I’ve been away for almost one month and I’ve just been enjoying life: Small trips, new restaurant discoveries, cafés, a little bit of shopping, meeting with friends, going on dates, etc.
These days I’ve been thinking about the speed of life. A long time ago I read somewhere that time seems to go faster when you’re an adult and man, they weren’t kidding, but…sometimes it feels like people these days are making it go even faster than it already is. These thoughts come from a series of events that happened during the last few weeks.
A few weeks ago I came across a post on Facebook of someone asking for recommendations on where to visit in a city close to Seoul. One of the answers said “You can go visit the relatively new Starfield Mall”. My jaw dropped and I thought “Relatively? Relatively?!”.
The mall opened three months ago, what do you mean relatively new?! That mall is new!
Another day my friend and I were discussing the features of new phones. At one point she goes “New phones are like that nowadays” while holding up her phone and then immediately said “Well no, mine isn’t new anymore.” She was talking about a phone she bought back in February of this year. So now a four months old phone is no longer new…? Yikes!
Finally, a few days ago my partner and I were taking a walk through the campus of the recently built apartment complex next to ours on our way back home. As we talked about how cool the complex was he says: “But ours is really nice too, even if it’s not new anymore”. Our building complex was opened in December 2023 and we moved in on January of this year, making it 6 months old.
What the heck is going on?! I don’t know about you but, to me, all of those things I just mentioned are still new! Doesn’t it feel like the speed of the internet is seeping into real life? How can the novelty of things wear out this quickly? We need to slow down!
As cliché as it may sound, we really need to take a moment to stop and really appreciate things from time to time and be in the moment. Real life things shouldn’t be as disposable as the things we see online.
What I’ve been up to…
Camping Restaurant in Jung-gu, Incheon
Glamping is very popular in South Korea these days but we recently discovered a new concept perfect for the summer: A camping restaurant. This brand new restaurant was opened in the first floor of a repurposed fish market so it’s huge. The whole floor is full of tents but it’s indoors and you have air conditioning to stay away from the humid heat of the korean summer.
You buy your meat, your drinks and you prepare everything yourself in your personal grill, included with the tent. I know most people go camping to be in touch with nature but this is a really fun, interesting concept if you want to have the “camping vibes” but without the heat and the bugs. The tents are arranged in a way that you don’t really face any of the other tents, so it still feels very private.
Pool Villa in the Mountains
My complex still hasn’t opened the pool for some cursed reason and I really love swimming so we decided to go to a pension with a private, indoor pool. Once we got there it turned out the pool was waaay smaller than I thought but I didn’t mind at all. This villa is in Gapyeong, to the north of Seoul.
A Small Taste of Europe in South Korea
Since we were in Gapyeong we also stopped by Petite France and the Italian Village, two very unique theme parts. Italian Village is focused on the story of Pinocchio and it also has an impressive exhibition about Leonardo Da Vinci.
Petite France, on the other hand, was mostly focused on the life and work of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and his beloved masterpiece, The Little Prince. They even had a reproduction of his home with legitimate items and even parts of the original structure of his home brought from France.
Hope you have a good weekend and see you next time!