Price of Beauty

  While Nay was in Korean we shopped up a storm at all my favorite cosmetics stores - Etude House, Missha (I have a loyalty card), Face Shop and Innisfree. All awesome places to get cool make up and other body products. Yet it makes me wonder... where is the line for buying beauty products?
Since I have been in Korea I know I both buy and wear more make up and other cosmetics. Is this because its so cheap, or is it something else?

  Not gonna lie, I have actually had a net gain of 2 kilos since arriving last year... So am I compensating my weight gain by wearing more make up? Possibly. There is pressure here to look good at all times, not so much because everyone else looks great (they don't) but I feel its more because of how we, as foreigners, react the the brutal honesty of Korean people. For example, I have been told multiple times by co-workers that my diet isn't working. I am also told that I look tired, that they don't like what I have done with my hair today, or that I have hairy arms. Geez, I can't help my arms!!!

  So, on a weekend, I will end up doing face masks to minimize blackheads and clear up my skin. I either wax or veet my arms, I make sure my hair roots don't get too dark, I wear my BB cream to school and always wear mascara. I keep my nails painted, and I am now addicted to the foot peels you get from Tony Moly, so I can have baby soft feet. I have also become OCD about suncream (not necessarily a bad thing) and no longer wear low cut tops. I am also about to get onto a serious lose weight kick - gonna get some gym time in and get back into walking and maybe start small hikes around the area.

WHO THE FUCK AM I DOING THIS FOR?

  In a way I am doing it for myself and my mental health. I know that I am being constantly watched, and I know I am being judged. No one knows me as a person, so they judge me in the only way possible - my appearance. If I am too fat they will think me lazy, so I must lose weight. If I have no make up on, then I will be perceived as tired. Bad hair? Dirty. If I take pride in my appearance I am thought to be a better person. I remember overhearing a discussion about me in the staff room between teachers from our school and 2 from another school - "Your foreign teacher is much prettier than ours" and me thinking woooo awesome! When I really should have thought omg that poor girl from whatever school they are from. How can her school tell other people this stuff, and why the hell should it matter???
  But it does.

  Something Nay thought was hilarious about the TV here was all the ads for products to make yourself more beautiful. I wish we had more of a chance to get the subway around Seoul so she could have seen all the deals for plastic surgery, all the before and after pics that line the walls. It makes for an interesting trip. And the advertising works! I buy the No. 1 selling BB cream in Asia, cos I saw it on TV. I copy nail designs that the starts are wearing. And I want my teeth whitened and to have dimples cosmetically put into my face to make me cuter.

BONNIE CAN YOU HEAR YOURSELF?

  Once I was finishing up a class with the grade 6 kids, and at the end one of the girls came up and asked me if I was wearing (contact) lenses. I said no, this is my real eye colour. She asked if she could take a picture, because she wants to get lenses the same colour as my eyes. I was like, sure why not? The one big thing they don't like are my freckles... They think its a shame my white skin has ugly brown spots. "Don't worry, teacher... doctor can fix it". Phew!

 I can hear myself, and I agree its not healthy... Yet I am still wearing my full face and looking at my arms thinking they are too hairy, and looking at my belly thinking its too big and trying to decide if I have the motivation to do anything about it yet. I guess the pressure is finally getting to me, because otherwise why blog about it???

Fame

My star is on the rise!

For the second time in as many weeks my ego has been inflated by attention form the online community - keep it coming I say.

YouTube

  As some of you are aware, I have a YouTube channel (if you didn't know, feel free to check it out here) which is slowly getting more hits. I don't post videos as often as I should, but I intend on changing this in the next few weeks. I have some ideas coming up that I think people may like.

  

  Anyway the other week I received an email from some committee about how there is a big cosmetics convention happening in South Korea, and that they came across the vlog I did regarding Cosmetics in Korea and how much I love freebies (I was actually at Innisfree last night buying make-up wipes and got a heap of free samples from them too... So much love). They emailed me and asked if it was ok if they showed my video at their conference. I was like YES OF COURSE YOU CAN. I mean, it was nice that they asked, but the video is public so they could have taken it without me even knowing. Who knows if they are legit or not but whatever. The info for the upcoming event is here, and its called the Cosmetics & Beauty Expo Osong Korea 2013. So have a look and tell me if you think its legit or not. Either way, it's another step closer to fame.

  Now, at this point I only have 7 subscribers (I wish there were more but this is my fault), but my videos have been viewed 830 times and have no dislikes. Always a good sign... And some of my videos have been added to people's favorites lists (also a good sign). Interestingly enough my most watched videos are my self introduction, which I prepared for job interviews in Korea, and my room tour. So from that I am deducing that Korvia is sharing my video (which I totally don't mind, they actually asked last year if that was ok) and that there are a fair few people out there who are curious as to what their accommodation will be like once they get to Korea. I did the same thing before I came out here - I went YouTube trolling to try and find out what the area was like and how i'd be living. So it makes me happy that perhaps I have helped people out. I am becoming an unofficial expert on all things ESL Korea. And on that note...

Cover Girl

  That's right folks, yours truly is on the cover of the 2013 GEPIK Orientation book. If you recall, back in September I blogged about my time at the GEPIK conference (see it here if you have forgotten) which I attended as an introduction to teaching in South Korea. At the time, there were organizers who wandered around taking photos and videos for future promo events of whatever. I was snapped in a few of them, and I remember being distinctly disappointed that I was not in many of the pics they showed on the final day. Being as photogenic and amazing as I am, I thought I would have featured more... Little did I know that my true rise to stardom had not yet materialized. Citizens, may I present to you the 2013 GEPIK Orientation booklet:

  That's me, on the cover, with my equally beautiful friend Shanda. New (and some old) teachers from all over Korea who are part of the GEPIK program are looking at me thinking "wow, not only is she beautiful but she must know heaps about Korea because she is on the cover". And they would be right. Kinda... 

  Because lets be honest, do any of us really know what is going on in Korea? Even my Korean friends don't know what is going on... The country has this air of not knowing about it, which I love. But that's for another day. Today we are focusing on me. Wuahahahahahaha

  Now all I need is to get my Drama going and I will totally be famous. And hopefully have a bit more motivation to stop chowing down on carbs.

In other news...

  Yes, Jess got married. It was beautiful and cheesy at the same time. I could go on and on about it but I won't, it really needs an entire thread about it. There were highs and lows, the main low being that she is now on her honeymoon in Bali having an amazing time and I am freezing at school with no boyfriend, let alone a husband. Meh. 

  There were also minor dramas in the sense that all us foreign guests wanted to go drinking for a bit after the wedding, so we bundled ourselves into a few taxi's and headed to the bar area. Now, here is a classic reason why we all need to speak a bit more Korea. People got lost. It was no ones fault, but what we have to all keep in mind is that out Korean friends are our FRIENDS, not our translator service. And while I am sure they love to help us out and are happy to do so, lets all be appreciative and thankful when they do, not crapped off if WE, the foreigners, get something wrong. And lets all go to Korean class and try and learn a bit more so we don't need to burden our friends. And anyway, I would love to be able to have an awesome conversation in Korean with my friends, rather than relying on their awesome English abilities. The communication thing should work both ways. And, we are all capable of looking up bus timetables and train schedules so lets do it. Minor rant over.

  Regarding rants, I had some feedback from my last blog, where I got up on my high horse about pictures of animal cruelty. Please, keep protesting against the abuse of animals. I encourage all people to be aware of these issues, as I am an activist myself. I can and do get preachy at times about certain issues and the treatment of animals at the slaughter point is one that really needs to be promoted. I am simply frustrated and at times offended at the way that people go about the education of these facts. If you want to include the pics then do so - in the form of a link. Then people can choose to click or not click. And yes, this does negate the shock factor a bit, but at least we can choose. How many times have we left our browsers open? Millions? What about if you had a kid who was looking on your fb and they saw pics of puppies being thrown into boiling water? Not nice. But I agree that people need to be made aware, I am in no way discouraging people from protesting or campaigning. But please do it tactfully. 

  School is going well this week, I actually feel like I am making more of a contribution to the class. In fact today I took the gr 5 classes myself - Co was not feeling well and left the class to me. I don't think they learnt much but luckily yesterday I met the photocopier and now I think I can make photocopies of worksheets and such for some time wasting. Yay for me. 

  Thats about all I have for now, but stay tuned for other fun things I am planning in the future. The weather is getting better and I am going to put a bit more time and attention into my YouTube. And as always, feel free to email me or comment anything you are thinking or feeling, I love the feedback. 

I can be Tweeted, Tumblred, Facebooked, gmailed, YouTubed or blogged. I am all over this social media shit so hit me up I love to chat.

Bye :)