaves me feeling wonderful if I found or made something that brings a smile to my friends face.

Support: I try to support my friends in every decision they make, even if it might seem like a bad one. Sure I try to talk them out of really bad decisions but I don’t push. I am not their mum nor dad and there are probably enough people who told them they are wrong. Support them, and if thinks don’t go as planned at least they have learned their own lesson.

Listen: Let them whine, complain, and ramble on if they want too. Sometimes people just need to want to get things of their chest without any interruption. Let them talk, but listen! Give them advise or encouraging words when needed. Don’t just stare into space unless you want the same treatment.

Make memories: Do things, take pictures of it, and keep remembering it for the rest of your life. People you forget are often the people who you don’t share any crazy memories with. Even just a quick message that mentions a certain event can instantly refresh a slightly worn down friendship. However if you don’t have any memories in common  friendships die a slow and painful death.

Let it go: The most important tip however is although energy is needed to let a friendship exist sometimes when things just cost too much energy and you are not gaining anything positive just let it go. It is not worth it, find someone better because even though your friends are important. Your own feelings are more important. And who knows maybe the sudden stop of attention makes your friend realize what they are missing out on!

What are the things you do to keep your friendship going? Do you talk every day? have weekly meetups? tell me, I am curious since I still have a lot to learn.

Love, Wietske

Review: Yes, you can speak Korean!

I got this book the second time I left Korea from one of my Korean friends so I could improve my Korean during the 4 months I would be gone. An incredibly kind gesture but slighty insulting as well. By that point I had been studying Korean for a year but the book -Yes, you can speak Korean! – is meant for children, age ranging anywhere between 3 and 6+.

I did, however, learn something from this book when I opened it for this review. Because although there is no grammar explanation nor any audio to go with this book there were a few words that I did not yet know.

Another thing I appreciate about this book is the fact that it has answer sheets. Something that is not always commonly available.

If you have the money you could purchase the book because it does seem great for studying Hangeul (the Korean alphabet). It has separate chapters for each letter BUT you do need the help of a native speaker to get your started on the correct pronunciation.

So do you really want a book to spend 26 dollars on a book that doesn’t get you anywhere? Probably not, instead check these websites I myself used to learn Hangeul.

I do not recommend this book for people like me trying to study Korean on their own. Just as the intro of the book states – it is probably best used for children of Korean parents or going to Korean school to get a better knowledge of written Korean.

 If there are any other Korean resources you want me to review, leave me a message and I will see what I can do for you.

Love,

Wietske