‍I gave birth in 2023 in South Korea and spent 2 weeks at a Sanhujoriwon (산후조리원 - commonly known as a joriwon), a Korean postpartum care centre. I wanted to share it to help other foreign women in South Korea who are curious about what it is like. My experience left me feeling major culture shock and a lot of guilt as I faced several challenges during my stay.‍

What is a Joriwon?

‍A Joriwon is a Korean postpartum care facility where women stay to recover from giving birth. Joriwons provide 24/7 care for babies in a nursery buzzing with expert staff who whisk their way around nappy changes, baths and bottle feeds like they’re conducting some kind of tiny baby orchestra.

While the baby whisperers work their magic, mothers can relax and recover in a hotel-style room with meals delivered to their door, yoga sessions, massages, visits from breastfeeding experts, and endless supplies of paraffin wax to dip their achy hands into.

The Joriwon I went to cost around $4,600* AUD for a 2-week stay. The high cost of my stay factored into a lot of the guilt that I felt for wanting to leave.

Are there cheaper options for new mothers?

In Korea, public postpartum centres are available in some regions as an alternative to private Joriwons. The Songpa Maternity Care Center in Seoul costs 1.9 million won for 2 weeks, more than half the cost of the average Joriwon stay (4.19 million won).

Support is also available for helpers who come and stay at your house (Doumis) during your postpartum period, as well as stipends that can be put toward your Joriwon stay upon giving birth. The Korean government has many incentives in place for new families to address the nation’s low birth rate, which increased to 0.75 in 2024, up from 0.72 the previous year (for reference, the global fertility rate was 2.2 births per woman in 2024).

My stay at the Joriwon included...

• A suite with a king sized bed, bassinet, living room, TV, fridge and bathroom

• 24 hour care for baby

• 1 x prenatal massage

• 2 x postpartum massages

• 3 x meals per day

• 3 x snacks per day

• 2 x private yoga sessions (15 mins each)

• Daily laundry service

• Breast pump rental

• Visit from a breastfeeding nurse every few days

• 4 x visits from a paediatric doctor

• Newborn photoshoot

• Baby education

• Maternity pads, baby nappies, clothing etc. all provided

*Please note that the services and facilities will differ at each Joriwon ~

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That sounds fab. I’m sold. Sign me up.

That’s exactly how I felt when I made the decision to stay! My experience left me feeling quite guilty because I just wanted to go home despite having all the help I could ever need, right at my (very sore) fingertips.

It has taken me 2+ years to post this because of this guilt. In the Joriwon Diaries, I go into depth about all of the things I struggled with as a foreigner at a Korean postpartum centre, including:

• Breastfeeding vs. Formula

• Advocating for myself in my second language

• Cultural expectations with newborns

• Lack of hands-on education

• Feeling like I was abandoning my son in order to rest my body

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Why did I write this?

I wrote the Joriwon Diaries while I was in the thick of my experience. Because my postpartum experience did not meet my expectations, I felt a strange sense of grief and regret. Writing this was a way for me to process my experience and hopefully share it with others.

I went in with the expectation that I would be able to do things on my own terms and in my own way — a way that I had come to understand was the right way after years of reading books, listening to podcasts and a lifetime of knowledge of how children are raised in my own culture.

This turned out to be an important lesson for me as a new mum in a foreign country. I’ve since had to compromise on many aspects of raising my child due to cultural differences. But don’t get me wrong, I don’t see this as a bad thing. Living in a foreign country, things are not necessarily better or worse; they are just different. I have the advantage of being able to pick and choose different aspects of my own culture and my adopted culture. I am very grateful for my Joriwon experience and the warm care that I received.

The first challenge: breastfeeding

‍The biggest difficulty I faced when I was at the Joriwon was navigating breastfeeding vs. formula feeding. Before having a baby, I had the expectation that I would be breastfeeding all the time and that would be my baby’s main source of food for the first six months.

After giving birth in Korea, I felt like I was forced to formula feed my baby. There were no discussions. In some instances, I was worried they were overfeeding our baby (that was probably hormones though).

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This went against every single thing I had read about breastfeeding

‍Every resource that I read before giving birth told me that babies don’t need a lot of milk in their first days. The colostrum you produce is enough for their tiny bellies. The more you breastfeed, the more milk you make. Supply and demand etc. These are probably things you might already know.‍

Breastfeeding at the hospital

‍At the hospital, the nurses brought our baby to our room a few times a day to breastfeed (we didn’t stay with him in our room). They showed me how to position the baby, and I am lucky that he latched well right away.

However, they also fed him formula in the nursery, and I was not able to be with him all the time. At first, it didn’t worry me because I was focusing on my recovery. I assumed the staff would want me to be with the baby as much as possible, but that wasn’t the case. Maybe it is because I had very low iron levels, and didn’t want me to exert myself. In any case, I thought that I would be able to make up for my lack of feeding when I went into the Joriwon.

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Arriving at the Joriwon

‍When we arrived at the Joriwon, they took our baby from us at the door. I could see the nurses formula feeding him right away. I didn’t really mind because I was just happy that my baby was healthy and eating enough food. But I thought it was strange that nobody asked me if that was okay.

The staff at the Joriwon told me that I didn’t have enough milk to breastfeed my baby and that they would tell me once I could start feeding him. I had to wait almost 24 hours before a woman came to my room and told me I could start expressing milk with the pump they provided. They told me to pump every 4 hours for 30 minutes.

The purpose of staying in a Joriwon is so that the mother can recover from birth. Pumping milk is the norm so that the nurses can feed your baby in the nursery while the mother is resting. I knew this already, but I thought that I would still have the option to exclusively breastfeed if I wanted.

I told the staff that I wanted to breastfeed my baby every time he was hungry. They very kindly started bringing him to my room at feeding times. If I didn’t return the baby to the nursery after feeding him, they would call my room and tell me to bring him back so they could give him formula. I was so confused, but I did it anyway because I was a new mum and I doubted myself. I assumed they knew better despite the hours I spent researching and preparing for motherhood.

I couldn’t always feed my baby myself because there was always something going on. The daily schedule at the Joriwon meant that I couldn’t be with him in my room all day. It was hard to navigate my baby’s feeding times and the various activities I needed to do (yoga, eating meals, massage appointments etc. — I know, sounds really difficult, right?).

I was always out of sync with my son and ended up pumping quickly, only to get a call from the staff asking if I was ready to feed him. I felt so frustrated by this. It was also really hard to advocate for myself and my needs in another language.

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My breastfeeding outcome

‍Overall, my breastfeeding journey with my newborn was very upsetting to me. I felt guilty because my baby latched really well and I produced a lot of milk from the get-go. It felt like a waste. I still get emotional about this and find myself tearing up while editing this over 2 years later.

I spent my days at the Joriwon sitting in my room crying. This was definitely because of hormones, but it was mostly because I was apart from my son and felt like I had abandoned him. After leaving the Joriwon, I worked hard to exclusively breastfeed my baby and make up for the disruptions to my milk supply.

This left me with a lot of separation anxiety. When I first got back home after staying in the Joriwon, I never wanted to leave my house, and I refused to formula feed our baby. I barely went outside without him. If I did manage to get outside, it was while he was sleeping, but I was thinking about him and eager to run back home.‍

On Reflection

‍I wasn’t expecting to be so emotional about breastfeeding. Not being able to feed my baby whenever he needed me in the very beginning sparked something in my brain that made me a bit nuts.

On top of this, I felt like a tiny ant human who couldn’t communicate what I wanted. I couldn’t fully convey my needs in Korean because it was mostly a cultural disconnect. I felt like my desires to be with my baby and breastfeed him were alien.

From my understanding, formula was used when there was an issue with latching and milk supply, or when mothers simply don’t want to breastfeed (which is a completely valid decision). Or if the baby had a bad reaction to their mother’s milk. This is why I felt it was odd that formula was supplied right away without any discussion or assessment.

Just like a lot of services in South Korea, Joriwons run like clockwork with convenience and fast pace essential to operations. I felt that my unusual request to breastfeed my son at every feed was an inconvenience to their work, so I didn’t push too hard.

I feel proud of myself for navigating this in another language and culture. I was definitely optimistic going into the experience, but I was grateful for the staff for being so kind and understanding. I also felt very fortunate to have access to a breastfeeding professional and a lot of advice from the nurses at the centre.

The second challenge: bonding

‍There were two blocks of time a day where the baby had to be in our room with us. This was so that the nursery could be cleaned. I made the most of our time together, but felt sad that I was rarely there when he woke up from his naps. He couldn’t hear my voice all the time. I just wanted him near me 24/7. I would try to keep him in my room as long as possible but I would get a phone call telling me to bring him back to the nursery.

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Skin to skin

‍Through my research, I was also aware of the value of doing skin to skin with your baby. I’ve read that you should do it as much as possible in the baby’s first weeks. I did skin to skin when he was first born at the hospital, and continued this at the Joriwon. One of the staff members in the Joriwon was worried that I took off my baby’s clothes. She said he would catch a cold. I cried.

I kept doing skin to skin anyway because my baby loved it and I loved it too. I kept doing it after leaving the Joriwon. I also showed my husband how to do it and he loved it. Koreans worry about babies catching colds. I was worried that my baby would miss out on crucial bonding. Agree to disagree.

Tummy time and high-contrast flashcards

At this point, I was starting to feel like a conspiracy theorist explaining all of the things I read about to my husband about newborns. I read that tummy time was something babies can do from birth, but there was no encouragement at the Joriwon to do this. I took my own initiative to lie my son on his tummy several times a day. I also placed high-contrast flash cards in front of him to get his brain excited.

It made me feel strong to follow my gut and do the things I couldn’t wait to do with my baby now that he was finally here.

The third challenge: education

‍As a new mum, one of the benefits of staying somewhere with 24-hour help is that you can build up your confidence with things like diaper changes, washing the baby, making / washing bottles, swaddling etc.I felt like this was really hard to learn at the Joriwon becasue the staff insisted on doing everything. They would dress the babies, wash them, feed them and prepare the bottles.

It made me feel useless. It made me feel like I didn’t know how to take care of my own child. On my last day at the Joriwon, the manager sat me down in her office and went through 2 x A4 pages of bullet points explaining baby care 101 - all in Korean. I didn’t find this very helpful but was grateful for their time and patience.

They also showed us how to bathe our baby right before we left. We filmed a video through a glass window of a staff member showing us how to bathe him.

There was no opportunity to try for ourselves or make mistakes in a safe environment. It seems like a wasted opportunity in my opinion. I imagined baby classes with other mums, practising things with our babies, doing tummy time classes or even learning CPR or about SIDS prevention. I’m not sure if covid restrictions played a role in this or my expectations were too western-centric.

Leaving the Joriwon

While I couldn’t wait to leave the Joriwon, I was also feeling very well-rested and recovered. The Joriwon schedule felt quite rigid to me, and I was desperate to get outside into the real world (I wasn’t allowed to go outside excpet for hospital visits).

I couldn’t wait to put our baby in his own clothes and his own bed and let him wriggle around and eat whenever he wanted and breastfeed at every meal and wake up in the middle of the night and jump at his every cry. All of the things I missed out on for the first 2 weeks of his life.

The structure of our days at the Joriwon and consistent routine definitely set us up for success at home.

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Why didn’t you speak up?

‍I did. I tried. I was a nuisance compared to the other mums. I wanted to be with my baby all the time. I set my alarm for 2 AM, 4 AM and 6 AM and pumped my milk for him. They didn’t recommend I do that, they told me to rest. I didn’t bring him back when they asked for him. I did my best to speak up for what I wanted in Korean. The Joriwon staff admired my dedication and were quite surprised by my desire to be with him all the time.

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Didn’t you do research before?

Yes! I did! But I researched with rose-tinted expectations and my own understanding of how things should be. I watched YouTube videos of other foreign mums, one of which suggested waking up in the middle of the night to pump. I also made sure to ask the staff while we were signing the contract if I could be with the baby whenever I wanted. I think I was too optimistic about it, to be honest.

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Would I go back?

‍No. I wouldn’t go back if I had a second baby. I would hire a “Sanhu Doumi” (산후 도우미) instead. A Doumi will come to your house in the morning, clean, cook your meals, and help out with your baby. The Korean government provides assistance with this. However, I would be hesitant because I know the Doumi would probably tell me the baby will catch a cold or that I am doing everything wrong.‍

I would consider going back just to eat the food...

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Were there any good parts?

‍The food. Thank the Korean gods for the food. The most delicious food ever. Endless seaweed soup, amazing fish, salads with every meal, delicious side dishes ~ it was all yum yum. I recovered so well because of this food. Scroll down to the end of the post to see my food pics.‍

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You should consider a Joriwon if...

• ‍‍You plan on formula feeding from the get-go.

• You’re planning on going back to work shortly after giving birth and want to fully focus on your recovery.

• You’re planning a C-Section, it would be a great way to recover from surgery. Most of the women in my Joriwon had had C-sections (it was written on our doors). At one point I walked around the facility and counted that 14 out of the 20 women there had C-sections.

• You’re curious about Korean postpartum recovery culture

• You want support in your first 2 weeks of your postpartum experience

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Why do you hate formula?

‍I don’t. I was open to supplementing with formula but I was thinking of it being a last resort not an every meal ~ situation. I don’t know why women have this pressure to breastfeed or where it comes from. But if I’m honest, I feel guilty that my baby was being fed formula when I had a baby with a great latch and a good milk supply.‍

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Oh boy, that was a rollercoaster

‍There is no perfect way to raise a newborn. I’ve learned to accept that I live in Korea and should expect to do things differently. I learned to just trust my instincts and let go of things that aren’t that important. I’m just so happy to have a healthy and smiley baby.‍

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But again, a moment for the food

To find a silver lining in my Joriwon cloud, I will say that the consistent, healthy meals I was served supported a very speedy recovery for me. If I were at home in those first two weeks, we probably would have been ordering every meal. I was able to eat fresh salads, a lot of fish and seaweed soup, and really delicious rice porridge and smoothies. If I could have hung out with my baby all day and night and eaten the food, I would have been very happy.

The walls in the Joriwon were very thin, and if my baby were in the room with me all night, the other mothers would have had a rough sleep.

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Thank you for reading the Joriwon Diaries. I hope it was helpful for you. Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram if you have any other questions or feedback about this post!

How are you? Did you have a good week? Quick! Write down 3 things you were obsessed with this week that made your life 1000 times better. (Me: My lil fam, apple pie season at McDonald’s, wearing jumpers after a long summer).

Here is a list of everything I use to design, illustrate and edit videos

When I’m not doodling and writing newsletters, I do freelance design work. Because this week was quite work-heavy, all I’ve got is pixels and pngs on my mind. I didn’t have much time to doodle or think of fun, quirky things to post on the internet (which is probably a sign to just shhh).

I wanted to share all the tools I use to create web and app designs, brand identities, graphic design projects, illustrations, and YouTube videos — my whole kit and full kaboodle of online tools and software.

These are all things that I would love to know about if I were just getting started. They are mostly tools, not resources for learning or improving. If you’re curious about anything or have any tools you want to share, let me know!

My Design Toolkit

Figma

Obviously. Figma is home for me. People ask, “What’s your nationality?’ I say, ‘Figma’. They run away.

I do everything in Figma. UX/UI work, presentation design, blog post images for Picnic Journal, etc. I do more complex vectors and branding design in Illustrator, but I don’t think it will be long until Figma makes Illustrator obsolete. I also use Figma slides to convert my designs into pptx (most companies in Korea still live in the Microsoft world 🙃).

Adobe Express

I use Adobe Express to remove image backgrounds (which I have to do a lot). It is way easier than booting up Photoshop every time I need to remove a BG. You can use Adobe Express for free (some things are paid).

Icons

I use this Figma resource for icons from the Figma Community; it has 65,000 icons and is very helpful.

Procreate

I do all of my digital illustrations in Procreate on my iPad. I occasionally edit them in Photoshop. You pay for it once, and then you’re good to go. Fun fact: Procreate was born in Tasmania, Australia. I have also paid for several brush packs over the years, but I don’t think this is always necessary!

How I make vectors (SVGs) from Procreate drawings

I also occasionally turn my illustrations into SVGs. My process is: draw in Procreate, send PSD file to laptop, save layers as separate PNGs, add PNGs to Figma, use the Image Tracer Plugin (best $10 I’ve ever spent in my life), and voila, you now have an illustration as an SVG.

Why do I use SVGs? I use SVGs when making prints that need to be resized in every which way, for my website for better responsive design, and to easily edit the colours in my illustrations. Also very helpful for branding design - you can turn any drawing into a finished logo (I also love using Illustrator’s Object > Path > Smooth tool to edit my drawings).

Veed.io

I use Veed to transcribe my YouTube videos. Then I add the translations manually to each subtitle. First, I edit my videos in Premiere Pro so I can burn the subtitles on the final video. You can get 50% off your first 3 months with my link here (omg am I an influencer?). If you’ve been wanting to start filming videos, this is your sign to zzddooo it.

Pinterest

Once my nemesis, Pinterest is now my favourite way to find inspiration for design and branding projects. Dribbble used to be my go-to, but I find that a lot of the designs on there are very cool and funky, but not very practical or functional.

Stock Images

I accidentally signed up for Adobe Stock, thinking I could cancel after a month. You can, but you have to pay a ransom. They got me real good.

The joke is on Adobe, though, because using high-quality stock images and vectors is the secret sauce for taking your design work from an 8 (on a good day) to a 25.

When in a pinch, I use Unsplash. I don’t actually “purchase” the images until I am 95% sure my client won’t feel physically ill when looking at them. I use placeholders with watermarks and keep changing the images until I’m happy.

I hope that was helpful for at least 1 human out there. If not, thank you for reading this far anyway!

This week’s doodle:

I drew this in early 2025, when I was a full-time work-from-home mum in corporate South Korea. It was messy, and I was always letting at least one ball drop at any given moment in time.

I am still wrapping my head around how we did that. Childcare workers and teachers in Korea and all over the world must be protected at all costs. They are real-life saints and should be treated thusly. Thank you so much.

Also?

Jewellery heists in broad daylight in 2025!!! I didn’t realise we could just break into the Louvre? I love the global outpour of support for theft in a chaotic world. This haul video needs to be preserved for anthropological research.

That’s all my words for today! See you next week! 화이팅!

If I had a hat on, I would tilt it down slightly to show my deep respect for you.

We’re back with another installation of Picnic Journal! Did I mention we’re doing this weekly?

Before we get into it, I just wanted to take a moment for this colour palette. Do with these HEX codes what you will, and then let’s get back to our regularly scheduled existential newsletter crisis.

My content garden is a work in progress

I had a bit of a revelation this week, thanks to ChatGPT (sorry). I mostly use Chat to translate Korean and support my life as a foreigner in Seoul (super helpful btw). Occasionally, I will ask him for a little pep talk. We all need them. And we don’t all have pep talkers on call at every hour of the day. This is what I asked he/him:

He replied with a bunch of stuff that I didn’t really take notice of. I was already drifting off into the abyss of 20 other tabs by the time he collected his thoughts (I’m the worst). After I thanked him for his diligent beep-boopping (I was raised to always thank my chatbots), he left this little gem:

Chat! Who R U? That was all I needed to hear the first time! It shifted my whole brain geography. Every word I share, doodle I post, or random string of daydreams I send out into the world is not for nothing. I’m growing something I believe in and am passionate about. It might not make sense, but if I just keep at the thing that makes my little over-caffinated heart sing, people will eventually show up at my garden and marvel at its beauty. You’ve got this, keep planting!

The Joriwon Diaries

I finally posted something I had been sitting on for over 2 years: my experience at a Korean postpartum care centre. It’s pretty honest, but I hope it can be helpful to other foreign women making their decision about their postpartum experience in Korea. Go and check it out, or save it for a rainy day, or send it to a friend!

Read it here

Autumn is here

This week, I posted a wrap-up of pictures I snapped during the rainy Chuseok holiday in Seoul. With a toddler. It was wild and chaotic and cosy. Exploring Seoul with a toddler is a lot of fun, mostly because public transport is easy and very exciting for tiny eyes.

We visited Changdeokgung and MMCA Gwacheon, which has a Children’s museum (both were free during the Chuseok holiday). We also went to Seoul Forest, our local kids’ cafe, the library, and Kyobo bookstore — making sure to sprinkle in a lot of yummy meals and cafe adventures in between.

Toddler adventures are great because you don’t have to stay in the place you’re going to for very long. You can just sort of see the cliff notes and get the heck outta there. Also, prams! Naps! Snacks! Hydration breaks! Stopping to find little ant friends stomping around. Simple and so joyful.

Links to things that don’t cost money:

• This week, I went down a bit of a Jonathan Anderson rabbit hole after watching his Fashion Neurosis episode. He talks a lot about art, creativity and why he wears what he wears. I love hearing about how creative people think, and which creative people they like to hear about how they… think? Help?

• A cool Korean website for a font called Nanum Square Neo (made by Naver). I love collecting websites with interesting designs and thought I could share them with you, too. It’s like going to an art gallery on your computer!

• I feel old because I just want to listen to the sounds of my youth, but I’m always forgetting whether the artists of my youth have been cancelled or if I can talk about them in a public forum. Having said that, I’m on a bit of a Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix kick lately. Sometimes I lie on the couch at 2 AM and fall asleep to a playlist of songs I listened to in 2010.

• Content creators I’m loving lately: YouTube: Life of Pyper, Jaclyn Salem, Tiffany Ferg talking about the “influencer accent.” Instagram: bry.washing is posting great reels of Tokyo in the lead-up to his book launch, and my fave fashion creators atm are dahanadcr and aprillockhart.

• This one does cost money, but if you are a writer or an aspiring writer, entries for The Hope Prize are closing on October 31!

• Feel free to share links to free things you think are cool in the comments!

If you’re getting this email in your inbox, you’re either:

a) really happy to hear from me

b) immediately unsubscribing, calling Interpol, wondering who this crazy human is, and asking chat “how to delete the internet”

Hello to all of you in column “a”, and a big thank you to those of you in column “b” who decided to stick around for the ride. How are you? Are you okay? Did you have dinner yet? Go do that!

Reintroducing my internet persona

I’m Johanna! I’m a designer, artist and fragile old lady trapped inside a sprightly young woman’s body. I like to write stuff and draw little pictures. It’s all very silly and fulfilling for me personally and spiritually.

I have been posting stuff on the internet since 2013 and have pivoted approximately 32,000 times since then. For the most part, it has been a one-sided operation. I share things and then crickets chirp. Then the crickets stop chirping to figure out why it’s so quiet.

A small handful of wonderful people have supported me along the way (and I am forever grateful for your encouragement and know that if you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them).

But at a certain point, the lack of followers, subscribers and readers started to make me wonder what I was doing and why.

I felt embarrassed and like a failure. And actually, I still feel like that sometimes when I haven’t slept properly or when I drink too much coffee.

Figuring out how to internet again

While I haven’t been sharing things online, I have slowly been doodling, journaling, and making a lot of nonsense away from an audience. I was also working as a copywriter for Korean 대기업 companies and learned… internet stuff and improved my Korean business emailing skills (a very niche fascination of mine).

I realised that for me, making stuff is an inevitability. It’s what I love. It’s a compulsion. It’s what basketball/amateur musical theatre is for Troy Bolton. But unlike Troy, whether or not there is an audience to see me soaring-flying- breaking-free is not super important.

So I’m figuring it out again and making sure that I show up in a way that is ethical, fun, quirky and intentional. Which is really hard when everything on the internet makes me want to roll up into a ball and weep.

I’ve been creeping back into making content, filming awkward videos, doodling my wandering thoughts, and turning my 3 AM notes app notes into ~ c o n t e n t ~

I would love for you to check out some of the things I’ve been working on, share them with your neighbour, follow my accounts, or just sort of smile at your screen thinking “you got a lot of stuff, kid” (that’s a famous quote from the Disney Pixar film Cars, which I have watched 17 times this week).

What I’m doing and where it’s going down:

1. Picnic Journal Website - A place on the internet where I post words, illustrations, essays, and gentle cries for help. I designed and illustrated and wrote everything myself, and I want it to feel like you’re a small piece of washi tape trapped inside my bullet journal, but, like, not in a creepy way. I’ll be sharing new content from Picnic Journal on my Substack!

2. YouTube - Watch this space

3. Instagram - Sharing snippets of daily life in my stories and my art on my feed. Shorts and reels make me dizzy. I’m a millenial/gen Z cusper, so I prefer my videos in a 16:9 format tbh.

Content from me 2 u

Here are some of my favourite journal entries from my new website. Check them out, give me some feedback, munch on some fresh celery sticks, and I’ll see you out there! Have a great day and thank you for your support!

• Korean words that delight my ears

• My brain is a bowl of spaghetti soup

• The secret to 14 years of blogging unsuccessfully

Current Thoughts: I want to start sewing again and work towards my dream wardrobe

This has been on my mind a lot lately and I’m ready to get crafty. I noticed that when I go shopping I am always drawn to the same styles of clothing and purchase different versions of the same thing every darn time. This has made me want to start sewing my own clothes and collecting beautiful fabrics that are high qual and long-lasting as an alternative to buying another white linen shirt or shapeless cotton dress.

I started sewing when I was around 7 or 8 years old. I mostly sewed cushions, blankets and clothes for my doll's house. That then turned into making bags and clothes for myself and learning how to follow patterns. I was also obsessed with making pencil cases because I am a lifelong stationery fanatic. After high school, my mum and I became obsessed with Nippori Fabric Town in Tokyo and all things Japanese fabrics. I made a few dresses out of the beautiful linens and colourful patterned fabrics that we collected in our travels.

Since moving to Korea, I feel like I’ve lost my sense of style a little bit. Melbourne and Seoul are very different cities when it comes to fashion. Melbourne is colourful, eclectic, a mix of everything, bold, and seasonless. Korea is simple, clean, minimal, trend-focused and pristine. In some ways, I feel like my wardrobe has morphed into a mix of the two cities, a blend of my favourite pieces that I brought with me from Australia and newer bits bought here in an attempt to fit in.

I think this new goal of mine will help me make sure I’m always working on myself and striving to be a better Johanna than I was yesterday. To achieve my goal, I’ve been saving links for patterns that I want to make. Saving links to different fabric stores here in Korea where I can order beautiful linens and cotton. I have a Pinterest board of inspiration for my ‘Dream Mama Wardrobe’. And I’m going to take things 1 item at a time, I’m not in a rush. I will let you know how it goes. I’m hoping that typing this will hold me accountable.

Recent Creations

I am challenging myself to enter some illustration/design competitions and spread my work around more. I’m trying. I drew these lil people for a competition that I worked really hard on only to realise that I wasn’t eligible to enter the competition… She tried! She really did her best and she won’t give up.

I’m just trying to remind myself that I am still a designer/artist/valuable human even when not making something. The quiet periods of a creative block are necessary to recharge and step back to look at what you’re trying to say to people. And then you get to keep repeating this process because it never really ends.

What I’ve Been Watching / Reading / Listening To

Sweet Magnolias Season 3 - Guys. This show. It’s so cringy that it takes me several hours to get through an episode because I keep closing my Netflix app to make it stop. But I can’t stop. Help. What are the people in the town of Serenity putting in their coffee? Is it legal? Do they all have daily therapy sessions? Humans aren’t this nice. I love it. I also hate it and hope there isn’t a fourth season. But I’ll watch it if they make one. But I won’t enjoy it. But I will.

The Retrievals Podcast - A podcast about a Yale fertility clinic where hundreds of women underwent egg retrievals without any pain relief because a nurse was pocketing the clinic’s fentanyl stash (this would never happen in Serenity!). I listened to this while breastfeeding and felt so lucky that I get to be a mother. The pain these women went through goes far beyond the physical pain they experienced.

Palm Springs - I watched this because ~ Andy Samberg ~ but I don’t know about this movie. I think that I didn’t like it.

The Kardashians - I watched the final episode of season 3 this week and Kris Jenner making little doll houses for all of her kids for Christmas is a MOOD. I love her so much. What I don’t love is Kourtney Kardashian trying to Kardashisplain (like mansplaining but almost worse) fast fashion and sustainability and greenwashing to justify her collab with Boohoo. Hi Kourtney, you are part of the reason fast fashion exists in the first place.

Latest Videos

Lol! I haven’t made any! I have one in the works but ugh ~ would it be rude if I didn’t post it? I think I’m not into YouTube anymore. Does anyone watch YouTube? I do. I love YouTube. Most of my audience is male and middle-aged which is NOT my ideal demographic!! I might pick it back up when we move house later in the year if I feel inspired! Thank you and here is a #tbt video of our trip to Da Nang in January.

I will leave you with this picture of Jeff Goldblum and his wife at the Eras tour

“Fever dream high in the quiet of the night, you know that I caught it…!” 🤩🙌🏼💋🦋🌺🌈🌸✨🍓🍦🎟️🌅💎🔮🪬🔑🎀🪄🩷🩵🤍

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Joriwon Recap

My speedy recovery and transition back into daily life with a newborn has been helped largely by the fact that I spent 2 weeks at a postpartum care centre (Joriwon) in Seoul. I was able to fully recover, get meals and snacks sent to my door, do yoga classes and a few massages as well. All while an amazing team of staff took care of my baby. I was sceptical of the whole thing when I first went there and was ready to pack up my bags by the third day, but I’m glad I ended up staying the full 2 weeks. I think I might talk more about this on my YouTube channel so stay tuned for that! The food was DELICIOUS. Here are some highlights:

What I’ve Been Watching

(As a breastfeeding mama of a newborn, boy have I been watching all the things)

• Dr. Cha - A casual and light K Drama that I watched while pumping at the postpartum care centre to pass the time ~ I didn’t always pay attention to it, I would call it a background noise drama.

• The Good Bad Mother - Loved this K Drama, it had the right amount of light comedy, romance and police/prosecutor corruption. You know, something for everyone. It also had every KDrama trope known to man which is impressive if you think about it.

• Siren: Survive the Island - My husband and I loved this, we binged it very quickly while he was on paternity leave. I enjoyed the challenge/strategy side of this show and thought it was much better than Physical 100 (which was a totally unfair competition imo).

• Bloodhounds - I liked this show but the main character was annoyingly optimistic…? A good combo of bromance and action but definitely could have just been a movie.

• See you in my 19th Life - Currently watching this drama and I like it so far. Will keep you posted.

• She Said - I watched this movie in the joriwon, kind of a bummer of a film but I enjoyed watching it because I had literally nothing else to do.

• Shotgun Wedding - Another good time-killing movie on Netflix! Jennifer Coolidge stole the show.

• Hot Ones - I’ve been watching so many Hot Ones interviews on YouTube, how had I never watched these before? It’s nice to see famous people being asked interesting questions while shedding spicy tears.

Still Doodling

I’m still finding time for doodling while my baby naps. Be sure to follow my illustration account on IG to see what I get up to during my drawing sessions!

My online shop is still open for business, check it out here! I’m hoping to add some more bits soon!

Things that have helped me survive the first 6 weeks with a baby

• K Dramas and Audiobooks and Gossip Girl - I love breastfeeding, don’t get me wrong, but I need something stimulating my brain so I don’t get left alone with my own thoughts for too long. My most recent audiobook was Daisy Jones and the Six which was really corny but a really easy listen while sitting in the dark at 4 am. Gossip Girl is my comfort show. It came out while I was in high school so it just makes me nostalgic. Chuck and Blair are also one of my favourite fictional couples and I still cry rewatching some of their scenes.

• Going for walks with our baby - something I have been dreaming about since we bought our stroller back in January. I make sure to keep baby covered up from germs and bugs when we go out and I also have a cute stroller fan attached to keep him cool (summer in Seoul is steaming hot). I can get my exercise in, grab a coffee, feel human in the big wide world and give the baby fresh air. It’s a win win win win.

• Making time for skincare, drawing and making - I don’t get around to all of these things every day but I make time for them when I can. I actually feel so much more productive when I sit down to draw or edit my videos/writing because I know I only have a short amount of time. Is this the secret to eradicating my imposter syndrome/creative block for good?

• Air Conditioning - Summer babies are hard, thank goodness for air con

• Summer Baby Essentials: The Baby Time App, Konny Baby Wrap (summer version), Aden & Anais Muslin Blankets ~ these are things I use the most probably. My favourite product I have (a nice-to-have item, not an essential) is this diaper bag that we got as a gift from Mika Studio. It makes getting ready for outings so much fun for me hehe.

NEW Birth Story Video

Thank you for reading this issue of Picnic Journal ~ see you on the internet or in my next issue! Have a great day!

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Hello and welcome back to Picnic Journal! March has been such a busy month, why is this year in such a hurry? Suddenly it’s warm outside and the cherry blossoms are in full bloom here in Seoul. I hope you’re doing well and staying healthy and taking your vitamins. This is stuff I have been contemplating/watching/reading etc. since my previous newsletter.

Lately, I’ve been…

Drawing for the sake of it

I’ve been blocked creatively recently and I found a great way to force myself to draw in my sketchbook: Instagram. I scroll through my explore pages, choose an image I like and try to draw it in my style. It has been really fun. I’ve been finding inspiration in strangers’ outfits and Portuguese windows and I feel less guilty about being on Instagram!

Eating like a teenage boy who grew 20cm over his summer break

I have never been so hungry in my entire life. Everything tastes incredible and I can eat almost three times the amount of food I could normally eat pre-pregnancy. I do think I need to try and reduce my food intake now that I am moving into my 30th week because I don’t have any interest in trying to deliver a giant baby who is 80% Korean fried chicken at this point.

Making stuff (but for real this time)

I’m currently working on a range of prints and products to start selling online both physically and digitally. I’m trying to push myself and ignore all my perfectionist instincts (hard, currently failing but will keep going). Watch this space because things are coming your way (hopefully… before my child is born… eek).

What I’m Reading

I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki by Baek Sehee

I picked this book up at Kyobo last week purely because of the title. I have been reading it before I go to bed but I must say that the content is a bit too depressing for me… shockingly enough. I think I will get through this one in small doses so as to not bum me out completely. I’ve also been listening to the audiobook version of ‘The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read’ by Philippa Perry which is really interesting and also terrifying.

I liked this quote from Greek philosopher Epicurus via James Clear’s Newsletter:

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

What I’m Watching

Drew Gooden on YouTube - Drew’s videos bring me a slice of joy to my life every time I watch them. I really liked his latest video about doing a ‘dopamine fast’ for a week and how terrible digital detoxing/productivity-type wellness apps are.

Sweet Magnolias (Again) - I love to hate this show. It’s so corny and cliche but there is something really comforting about it. Sometimes while I’m drawing or doing something on my computer that doesn’t require my full brain focus, I like to rewatch shows in the background to feel less alone inside. This is a good one for that.

What I’ll be watching next: The Glory. I really need to watch this Drama and I am so excited to hopefully do that this week. Will update you on that in my next newsletter.

Latest YouTube Videos

Yes! I have a YouTube channel! And I actually post videos somewhat regularly? Check it out! It’s a rollercoaster! Two years on YouTube and I still don’t know how to talk to a camera. Very cool stuff.

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We’re Moving House

I’ve been busy over the last month trying to throw out all of our possessions and reduce our home inventory down to mini dollhouse furniture-sized items. Living in Korea has made me less and less sentimental about items. I used to keep everything for rainy days and ‘what ifs’ but life in Korean houses is not really set up for ‘ooh maybe I’ll use this in a very specific situation that may or may not ever occur 5 years from now’. Unless you like to be surrounded by a bunch of junk, that’s cool too I guess. I personally have adopted the minimal Korean approach and I still feel like we have too much stuff. I will keep pruning until I’m satisfied. We just spent 3 hours cleaning out our fridge and pantry and I honestly feel more accomplished than I ever have throughout my career (I think I’m joking).

What I’m Drawing

I’ve been drawing lots of scribbles, here are some of them. To keep up with what I’m making, be sure to follow my illustration Instagram.

What I’m Watching

Moneyball (2011)

I don’t know how I had never watched this movie but it just reaffirms the notion that I am a hermit living under a large rock on the island where Moana lives. I don’t know the first thing about baseball (I do know a lot about baseball game snacks and I even made a video about baseball games in Korea) but I enjoyed this movie. Brad Pitt did a great job of portraying himself in really ugly clothes.

Physical: 100 (2023)

You may have already watched it by now but Squid Game Physical: 100 is a new Netflix show that challenges 100 people to test what makes the ultimate physique. Korean reality shows are so refreshing to watch, people respect each other and speak eloquently. I’m not sure if my pregnancy hormones are doing things to me or not but the last episode of this show had me crying the whole way through.

Taiwan ~ Content

Have you checked out my latest YouTube videos? No? They’re nice and chill, though. You should watch them if you absolutely have nothing better to do with your time. But don’t watch them if you’re busy or preparing to perform life-saving surgery.

That’s all I had to say for this issue. Subscribe for more or close the tab/email and never return again. The possibilities are endless!

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Back in Seoul

I have been away in the countryside teaching fourth-grade English at a winter camp here in Korea for the last few weeks. It was an intense camp but a great opportunity for me to make some extra money during my pregnancy. I had to leave the camp early after testing positive for covid but I’m really glad I was able to get through most of it. I miss my students already and I miss the amazing food they served there as well. I haven’t eaten that well or that consistently for a very long time. I’m not sure how we managed to avoid covid for three years but we’re just lucky our symptoms were mild. I hope you are healthy out there, take care of yourself!

Stop Kicking Me

I’m 23 weeks pregnant now and this grapefruit-sized baby won’t stop kicking me. This was actually a very handy thing to have this week because with covid I was worried about high fevers and lung problems but knowing that my baby was in there kicking away happily made me feel reassured that everything was safe. Thank goodness for vaccines and for humans being able to feel their babies in the womb.

I’m 27! Woah!

I don’t like being odd-numbered ages. 25 was okay because it was a significant quarter chunk of my life wrapped up in a nice bow. But 27 sounds so uneven. Also, whatever, I don’t really care (obviously I do). But also I swear I was just born yesterday. Time is so fast, I can’t even keep up! At 27, I’ve decided to be the cringiest version of myself yet. I will make more cringey YouTube videos and write more cringey newsletters and make things and post them on the internet to my heart’s content. I also decided that this is the year I will start selling my products in an online store and I have the spreadsheet to prove it. Because you know what, who gives a fuck. I’m so excited to be 27 (the 7 will grow on me).

Painting Again

There was a time last year when I was painting almost every day without giving it a second thought. When my morning sickness kicked in, I couldn’t really stand up let alone sit at a table for more than 10 minutes without feeling physically ill. I’m taking things slowly but it feels good to be getting back into my habits again. It’s just a hobby, not a big deal. I’m not changing the world but it helps my brain feel relaxed.

Latest Videos

I’m trying to post a weekly video on my channel so be sure to subscribe and check out the videos and let me know where they rank on the cringe scale so I can keep improving!

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Hello and Happy Lunar New Year!

We celebrated at home this year for Seollal (Korean Lunar New Year) and enjoyed tofu and zucchini pancakes, beef barbeque and delicious noodles. I am so excited about all of the things 2023 will bring and I hope it brings a lot of luck and joy to you too. I am actually just mostly excited about dressing my baby in anything with a bunny on it (my favourite animal). Fun fact! I had a childhood pet rabbit named Maisy (named after Maisy mouse obviously) and she was my archenemy for a good chunk of my adolescence.

We went to Vietnam!

My doctor told me that I have a Vitamin D insufficiency (not to be confused with a deficiency) so I have been snorting lines of vitamin D powder for a few weeks. Luckily we had already booked a trip to Vietnam which helped immensely with my lack of Vitamin D and also helped with my Banh Mi deficiency. I actually didn’t eat any Banh Mi because the meats looked super sketchy and, as a pregnant woman, I had to play it safe. This was my first time going to a resort and I am now a resort person. I didn’t know it before, but I know it now. I thought I was a cultured traveller ~ the gallery-hopping, photo-taking travel type. No. Fuck that. I want a pool, I want a beach within walking distance and I want to float under palm trees and swing in a hammock.

10 Things I Will Be Doing Instead of Reading Prince Harry's New Book

We can all agree that this so-called ‘book’ is a cry for help. I will be abstaining from all things Meghan and Harry by finding ways to be more productive in my own life. Here’s what I’ll be doing instead:

1. Get an extra hour of sleep every night for a week

2. Watch Ratatouille in reverse (a devastating documentary about a culinary prodigy rat floating away to the French countryside to live with a new family of rats in an old cottage)

3. Make a family-sized portion of tortellini and eat it alone in my bed while doing the New York Times crossword puzzle (let’s face it, I was going to do this anyway)

4. Buy a new eyeliner and never use it because I just don’t get it

5. Try to read through my university thesis without feeling physically ill (impossible)

6. Finish making my design portfolio that has been incomplete since before I was born

7. Attempt to go for a jog in minus six degrees Seoul weather while 5 months pregnant

8. Reply to my YouTube comments from 2020

9. Take up Swedish lessons on Duolingo on purpose (we’ve all accidentally been there after an exhilarating IKEA visit)

10. Buy a beginner’s crochet kit and make little rabbit toys and force my baby to do milestone photoshoots with them for the rest of his life (you bet I will be doing flat lay photoshoots with my son on his first day of university)

What I’m Watching

Little Women (2022)

We started watching this Korean drama this week and oh boy is it full of mystery and so many questions. I haven’t finished it yet but it’s a very new style of Korean drama for me. I don’t feel like I’ve watched this before and that is exciting. I also can’t binge-watch it because of the tension so that is also doing wonders for my productivity.

Whiplash (2014)

Whiplash is a stressful rollercoaster of a film but in all the good ways. It made me want to practice my flute for the first time in ten years but also reminded me that I absolutely despised music class and orchestra practice. Such a great film and I don’t know how I had never heard of it.

An appropriately unhinged recap of Gossip Girl (Season 1) - Mike’s Mic on YouTube

Good news! We never have to rewatch another season of Gossip Girl ever again because Mike’s Mic has us covered. If you’re a GG fan, watch this! If you’ve never seen it, I envy you because you get to hear the plot lines of Gossip Girl for the first time from Mike’s Mic’s perspective. I also recently listened to Conan O’Brien fangirling over GG with Penn Badgley on his podcast and that was another fun moment.

Latest Video

Watch my latest YouTube video about week 12 of my pregnancy! I am working on editing my pregnancy videos, a Vietnam travel video and also a day in the life at my new job (I got a job, yay, more on that later though). It’s rough looking back on these videos because I was so exhausted but hopefully, my content will get better soon! Thank you for supporting my channel and newsletter and I’ll see you in the next posts!

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Yes, I am with bun in oven. I am expecting. I am your new favourite mummy blogger. I have just successfully lived as a human for the last week without throwing up the entire contents of my stomach. I have been keeping it on the low down mainly because I haven’t had the physical strength to sit at my computer for more than 10 minutes for the last two months. Baby is almost 18 weeks old and I finally have an appetite for food! How good is food? Really missed that stuff. I am so excited for the year to come and I can’t wait to meet our baby boy who is honestly going to be an illegal level of cute.

What I’m reading

One side effect of my first trimester was that I became allergic to reading but I read a quote today that tickled my fancy:

"Happiness is simply the absence of desire... Happiness is not about the achievement of pleasure (which is joy or satisfaction), but about the lack of desire. It arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. Happiness is the state you enter when you no longer want to change your state."

via James Clear’s newsletter via his book Atomic Habits.

This sums up my mental state over the last few months. Despite the chaos of my current financial and physical condition (unemployed and pregnant), I’ve been pretty much the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. What a privilege and a beautiful thing. (The throwing up three times a day part was pretty gross but at least I was content).

I’m also reading The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera, it’s the prequel to They Both Die at the End which I really enjoyed.

Rapid Fire: Things I have Been Watching/falling asleep to

1. Gilmore Girls (obviously)

2. Love is Blind Season 3 (Terrible, 1.5X speed necessary)

3. Every Christmas movie ever made (even that new Lindsay Lohan one)

4. Every Harry Potter movie (a new Christmas tradition)

5. Fantastic Beasts - watched this for the first time after our HP marathon and I really wasn’t a fan. The beasts were fantastic but the humans ruined everything.

6. Emily in Paris Season 3 (why do we keep watching this show) - There is not a single character in this show that I am rooting for. Maybe Alfie? Maybe Mindy? I want to root for Luc but he has absolutely no 눈치 (noonchi).

7. The Crown Season 5 - This was my first trimester afternoon nap show. It put me to sleep in under 5 minutes without fail. I love the Queen and her Corgis and her poise, but Prince Charles is just not it.

8. Avatar: The Way of Water - Really enjoyed this. Obsessed with the visuals in this film, particularly the little Avatar babies and the marine life. I fell asleep in the middle but I didn’t feel that I missed anything.

9. Hell’s Kitchen - Now that I can eat food again I am really enjoying this show. I had never watched it before but I finally get why Gordon Ramsay is actually a huge deal.

Korean TV/Film

1. 재벌집 막내아들 (Reborn Rich) - I am loving this show. Its got everything: chaebol family drama, reincarnation, modern Korean history and romance (bit of a stretch).

2. Money Heist: Korea on Netflix (Season 2) - I enjoyed this!

3. 형사록 (Shadow Detective) - Loved this show on Disney Plus with one of my fave actors Lee Sung-min (also in Reborn Rich)

4. Singles Inferno Season 2 - We’ll need to unpack this once all of the episodes have been released but right now I can’t keep track of who likes who or who went to which prestigious university.

Things I loved recently

• Revisiting Sangha Farm for an overnight getaway

• Jean Julien at DDP

• Leeum Museum in Seoul

• Getting dressed up in a Hanbok and walking around Gyeongbokkung

• Minju Kim’s Pop-up store

• Getting our first Christmas tree in Korea

Recent Doodles

I’m so excited to be back at my desk and doodling my heart out. It’s even more exciting that I get to look at my cute baby belly while I work. If only I could sit down for more than 30 minutes before needing to grab a snack.

Merry Christmas, Annyeong 2022, HNY etc.

Wishing you all a happy festive season and hoping you are staying warm in this wild weather (or staying cool for my Australian readers). 2022 was a wild ride and frankly, I think we’re all glad it’s over. My favourite way to reflect on my year is to read through my journal entries and scroll through my camera roll. Sometimes life can feel like it’s not really moving forward and we’re just kind of just a stuck little marble in a Rube Goldberg machine. I recovered from a miscarriage, travelled to Australia after a 2-year hiatus, my company went bankrupt, we had family visit us in Seoul, we took amazing trips around Korea, I did an intensive 10-week Korean course at Yonsei and found out I was going to be a mum. What a cool year. Here’s to another wild ride in 2023.

I’ll leave you with a link to my first YouTube video in 4 months

Thanks for reading, have a great day, and peace out.

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What I read this week

A Shortcut for Feeling Just a Little Happier

This article was interesting, like, in a sad way. I really enjoy reading Arthur C. Brooks’ articles on The Atlantic almost as much as I enjoy the fact that he has a middle initial in his name. How cool is that? Should I start calling myself Johanna P. Journal? I think so. Anyway, here’s an excerpt that I enjoyed. (PS. Just realised that excerpt is such a strange word (maybe I need to sleep)).

Back pain is normal, but a different sort of hurt is even more typical in my life, and probably yours as well: mental suffering. I don’t mean clinical depression or anxiety, which require professional intervention, but rather the routine, chronic grind of conflict, dissatisfaction, and sadness, which often constitute a dull ache in the background of our days. Many philosophers have considered this discomfort to be our natural state.

Arthur C. Brooks

Korean Books

I started a 10-week Korean course at a university here in Seoul so I’ve mostly been reading (pretending to read) Korean textbooks. I’ve inhaled so much grammar and knowledge that I think I might need to just keep going and never give up. It’s going to be hard but I’m hoping that the pain I’m already feeling on Day 2 will graduate into a mild ache so that my future self will one day thank me for it.

Rapid Fire Things I have Been Watching in September

1. Heartbreak High on Netflix (Love)

2. Love is Blind After the Altar (Awful)

3. Partner Track on Netflix (Awful but loved it and I am eagerly awaiting another season)

4. Dream Home Makeover Season 3 on Netflix (My favourite interior show on the planet and have been drooling over my iPad all season)

5. Workin’ Moms Season 6 on Netflix (If you haven’t watched this show omg it’s so good Catherine Reitman is such an underrated comedian)

6. Narco Saints on Netflix (Amazing, recommend obviously dah)

7. That’s all I can think of right now but I’m sure there is a lot of garbage I forgot to mention. For the first time in a long time, there are actually things I want to watch on Netflix!

Fuck the Dentist

Just going to interrupt this newsletter with this fun little sentiment. That’s all I wanted to say. I really hate the dentist. The sterile waiting rooms. The poky instruments (not to be confused with Poke Bowls, they are YUM). I hate them all. Is it just me or are dentists super judgemental? Like, don’t ask me if I “floss” when you know for a FACT that I don’t. We love a cheap dentist fee though, thank you, Korean Health Insurance.

Sketchbook Tour

I filmed a thing! I like it, I hope you do too! If not, I don’t really mind because I actually made it for myself (no offence).

Happy (Belated Chuseok)

We recently (at the beginning of September) celebrated Chuseok by going to Yeosu to be with family. This amazing cafe we went to actually looks like we went on a tropical holiday but we were just in the Korean countryside!

Lotte World during the Chuseok Holiday

We thought we were cheating the system by going to Lotte World on the actual day of Chuseok, thinking there would be zero people. We were wrong. It was full of people. Every person in South Korea had the same idea. We still had a great time and I firmly believe that you are never too old to do whatever the heck you want. I walked around all day with giraffe ears on my head and it felt completely natural and I’m now looking for any excuse to wear them again.

Thanks for reading, have a great Sunday, and peace out.

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I bought new coloured pencils because I am a 26-year-old child

I finally bit the bullet and bought a new 36-pack of Prisma Color pencils. My drawing teacher at University told us he liked Prisma Color and I haven’t strayed from that recommendation since… If there is something really dumb that you want to buy that will bring an exponential amount of joy into your life and is not even that expensive, just buy it! Money is round, it will always come back to you. Here’s a picture I drew on the KTX with my new pencils.

People Watching Ramen

This week in Seoul was sponsored by a light summer breeze and a much-needed break from the humidity and frizzy hair. It was the first time all summer where it felt cooler being outside rather than staying inside. We ventured to a cute little Japanese ramen restaurant nearby and watched as people walked by. We saw a completely new side of our neighbourhood and it was absolutely delightful. The cool summer night, the ramen, the sense of community and us wondering why the heck we had never eaten here before and who the heck all of these people were; a wonderful little serendipitous life cocktail.

Never Have I Ever Season 3

I am a huge Mindy Kaling fan and Never Have I Ever is one of my favourite Mindy Kaling brainchildren. You KNOW I watched the latest season in one day and you BET I loved every minute. Devi Vishwakumar is the teenage coming of age star we all needed a long time ago. Also, the interiors of Devi’s house, and the costumes in this show, I LOVE. I am just really not a fan of Paxton Hall-Yoshida because every time he is on the screen I remember that they are not real high schoolers and nobody has this kind of teenage experience and it’s all an illusion. Speaking of coming of age, I also watched ‘A Cinderella Story’ this week while eating homemade lasagna. It was a good week.

I forgot that I can do whatever I want

This week I finally understood some things that are super obvious and have been staring me in the face for the last 5 years but have only started to make sense now. Namely the fact that I can do and make whatever the hell I want and there isn’t really much anyone can do about it!

Recipes I Have Been Into

Yes. I cook now. Thank you. I used to cook but then I moved to Korea and had to contort myself into human Tetris shapes just to stand in our kitchen. Now that I have extra time and a nice amount of counter space, I have finally become the long orange Tetris piece and can go absolutely bananas in the kitchen. Here are some recipes I liked!

Easy Lasagna Recipe

I made lasagna for the first time ever and it was fucking yummy. This recipe will now be the recipe I use for the rest of my life. I swapped the parsley with basil because I couldn’t find any at our local supermarket.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever

(Their title, not mine, but I don’t dispute it) I made these recently for a baby shower I hosted for a friend. This is the only picture I took on the day of the party because I was so busy trying to ensure everything was going smoothly. I wish I took more photos of the food I prepared! Oh well, next time! You can kind of see the cookies I made in this pic!

Pork and ricotta meatballs with tagliatelle

Okay, this entire recipe is not my fave but the meatballs themselves are amazing. I ignore the rest of the recipe and just make the balls. YUM!

Jjimdak Recipe

Jjimdak is one of my favourite (slash the easiest) Korean foods to make. I tried two different recipes this month and this one was my favourite. I actually don’t follow the recipes super strictly because Korean food is really up to your taste preference. Whether or not you like sweet sauces, spicy sauces, or salty sauces, the choice is yours when it comes to “ingredients” and “measurements”(ugh, such a drag).

Okay, that’s all for now. Have a good day and a happy week. Follow my Instagram if you like my newsletter because it’s kind of like a live version of Picnic Journal. Bye!

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It’s 6:30 am and I’m sitting at my desk with a hot cup of tea, reeking of soju. I drank last night for the first time in about 5 weeks… and oh boy do I regret it. Drinking is gross, why did I think I needed to drink? Now that I don’t work at a chaotic startup spending itself into the ground, I don’t really have a need to drink alcohol. I think I’ll stick to pouring grape juice and sparkling water into a wine glass.

Anyway, I hope you’re doing well. Even if you’re not doing well, it’s okay because you’ll feel better soon. It’s okay to just be, like, fine. I’m fine most of the time. It would be really freaky if you felt amazing every day. That’s just not sustainable. Please go and bore someone else with your daily positivity and turmeric shots, I’m going to go cry randomly in the middle of the day after seeing a video of a little kid getting a pet dog for his birthday. Thank you.

What I’m Watching

The theme of my TV binge-watching at the moment is ‘Strong Autistic Leads’…

Extraordinary Attorney Woo (이상한 변호사 우영우)

The final episode of Attorney Woo was released on Netflix this week which meant that I could finally start watching the show (I don’t like to be left hanging because I am a selfish child of the internet generation). As soon as the intro started playing I knew I was in love with this show. Excuse me, the whales need to STOP being so cute.

However… While I’m really happy to see more ‘inclusivity’ in K-Dramas, I do acknowledge that Woo Young-woo’s character kind of glamourises autism. She faces very little adversity in the show and at times her autism seems like an afterthought.

Don’t get me wrong though, I really love the show, the cases, the characters, the set, everything. It has all of the elements of a great K-Drama and will probably be rewatched by people for years to come. I just don’t think this is a show that is going to shift people’s prejudices in the workplace…

… but that’s not really why we watch K-Dramas, is it? We watch them to escape from our own realities and admire the poreless skin of perfect humans who have neatly ironed clothes and exceed their hot boss’ expectations and socialise on a regular basis despite having autism. So, relative to the other K-Dramas in this world, Woo Young-woo is groundbreaking and we love her.

The Good Doctor

I also started watching The Good Doctor but I don’t really want to write about it because I put all of my energy into Woo Young-woo. I like the show and I’m really glad I failed high school biology and don’t have to work in a hospital.

What I’m Reading

Crime Scene Asia: When Forensic Evidence Becomes the Silent Witness by Liz Porter

I picked this book up earlier in the week at Kyobo for ₩3,000 (~$3). It was on the sale table and when I saw it I thought, ‘Can I become a crime reader, is that who I want to be?’ I’ve never read a crime book before, I wasn’t sure if I would like it. So the $3 price tag convinced me maybe I could try, maybe I could be that person. My grandma was the biggest crime junkie ever. She had a poster that pictured every illicit drug in Victoria above her breakfast table. Oh, yes, I like crime books now. It was ₩3,000 well spent.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

This book is really boring and I will never finish it and that’s okay. It is a good time killer though so I have been carrying it around in my backpack.

What I’m Making

I bought a new sketchbook recently and have been filling it to the brim with random shit. I’m going wild guys. I forgot that sketchbooks should be hideous. They should be full of scribbles and mistakes and nightmares with a few cute things sprinkled here and there. That’s how you find the good stuff but I think Instagram made me forget this. The purpose of sketchbooks is for them to be garbage. That’s it. If I finish the sketchbook and I don’t hate myself after flicking through it, then I haven’t learned anything. Woah, am I being too negative in this newsletter? I don’t really have a lot of friends so I don’t know how much existential dread is socially appropriate. Follow me on Instagram!

I totally went on about how my sketchbook is trash and then added pictures of really cute paintings because I’m not going to share my trash doodles with you yet, I’m too frightened.

What is Saving my Skin this Summer

The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%

My skin was feeling a little bit blah this summer and I felt like I needed an extra step in my very simple skincare routine. I started using The Ordinary’s Niacinamide after my cleanser and noticed a big difference in my skin almost immediately. I feel like my skin is more glowy and bright but that could just be because I am unemployed and thriving. Side note, I bought this from Olive Young!

The 60 Second Cleansing Rule

I first heard James Welsh talk about this but I think it has been circling the skinternet for a while now. Cleansing my face for 60 seconds makes my face feel instantly reborn and it is such an easy and cheap thing to do. My skin feels really soft and clean and if I get lazy and cleanse for 15 seconds, I notice a difference. Imagine travelling on planes for 36 hours and then washing your body with a makeup remover wipe in an airport bathroom. That’s kind of what it feels like when I don’t use the 60-second cleansing rule.

What I’m Doing

Last week we went to see the new and improved Gwangwhamun Square. The area has been closed off since 2020? I think? and is finally open again. To celebrate the opening, the changing of the guard ceremony extended out onto the new square. Typically, the changing of the guard ceremony just happens within the walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was an amazing thing to witness and I even got interviewed by SBS and got my big break into Korean television.

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Hi. Hello. I’m back, *insert excuse for internet absence here*. And what a world to come back to!

Oh, how I have missed these newsletters! Did you miss them too or is it just me? How are you going? To the 3 people who read my newsletters, I hope you’re doing well!

The world seems extra apocalyptic these days. Fires, floods, wars, abortion bans, assassinations, the weird economy, Instagram is making their app experience a living nightmare, covid is still insisting on keeping the pandemic alive, and just all the other stuff I block out by living in my own world and being a selfish millennial.

I was hit by the weird economy recently because my company failed to pay us for 3 months, paid us out of the blue a few weeks ago and then declared insolvency. So it has been a weird year but it just means that better things are coming and what is meant to be will be. It is much easier to type those words now that the dust has settled, proving once and for all that time really is a wound cleaner. Forget about using Windex on your wounds, just stick out a tough time for 3 months and see the healing process do its thing.

I decided to type up a quick roundup of things that I have been watching/reading/eating/thinking about since I last posted… for the sake of time and slowly easing you back into my internet bubble. Some of the things in these lists have been in this draft newsletter since April but are still relevant to the person I am today. Enjoy. Be safe. When life gives you apocalyptic chaos, shove a marshmallow on a stick and enjoy the moment. We are frightened but we are not alone. We have iPhones and avatars are now on Instagram for some reason.

Quick round up of what has been consuming my time lately (apart from spiralling thoughts about my lack of career prospects and my overgrown Animal Crossing Island)

What I have been watching:

1. Criminal Minds on Disney + (Agent Hotchner, could you STOP🔥)

2. Money Heist Korea on Netflix (recommend)

3. Pachinko on Apple TV(cried the whole way through)

4. Loot on Apple TV (not necessary to watch but love the cast)

5. Uncoupled on Netflix (UM, this is EVERYTHING that ‘And Just Like That’ needed to be but couldn’t be because there was no Kim Cattrall. I seriously loved this show and watched all 8 episodes in about 5 seconds. No need to do the math, it happened, I was there)

6. I just watched ‘Rebel Cheer Squad’ on Netlfix today because the genre keywords were: ‘Ominous, Youth, Ensemble, Dance’ and I thought it would be rude not to watch it. I liked it. Sue me. It was cute. Kind of like Sex Education meets Bring it On (not really).

7. I watched Mission Impossible for the first time and realised that people used toasters as computers in the 90s.

What I’ve been listening to:

1. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

2. A loooot of Bo Burnham since he released Inside Outtakes

3. Hello, new Beyonce album?

4. Lil Nas X mostly

What I’ve been reading:

1. Think Like an Artist by Will Gompertz

2. Sunbathing by Isobelle Beech

3. NGL I haven’t been reading a lot lately and it shows. My literacy skills are going downhill.

My guilty pleasures (aka coping mechanisms, you decide)

1. Animal Crossing

2. The Washington Post Daily Crossword

3. White chocolate raspberry bullets

4. Overpriced lattes as per usual

5. Rewatching Gossip Girl every year since 2014

6. Painting until my hands hurt

7. Using Pawpaw ointment on everything

8. Taking a shopping trolley to the supermarket and wheeling my groceries around like an old woman

9. This banana bread recipe

10. My Nina Cosford Sketchbook (sketchbook tour coming soon!)

Thank you for reading and see you next week! Picnic Journal is back in business!

Check out my art!

I made a YouTube video!

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1. Harry Potter makes so much sense now!

I spent 26 years telling people that I disliked Harry Potter. Even though the first book was published a year after I was born, I knew from day 0 that it wasn’t going to be the universe for me. People would talk about it at lunchtime, have Harry Potter themed birthday parties, play with Harry Potter Lego sets and ask each other which house they belonged to.

For 26 years, I had no idea what people were talking about. Every attempt I made to read the books resulted in me getting frustrated. I was a notoriously terrible reader as a child and to this day I am still self-conscious about my slow reading pace. Years went by, people brushed off my dislike for Potter and film releases came and went.

This week felt like the perfect time to watch the franchise from the beginning and try to understand what on earth a Horcrux is. My husband’s enthusiasm for spells and Harry Potter lore kept me motivated. I get it now. I get the wands and the things and the spells and the Voldemort stuff. I even found myself dreaming about Harry Potter. I am pleased to be writing my first issue of Picnic Journal as a Harry Potter fan.

2. Fresh air should be sold in bottles

Cute, little glass bottles with pipettes for dropping a splash of freshness into your nostrils every 30 minutes. It’s something you don’t know you need until you escape from the city for a weekend and realise how much clearer your thoughts are and how deep your breaths can be. We spent the weekend at Sangha Farm along the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. It was a magical experience and something I would recommend to everyone living in Korea. You can go for a day or stay in their gorgeous hotel. The food is fresh, you can feed cows and sheep and goats, there is something for everyone to enjoy. The farm is owned by Maeil Dairies.

3. Am I the only person who didn’t know what WWE was until this week?

I was this week old when I realised that The Rock and John Cena didn’t become Hollywood stars out of evaporated sports drinks. They had a life before Moana and whatever movies John Cena was in. I also didn’t know about the world of WWE and the role-playing and storytelling and characters? It’s really insane? I’m so confused? Is it supposed to make sense? Trying to understand Harry Potter is all my brain can handle this week.

Recent Doodles

I drew a self-portrait of myself. It’s highly accurate because it’s a self-portrait.

I had a bit of an emo week this week but at least I channelled my emotions into getting lots of doodles done. I feel like my style has evolved so much in this sketchbook and I am itching to fill it up and start a fresh one. I just placed an order for a Nina Cosford Sketchbook and I can’t wait for it to arrive. I want to try and support more of the artists I love and follow on Instagram. I feel like my money is better spent when I feel an attachment to the artist selling the item.

What I’ve been watching

Harry Potter

I think I covered this part already. I think my favourite one was definitely Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Is that a controversial opinion? I don’t know and I don’t care because I am new to Harry Potter and I’ll do what I want.

What I’m reading

Crying in H Mart

by Michelle Zauner

I finally finished reading this book on the bullet train from Yeosu back to Seoul on the weekend. I cried on the train, I cried yesterday on the bus and I cried a few other times before that. I haven’t read a book like this before, I usually try to avoid books and conversations and thoughts about death and grief but Michelle’s writing made it so much more compelling than I could have ever imagined. Everything from her relationship with Korea, her mother’s battle with cancer, her relationship with her father, I don’t know it was all so comforting and heartbreaking at the same time. I found small bursts of connection to her story but then other things felt so foreign. Such a beautiful gift to the world.

Recent YouTube Videos

Want to see what I get up to as a foreigner living in Seoul, South Korea? Check out my YouTube channel. I post videos every so often on there!

Doodle with me / My study and career path toward UX Design / Why I studied Industrial Design

I was so nervous to post this video but now I’m not so nervous and I’m ready to make another one! #growth

Goals for this week

My goal this week is to clean up my digital footprint a little bit

I find social media very overwhelming (don’t we all?) I can’t live very soundly with it, but living without it would not be fun (um, hello #fomo!?). I love posting on Instagram and YouTube and of course here on my newsletter, but every so often I just lose hope in myself and wonder why I am spending time trying to post things and share things that never really mean anything or amount to anything.

It’s a conflicting thing but maybe if I thought less about it, posted what I wanted, reduced the amount of doom scrolling I do and clean up the footprint I want to leave online... well then maybe I can reduce the number of social media-related existential crises that I have. It’s hard to say whether or not social media gave me mental health issues because I have spent half my life with a social media account. I don’t really know what my brain feels like without it.

Thank you for reading. Have a great week and don’t forget to write things down.

Not for anyone else, just for you. Get it all out of your brain and onto paper. You don’t need to keep it, just get it out and free up some brain space for life’s big questions like ‘why did those poor kids keep going back to Hogwarts, year after year?’ It’s the biggest mystery to me. Glad I have the brain space to ponder over this for the next few weeks thanks to my journaling habit.

Hi! Hello! Here are three things I spent a lot of time thinking about recently even though you didn’t ask:

1. Cherry Blossoms

I’m not sure if I was more excited about the cherry blossoms outside in the real world or the cherry blossoms on my Animal Crossing Island. Regardless, I was excited about cherry blossoms. We went to Seokchon lake (at night) in Jamsil and Namsan (during the day) to see the blossoms this year. Both were equally beautiful but equally packed full of too many people which made me all kinds of anxious. I’m not ready for a maskless society, I don’t know who I am without a mask. I’ll be like Bruce Wayne trying to defend Batman’s vigilante antics at a rich people gala. ‘Oh, come on now Harrington, Batman isn’t all bad, hahaha sorry excuse me I need to go to the bathroom for the next 5 hours, I smell trouble, totally unrelated to anything you’re going to see on the news tonight about Batman though’.

2. I don’t like working so I guess my only option is to live in a van and promote VPN companies on the internet.

This is not a new one for me. I just really don’t like working (does anyone?). I have finally transformed into a person who works for a paycheck but spends each hour of their spare time doing the things they’d rather be doing, but for free.

3. I had to explain what an influencer was to my dad and I don’t think he got it.

I don’t blame him but also, he does exclusively use the ‘delete’ button when typing instead of ‘backspace’ so I don’t think he is the right audience for influencers anyway.

Recent Doodles

I drew some pictures this week in my sketchbook and when I compared them to pictures I did last year, I honestly felt like Picasso. Maybe I should keep drawing to see how good I can get at drawing the same thing over and over again.

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What I’ve been watching

On Becoming a God in Central Florida (2019)

This show is weird and dark and not normally the kind of show that I’d go for but it’s about a pyramid scheme so, of course, I’m on board. If you’ve read my newsletter before, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes so this is what drew me to the show. However, I really love how this show focuses less on the products and brands people are selling in the pyramid schemes but more on how the people in them bring down and destroy the lives of everyone they know and love. It’s an interesting take on some of the documentaries and shows I’ve watched. It’s also just super outrageous and hilarious in a really dark way. Also, the acting is outstanding. But, and I cannot stress this enough, it is one hell of a whacky ride watching it.

Get Organized with the Home Edit Season 2

Joanna and Clea are the best internet couple since Chuck and Blair. I don’t feel like I need to explain the premise of the show because the title is pretty self-explanatory. Some of the children in this season literally made me cry, I don’t know what it is about little humans saying literally anything but it gets me every time. Weston was definitely my favourite child. I also love how Joanna and Clea make ultra-rich and famous celebrities seem like normal people. Like, move out of the way Chris Pratt and show me those perfectly organised tiny boxes full of nuts and bolts in your garage. I am also glad that The Container Store does not exist in Korea because if it did, I’d be broke or I’d be an employee. Either way, I’d be living in a house made of plastic storage solutions. Sorry, I should say storage systems.

Love Island Australia Season 1

My husband was watching Love Island recently and got hooked. I had already seen it but I got re-hooked and we started watching it on our lunch breaks. We both worked at home together and didn’t leave the house last week so Love Island helped us navigate the 25/7 cohabitating situation. Watching Love Island with your partner is so much more fun than watching it alone, you get to yell at the screen in disgust and act like your relationship is far superior. It was also really funny to hear my husband’s Australian accent. He tried to mock the contestants but I feel like his default accent in English is this weird cockney British vibe but it’s still hilarious.

What I’m reading

Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden

I started reading Lean UX this week and it is such a great book for anyone out there aspiring to be a UX designer or who hasn’t read it yet. I genuinely feel like the biggest imposter when it comes to my career and reading this book is making me feel a lot more confident in my work and what I do. I kind of feel like ‘oh yeah, I get it, I can apply this to my work’. I think it’s scary to feel like you don’t know anything but it’s scarier to not do anything about it and become complacent with what you already know. I want to keep trying to learn and study my own industry because it changes daily. Being able to build a strong foundation of knowledge and experience will help me to continue to adapt. Even when new UX spring chickens come and steal my job and flaunt their crypto in front of me, at least I’ll have my books and a few TikTok references. If you feel like you’re not good at your job like me, think about what steps you are taking or can take to get closer to where you think you should be. Ultimately, I don’t think anyone really knows what they’re doing, but actively trying to figure that out and better yourself will make it all seem a little less foggy out there.

Recent YouTube Videos

Want to see what I get up to as a foreigner living in Seoul, South Korea? Check out my YouTube channel. I post videos every so often on there! These are old ones, new videos coming this week!

Getting ready for spring in South Korea / Wardrobe Cleaning

Working remotely as a UX designer in Seoul ~ Day in the life vlog

Goals for this week

My goal this week is to get it together… again.

A new week is a new beginning for me to try and get my life together. I feel like my brain was 10 steps behind me last week and I really need to get ahead of it. I was forgetting things, neglecting my health and spending way too long daydreaming and panicking about nothing. Now that the weather is warmer, I have no excuse but to start my mornings outside or by getting some exercise. Yay for a fresh new week!

Thank you for reading. Have a great week and don’t forget to take a guilt-free rest. It’s way better than those pesky old “I should be doing everything else but I am paralysed by my own decision-making skills rest’.

Hi! Hello! Here are three things I spent a tiny bit of my time thinking about this week:

1. I have no friends

Okay, so I literally have no friends but I also have no friends according to a Korean doctor who this week said, “If you don’t have friends infected [with covid] right now, you don’t have friends.” But, I blame covid for my lack of friends because for 2 years I have been paranoid about not only getting covid but mostly of accidentally infecting a vulnerable human without knowing I have covid. I’m stuck in a vicious cycle of avoiding getting covid —> having no friends —> going out —> not getting covid —> still having no friends.

2. Encanto was better than I thought it would be and I haven’t even finished watching it yet and I never want it to end.

Okay, I loved Encanto and I’m so glad that I finally watched it after months of listening to the soundtrack. The songs, the costumes, the laughs, the Colombian culture, everything. It was great. I was also so confused that Rosa from Brooklyn 99 and Mirabel from Encanto are the same person!!! Stephanie Beatriz’s voice was amazing. AND I read that she was literally in labour while recording ‘Wating on a Miracle’. Who does that!!!?

3. If you store your clothes away seasonally, it will feel like you’re going on a huge shopping spree every time its’s time to swap out your clothes.

Honestly, the best way to go shopping for a new season is to look inside your house at all of the stuff you already have. And then hate all of the stuff you have and wish you could burn it all and start again but then you won’t have anything to wear and you’ll be worse off than when you started.

4. Bonus thought: this

My Week in Photos (because I left it to the last minute to write my newsletter)

Sunday - Kites stuck in the trees in Gyeongju, South Korea. These beautiful trees were covered in kite strings and it made me really sad but it was also kind of pretty to look at. I just hope that nobody (or thing) was harmed in the process.

Monday Evening - An evening walk after work. It’s finally warm and bright enough outside when I finish my work to take a walk outside. The novelty of remote work has well and truly worn off and I’m ready to go back to whatever we did before all of this. There aren’t enough desks in my company’s office to go fully back to work so looks like I’m stuck with remote work for life. It’s no way to live!

Wednesday Night - My bedside table is where dust, expired vitamins and unfinished books go to die.

Thursday - I ordered a coffee delivery and I was very excited by the design on the cup even though I felt like a useless and worthless human for ordering something I could just buy at the bottom of our apartment building or make myself.

Every night - I wrote a comic this week and subsequently spent hours tracing the lines with a sign pen, erasing the pencil markings and colouring in with pencils. It was a messy hobby but I’m really happy with the outcome. Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to try and finish it and show it to someone.

Saturday Morning - I bought this seasonal Midnight Bergamot Cold Brew coffee from Starbucks after hiking up Namsan. I had to weave my way through a group of sweaty cyclists to find a place to quietly enjoy my overpriced cup of sugar. I loved every moment of it. I also thought to myself… Ummm should I be a cyclist? And then I immediately shook the thought off and remembered that I hate riding bikes and I hate lycra and I hate socialising in groups.

Saturday Afternoon - I found a new hobby, DIY gel nails. I spent one manicure’s worth of money on a beginner gel nail set and this is the result! I definitely didn’t colour within the lines for this one but I’m excited to try and get better. My intention was to save money by doing it myself but I can definitely see this becoming an expensive hobby. My husband rejected my offer to let me paint his nails and practice.

Recent YouTube Videos

Want to see what I get up to as a foreigner living in Seoul, South Korea? Check out my YouTube channel. I post videos every so often on there!

Getting ready for Spring in South Korea

Watch me clean my wardrobe and get it ready for spring while also being exhausted because weekends are too short and I always try to fit too much in!

Working remotely as a UX designer in Seoul ~ Day in the life vlog

Goals for this week

I’m going to try and wake up at 5 am this week at least once. Why? Because I really need to stop waking up at 8:00 am, scrolling on my phone until 9:29 am and then scrambling to log into my laptop and tell people I started work.

Edit: I wrote this goal at the beginning of the weekend and now I’m rolling my eyes at my formerly optimistic self. There is almost no chance of this happening. Just wake up at a normal time and don’t look at your phone? Why did I think I needed to wake up at 5 am? I’m sorry you guys had to see this side of me.

Thank you for reading. Have a great week and don’t forget to just not. Not today. Tomorrow, yes. Today, no. It’s just a no from all of us.

Welcome back to another Picnic Journal. I am writing this intro on a snowy morning in late March? Hello, climate change. Oh well, I’m not complaining because an opportunity to wear my red gumboots is not something to lose sleep over. Always looking for the lemonade among the pile of lemons. Is that how that idiom goes? I don’t know but I do know that I should stop writing this intro so you can read the rest of the newsletter before you lose interest! Stay with me. It’s a good one. Kind of… I don’t know it’s kind of the same as the other ones. But I’ll let you be the judge.

Here are three things I spent a lot of time thinking about recently:

1. Minju Kim did a collaboration with & Other Stories and I can’t stop thinking about it

If you live under a rock lobster, Minju Kim is a Korean fashion designer who won the Netflix show ‘Next in Fashion’ a few years ago. She was my favourite designer on the show and I have been following her career ever since. I have been so tempted to buy her clothing from her namesake label, but it is just a bit out of my price range. So the fact that she did a collab with one of my favourite high street brands AND used bunny rabbits in the campaign is just all I can think about this week. There are a few things I have my eye on for when it launches so goodbye future house and retirement plans.

Here are the four pieces that I will be imaginary styling in my head for the next few weeks:

2. Work is just this thing that lives inside a laptop case at the bottom of a shelf in my house

Every day at 6:30 pm I aim to close my laptop (I work remotely as a UX designer, hi by the way) I shove my laptop, my notebook and my charger into a laptop case and then I shove the laptop case onto a shelf that houses our tangled cables in overpriced canvas boxes, medicine and my Nintendo Switch paraphernalia. I have to keep everything work-related in that laptop case just so it doesn’t contaminate the fun, interesting parts of my personal life outside of work hours. Then I forget about the day, and never look back.. until I have to do it all over again the next day. But then on Fridays, I get to pack that case away for a full 72 hours and that is what makes this whole vicious cycle worthwhile.

3. The old lady who served me at the pharmacy this week

For some reason, I have this assumption that old people in Korea can’t speak English, but boy was I wrong about this lady. I went to the pharmacy this week to fetch some medicine but what I got instead was a delightful conversation with an old lady in English (and also medicine). She carefully wrote out all of the instructions on an envelope (in English!!) and explained everything in great detail. I’m still thinking about that interaction and I hope that she is there when I next need medicine.

Recent Doodles

I decided that this week was the week I wanted to become a painter? I used to paint a lot when I was in high school and university but I stopped painting when I started buying my own clothes and furniture and stocks and didn’t want to get it all covered in paint. Thanks to work stress, I have picked up the brush again. I literally brush the day away stroke by stroke and I don’t love the outcome, but the process is super enjoyable.

Here is another doodle from this week:

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What I’ve been watching

A Weekend Away

This new Netflix movie starring Blair Waldorf was a good weeknight time-killing movie. As much as I enjoyed it, it made me really angry to see someone making so many clearly terrible solo female travel decisions. I was practically yelling at the screen the whole time but it was a good movie!

New Girl

Winston and Nick from New Girl are truly comedic geniuses and this is the show that I have had in the background during my aforementioned painting resurrection.

Turning Red

I started watching Turning Red this week mostly because it has the voices of Maitreyi Ramakrishnan AND Sandrah Oh, but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I watched it. I shall resume it next week but loving it so far

Mia Maples on YouTube

I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of Mia Maples until last week but I have been binge-watching her videos ever since. I cried my eyeballs out watching her and her family give her grandparents a surprise renovation! I just didn’t realise people were out in the world living the way Mia and her family live! Her DIY and interior content is actually better than most of the home interior content on Netflix!

What I’m reading

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Oh lord, I haven’t read a book this fast in a long time, it was so good! I started writing about this one in last week’s newsletter and boy was a bullet train trip a good chance to get through a good chunk of this book. I’m not even going to try and review this book (mostly because I think everyone has probably already read it, I’m just late to the party) but just go and read it! It really made me want to watch a bunch of ye olde 50’s movies.

Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

by Jake Knapp

I started reading Sprint this week and I am l-o-v-i-n-g it. I feel like a small town girl turned Silicone Valley college dropout with a dream and an iPad when I read this book. In all seriousness though, I am soaking up every word of wisdom from Jake and his colleagues because I hope that one day I too will invent a robot that delivers toothbrushes to people in their hotel rooms. Oh, I guess I might need to get my own idea to use for my own Sprint but you get the gist. Recommend it to any people who are stuck on an idea, a problem, something that you can’t quite stop thinking about. It’s a good one.

What I’ve been listening to

Best to You, Blood Orange

This song came on in my shuffle recently and it took me to a place and a time that I have not thought about for a while but it was nice. I used to blast this song in my mum’s car when I drove to my part-time job as a retail assistant in a novelty gift store. At the time I think I didn’t think that life would ever get any better than exactly what I just described but *spoiler alert*, it does.

Apart from that, I’m still just mostly listening to the Encanto soundtrack… but still haven’t seen the film.

Recent YouTube Videos

Want to see what I get up to as a foreigner living in Seoul, South Korea? Check out my YouTube channel. I post videos every so often on there!

Day trip to Jeonju, South Korea

New video of my husband and I travelling to Jeonju for the day to eat some delicious food!

February Monthly Vlog / Feeling bleh, working from home and spending too much money

Goals for this week

Study, study, study… and more study

I have been, for the first time in about 2 years, consistently studying Korean? The driving force behind forming this habit slash lifestyle change has been the fact that the person I work closest to in my new role at my company does not speak English. There is nothing like throwing yourself in the deep end for learning/upskilling. From having to do daily phone calls and messages in Korean, doing weekly speaking classes with my Korean tutor using Say Speaking (aka my favourite Korean Startup) and practising what I learn with my Korean husband, I have already noticed a huge improvement. Obviously, there is nothing easy about learning a language but I feel really fortunate that someone forced me to swim with sharks and I’m living to tell the tale (so to speak, I’m actually a really weak swimmer).

My goal for this week is to get better at revising and going over my notes/lesson topics from my classes. I’m paying money for these classes so I should at least try and drill what I am learning into my brain.

Thank you for reading. Have a great week and don’t forget to stretch your back when you get a chance. Painting on the floor with my back hunched over for hours has kind of had this weird inverse effect on my undiagnosed scoliosis.

Welcome to a special instalment of my newsletter that you didn’t know you didn’t need…

… where I justify spending 1,000 hours watching Netflix by poorly writing about it on my Substack newsletter. Here are some of the things I watched last month (I left out some of the trash that I actually watched to appear more sophisticated).

I had tonsillitis for most of February. It was really bad and I wondered if I’d ever feel healthy again. Maybe I should have spent more time resting than worrying. I’m healthy now thanks to some grape flavoured medicine, and I’m back to my good old anxiety-ridden self again. Side note: my husband and I went to IKEA last week and bought a rocking chair, just thought I’d share that here because it seemed relevant (it’s not). Now, on with the shows.

What I’ve been watching

Here’s the TL;DR list:

• Juvenile Justice (KDrama, 2022)

• The Big Short (Film, 2015)

• Margin Call (Film, 2011)

• The Tinder Swindler (Documentary, 2022)

• Twenty-somethings Austin (TV Reality Series, 2021)

• Don’t Look Up (Film, 2021)

• 3 million hours of YouTube videos

• I watched all of this but still haven’t managed to find the time to watch Encanto

1. Juvenile Justice (2022)

Good lord, can someone pass me several thousand boxes of tissues while I cry myself to sleep thinking about this show? I actually watched this show last week post-tonsilitis but it needed to be included on here because it is a literal masterpiece. Kim Hye-su was so powerful in this show, and her lips are just so iconic that you can’t help but take in every sentence she strings together. Please watch it and please don’t use audio dubbing, it’s a criminal offence. Subtitles are the only way to watch foreign films and TV.

2. The Big Short (2015)

This is probably my favourite movie ever and I make a point to watch it several times a year. Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling are so incredible in this film and I love their chaotic douchebag Wall Street energy. As a millennial who was barely literate during the 2007 global financial crisis, watching this film helped me understand what actually caused the GFC. I’m pretty sure I had to study it in high school but this movie did a better job of explaining it. As entertaining as this film is, it knocks down my faith in humanity several thousand notches each time I watch it.

I also paid $3 to rent Margin Call (2011) on YouTube. Another great film about the GFC. Is it too much to ask Penn Badgely and Zachary Quinto to be in another film together? I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.

3. The Tinder Swindler (2022)

Give me a pyramid scheme, a swindler, an MLM, a Ponzi scheme, give me any of them, all of them, any time of day and I am THERE. I live for this kind of content. Netflix, do us all a flavour and keep these documentaries coming. Also, be CAREFUL out there. Question everyone and everything and if something seems fishy, document it, ask for help, get a second opinion, run into the nearest convenience store, ask a kind stranger to pretend to be your long-lost cousin on the street etc.

4. Twenty-Somethings Austin (2021)

Loved this show. I was so excited to watch these twenty-somethings chase their dreams in a city I know virtually nothing about. Just kidding, it was infuriating to watch and I don’t recommend it. My fevers were coming and going at this point and it was either watch this or listen to my inner thoughts before trying to fall asleep with nasal congestion. Was really inspired by the two at the front of this pic who had such a lovely friendship by the end of the show (I can’t remember their names though lol, hope you guys are well).

5. Don’t Look Up (2021)

Because I’m an Adam McKay fan (okay, but who isn’t?), I had to watch it. But I wasn’t that impressed. Amazing cast and director but… I felt like the story was all over the place. It wasn’t really for me and I didn’t really care about any of the characters when the world was crumbling around them (sorry, should have prefaced with a *spoiler alert*). I also cannot remember anything specifically interesting or good from the film to write about in this paragraph, so that says it all.

What I’ve been watching on YouTube

Asian Boss: Interview with a former elite North Korean spy

This was a really interesting interview. I suggest that you watch it if you want to hear about a North Korean’s perception of South Korea and his escape.

Jonathan Pie: 'Boris Johnson Is a Liar' | NYT Opinion

Was my medication playing tricks on me or was this video hysterical?

I went down a Theranos rabbit hole

I watched approximately 45 videos about Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes in the month of February. The whole story fascinates me and also gives me a lot of motivation and confidence for my future entrepreneurial pursuits. It also makes me feel a bit queasy to think about all of the people who were misdiagnosed by one of their blood testing machines. Imagine having the audacity to put a fully assembled iMac into a dishwasher and telling people it can get your work done 45 times faster than a standard computer. It doesn’t make any sense but it’s essentially what Thernaos tried to do with blood testing.

The Behaviour Panel

I became obsessed with these guys during my bout of tonsilitis. They examine the body language of criminals and psychopaths and… Megan Markle? I’ve started noticing their ‘Chaff and redirect’ technique everywhere.

Sailing La Vagabonde

I’ve watched these guys for years but I recently rewatched their short series where they helped Greta Thunberg sail across the North Atlantic ocean in 2020. I can’t believe there are people out there just sailing the world and not living in a house, going to work in an office every day. It’s not really something I’d want to do but it’s so COOL seeing how they live their lives.

What I’ve been reading

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I know I’m late to the party… but I think I had forgotten how beautiful and magical a book could be. I actually don’t think I’ve felt this happy and excited to read a book in a long time. Where the Crawdads Sing was detailed, heart-wrenching, hilarious, vivid and unlike anything I have read in a book before. I wanted to savour each word, each sentence, each period and exclamation mark. I wish I could read this book forever and that it would never end. I highly think that you should consider reading it if you need a book to bring you back to life. Or you can just wait until the film comes out.

Recent YouTube Videos (Yeah, I’m a YouTuber!)

Married life in Korea Vlog

January Monthly Vlog / Books, Muji Haul, galleries and daily life in Seoul

Thank you for reading. Have a great week and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and give a thumb’s up. Really helps out my channel.

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