Last summer, I was lucky enough to travel to Iceland with some friends to celebrate the end of our long journey to obtain our Master's degrees. Although delayed, here are some of my favourite pictures taken from our trip.

Long time no see! Almost two months in and this is my first post of 2016. I haven't had the time or passion to blog for the past 5 months. A lot has been happening that I'll mention briefly about each below.

Winter has been interesting this year. Back in late December, I remember wearing my fall jacket and just last week, it was feeling like almost -40C. This outfit here has probably been the only "fashionable" thing I've worn this winter that keeps me warm enough under my jacket. These leggings probably don't look that warm but they're fleece lined and so comfortable. As you can see, the weather got better this week which is also why I was able to take pictures outside without freezing. In addition with my morning classes, I'm just so tired that I don't want to spend energy on picking out clothes to wear.

I really can't believe this blog has survived 2 years... happy birthday to A Splash Of Tan! Although the blog suffered a bit of a hiatus during this year, it made it to this day. Last year, I talked a bit of my how I felt about blogging. That part hasn't changed much, and if you'd like to read about it, click here. This year, I'm going to reflect more on the recent year that passed, my vision for it, and why I don't spend as much time blogging now.

From mid-December 2014 to the end of April 2015, I took an approximate 4 month break from my blog. Ever since my "Blog Turns One" post, I haven't been updating much; a scarce 1 or 2 posts per month. Part of the excuse, and a common excuse, was that I couldn't balance school/volunteering with blogging. My field of study is nothing related to what I blog about so the extra load was hard to manage. There are also many moments when I just prefer not to share everything on the public domain. Another excuse is that I just didn't have any motivation to continue.

This summer, I'm volunteering as a research assistant/helper/you name it in a lab at my school. I have to go through many training sessions and rat handling training is one of them. The day of training arrived and I was emailed to meet in a room outside the vivarium (the room where they keep the live animals). When the time came, I went to the specified floor in the building but the room was no where to be found.

Here is another set of photos from my vacation this past summer. You can anticipate 2 more after this one LOL. Right after Seoul, my family and I flew to Jeju Island and let me tell you, I was pretty excited; this is like the getaway place that you always see in Korean dramas. If you like nature, this is the place for you to go. Oh, and if there's one thing you must eat in Jeju, it's their oranges! DELICIOUS.

This nature-filled photo set contains snapshots from Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak, Samseunghyeol, Yongduam Rock, Sangumburi Cave, Jeju Folk Village, and Manjanggul Cave.

Here is the long overdue part 2 post about my trip in Seoul, Korea this summer. If you would like to look at pictures from part 1 of the trip, click here.

This photo set contains pictures from Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, Banpo Bridge, FOOOOD, and some random snapshots.

It rained quite a bit during the last few days I spent in Seoul. I just remember my shoes getting so soaked in the rain and still having to walk in them for most of the day. Squishy, cold water between your toes and the soles of your feet is horrible. I think what I miss most about Seoul is the food... gamjatang, seoulleongtang, jajangmyeon, bulgolgi, soondubu jigae, samgyetang, kimchi, and the list goes on yummm :D

Sorry for not posting for awhile! It has been a hectic midterm season (7 midterms and 3 assignments total) so I hope you understand my absence. Today, I'd like to share with you some pictures from my summer vacation with my family. Over the summer holidays, we had the awesome opportunity to vacation in several parts of Asia! Our first stop was to the beautiful city of Seoul in South Korea.

When I travel, I never dress well. I just don't have the energy to do anything in the morning when I travel with my family because my dad likes to wake up super early and end the day late. Never have I had a "relaxing" trip - always in a hurry to go to the next place!

This photo set contains just a couple of shots at Namsan Tower, the DMZ and surrounding areas, Myeongdong, and Korean Folk Village.


Namsan Tower:

Woohoo, today marks the first birthday of A Splash Of Tan!!! *virtual hi-five* Yup, I made a party hat just to take this picture. I never thought I would make it to this day because I didn't think I would keep posting. I can tell you very truthfully that getting to this point has been difficult. Blogging took a toll on me for at least the last 6 months. Sounds a little dramatic, right?

When I made my first post on this blog on July 12, 2013, I was really excited to have my own public outlet to share things with everyone, my way. Blogging gives you a lot of freedom- you choose what to write and what to take pictures of. When I hit that "publish" button, I felt so happy knowing that someone would be reading my content.

Many of you don't know I had a blog before "A Splash Of Tan." I will not share that one with you because it has more personal posts that I do not wish for everyone to read. I do however want to share with you one excerpt that I had on a post I wrote about social media:

This is pretty different from what I normally write about. It was something that was recently on my mind and I needed a medium to express my opinions. It's lengthy too!


Our society today has built such an ideal look for women that is constantly being fed to us through the media. I think it can generally be agreed upon that among numerous cultures today, a skinny girl is preferred. I so happen to fall under that category, and it just so happens that I don't like to be reminded that I do.

Hi everyone! Sorry for being M.I.A. this month! Putting off all my work throughout the semester finally kicked me in the bum when I had to study cram for my finals...

This is a little different from what I normally post but I think I might start getting into it more. Let me know what you think! :)

Since I moved into the house that I'm currently living in with my family 13 years ago, my room does not have a usable closet. "Joyce, I see that you appear to have a closet door in your room; why is it there?" I will get back to that question in a minute.

So where exactly did/do I store my clothes?

1. I had a separate dresser with five drawers to store most of my clothes.
2. When I grew older and my clothes accumulated, I used the three drawers built into my bed frame to store the rest.
3. Things I needed to hang such as semi-formal or formal dresses, and coats were stored in my sister or parents' closets.

Christmas is about to roll in (less than 2 months?!) and I've been excitedly waiting to talk about this awesome charity project by Samaritan's Purse. Operation Christmas Child is a yearly project whose main purpose is to share God's great love. It started in the '90s and people participate worldwide to pack shoeboxes full of items to gift to children in developing countries. Everyone should experience the joy, hope, warmth, and love that Christmas is supposed to bring!

I have been wanting to compose a "time lapse" type of photo for quite some time now and I finally got the chance to. This image took me almost a full year to compose. I know I couldn't line up everything perfectly because I wasn't in the exact same position everyday to take the picture. I tried my best! Here is the time to appreciate the beauty of nature and how amazing it is.

From the changing of colours to the heavy snowfalls; to the pouring rain and the scorching sun. Every season has something great to love. I for one can't wait for the snow to come. It has already begun snowing for some of my friends living more North! Bring on the tobogganing!

Hope you have a great week! :)

Today, this post might be different from most things I usually write about, but I just thought that I would share about my week in summary. It may not be the MOST exciting week of my life... it's like watching grass grow.

1. Midterms: midterm season has finally arrived which means it's time to study! This has just been one of those weeks where I honestly have been so lazy, tired, stressed, and who knows what else. When I'm in a mood like that, wearing some stylish, nice outfit is not in the picture. I'm at school for 9 to 11 hours a day on average and I have to be in the most comfortable thing I can wear.

This is one of the biggest events that happen in Toronto each year. The first exhibition started in 1879! I thought that was a pretty cool fact since Canada was officially named a country just a little over 10 years before then. The main attractions include carnival booth-type games, rides, shows, shopping, a petting zoo, and the outrageously weird foods. It was really good weather when I went even though the forecast said it would rain. Thanks to my friend, we got into the Ex for free!

Hair donation is something I've been wanting to do for a few years now. I actually haven't heard about hair donations until my time in high school when a few of my classmates donated their hair and when my school hosted a few hair donating events. I was like, "wow, that is something I want to participate in!" So for the past year, I've been growing my hair to get it to the length it was.

Over the past year or so, macarons seem to have become unbelievably popular in North America. At first, I was like, "what is a macarON? I've only heard of a macarOON." Yea, it bugs me when people pronounce this treat as macaroon. I never knew what it was made of so I did a little research. It is somewhat like a meringue-based treat mixed with almond flour, baked to look like delicate cookies.

I've heard a lot of say that macarons are extremely difficult to make so the hunt for a foolproof recipe was on. You can't go wrong with Martha Stewart! A baker made a video on how to make the macarons based on Martha's recipe which made it a lot easier to make. With the help of my church fellowship gals, the macarons turned out awesome! It was our first time making these and I believe they tasted and looked just like store bought ones. Maybe they were a little better than store-bought ones? Nah, now I'm just flattering ourselves.

It's a long weekend here in Canada! This time, my family and I ventured to the Farmer's Market in St. Jacobs. It's a really small village but it's full of delicious, fresh food! Just look at those peaches! People also sell their own products and clothing there but the main focus is no doubt the food. Because it was the long weekend, there were a lot of people. It wasn't exactly comfortable walking around. Luckily, the weather was amazing that day so it was really nice to spend the day outside.

I've ALWAYS wanted to have some pictures with my guitar. Maybe it's due to the fact that I see all these amazing photos on the internet of musicians. On the other hand, it may be due to the fact that the pictures I have with my other instruments are not very good. Exhibit A and B:

Not too long ago, the Night Market came to my city. There were a lot of booths selling delicious street food; the only problem was that most of them were priced too high. I was planning to wear something nice there but I realized that it would be too crowded and hot, so I stuck to a solid colour t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. With the numerous grills, woks, and stoves cooking away there, I came home with clothes and hair smelling like smoke and food.

The most prominent smell at a night market is the obvious stinky tofu (臭豆腐... my knowledge of Chinese characters is very limited... thank you Google Translate ^_^). There were also meat skewers, takoyaki, fishballs, seafood, noodles, tornado chips, and much more. My friend and I shared some delicious 雞蛋仔 (direct translation: little chicken eggs). It's kind of like an egg puff; they are made from batter cooked to look like what the name implies.