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!