The Liebster Award

So recently I was nominated for the Liebster Award by Marta from the pretty cool down from the door blog.

 

I’m not going to lie, I didn’t really know what this was so let me now inform you. It’s an award given and received by bloggers. It is passed around and it is a way of helping other bloggers and getting to know the blogging community more. Thank you so much Marta for nominating me.

So here are the rules:

The Rules:

1. Thank and link the blogger(s) who nominated you.
2. Nominate 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers who you think deserve this award and link their blogs too.
3. Answer 11 questions posted by the blogger who nominated you and also ask 11 new questions for your nominees to answer.
4. Notify your nominees.

 Nominees:

1. Laurens fun blog about living in Denver; Life as Lauren
2. Katies refreshingly honest blog 52 Beautiful Things
3. The wonderful travel blog A Flashpackers Guide
4. Sarah’s blog about her time living in South Korea A Montrealer Overseas.
5. Another ESL teacher in Korea with a love of travelling, Hollys blog, Adventures With Holly
6. An amazing blog from an expat living in beautiful Bali, Bali Info.
7. A blog about fitness and finance Chasing Gains.
8. Another blogger living in the city that I’m hoping to call home soon Colorachel.
9. A fellow Public School English teacher and traveller here in Korea, East Of The Sun
10. Another ESL teacher who posts beautiful photos from Korea My Korean is Bad.
11. Finally, going on the themes of either Colorado, travel or ESL, this is a blog that has stolen my heart with their beautiful photos from Colorado but more specifically Denver; Weary Wanderer 

 

The questions that I’d like you to answer:

1. If you could choose one country to visit where would you choose and why?

2. What is the first thing that you do in the morning?

3. Why did you start blogging?

4. How has blogging affected your life in a positive way?

5. If you could be any animal what would it be?

6. How would you describe yourself in three words?

7. Where do you see yourself in ten years time?

8. The mountains or the sea, which would you choose?

9. Do you like or dislike meeting new people? Why?

10. What do you value most in life?

11. If you were a character from a movie or a different world (e.g. from Space), who or what would you be, and what would your story be? 

I’m looking forward to reading all of your answers!

Here are the questions that Marta asked me:

1. Why/how did you choose the blog name you did?

I guess it’s a very obvious choice of a blog name although I am a little bit annoyed with myself for choosing such a specific name. I’ll be leaving Korea this summer which means that I’ll have to change the name of my blog at some stage too which I’m not looking forward to.

2. Is this your first blog? If yes, what do you love about it? If not, what was your old one(s) about?

Yes. I guess what I love the most about it is that it serves the purpose that it was set up for. It was mainly set up so that I can look back on my travels and every once in a while I can reread the adventures that I’ve had in my life.

3. What’s your favourite quote about travel?

I’m not big on quotes but one quote that has always stuck with me is from a poem by Robert Frost.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

My friend sent this to me in an e-mail on the day that I left Ireland and moved to Korea and it has always stayed with me.

4. Who’s your favourite writer and why?

I love reading, but I don’t have a true favorite writer. I guess if I had to choose it would maybe be Khaled Hosseini. His books have stayed with me long after I read them. I need to build up the courage to read them again.

5. If you could improve one talent to its maximum ability, what would it be and why?

I would 100% improve my creative skills. I studied Business in college so I was surrounded by like minded business people. But then I moved to Korea and some of my closest friends are artists, writers, photographers and musicians. It has made me appreciate the arts more than ever and makes me want to try harder to find that creative person hiding inside.

6. What’s one perfect experience you had while traveling?

There have been many but one that is stuck in my mind is when myself and my husband were in Agra in India. The guesthouse that we were staying in had a rooftop restaurant with the most magical view of the Taj Mahal. We both sat there as the sun was setting, surrounded by fairy lights, watching the Taj Mahal fade in to darkness and listening to the call of prayer being played out from different mosques around the city. It was amazing.

This is the view from the restaurant during the day.

7. What’s a time where you were fearful for your life while traveling?

I was going to do a seven day hike in Nepal. But we took a local bus to the starting point of the trek. That bus journey was so scary that at one point I genuinely thought that I was going to die. We were driving on tiny roads up massive mountains with no barriers, when another vehicle came we would have to drive right out to the edge of the cliff. It was awful.

8. If you could meet yourself from ten years ago, what would you say to them/advice would you give? 

Hmm, I would say be true to yourself. Don’t stay in a relationship that you don’t want to be in and don’t worry because you will start to become more comfortable in your own skin.

9. Who has had the biggest influence on your life and how?

This is a tough question and I’m not sure if I have an answer to that question. My husband has taught me a lot about opening up and not being afraid to talk about problems, so my answer is probably my husband Jason.

10. If your life was a book, what genre would it be and why?

It would probably be a travel biography (surprise surprise). haha

11. What’s one thing no one knows about you?

I think that my husband knows nearly everything. But, something that only a few friends and family members know is that I suffer from a condition called aquagenic pruritus. It basically means that water can make my skin itch severely. I have had this for most of my life and the intense itching made me fear taking showers for the longest time. I have since realized that leaving humid Ireland has helped me a lot. It flares up when I least expect it, it has been raining a lot recently which has meant that I have had to suffer from it a lot recently. In fact it happened this morning while I was getting ready for work. There is not much that I can do when this happens other than try to stay calm and wait for it to finish.

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