#we went to Starbucks and got croissants and ate in the park <3

[abbyinkorea]

Hello again! It’s been a few days! Let me say, a LOT has happened the past few days. Stay tuned for a few blog posts about my adventures since coming to SEOUL!! So Sunday morning I got all packed up my cousin Dal-ah and I went out for brunch on our way from Incheon to Seoul. We both had a variation of a European style breakfast. Mine was the waffle option with eggs, bacon and (amazing) sausage, croissant-like waffles, french fries, whipped cream, and salad (???) And I ate everything on my plate except the onion. It was so good lol. Also Dal-ah got us americanos, which was actually my first americano! Wee! While eating, I was talking with Dal-ah and found out that the drama Doctor Stranger was filmed at her hospital and that she met Lee Jong Suk and Park Hae Jin 😆 I freaked out a little bit lol. Then we headed for Seoul. Apparently the cherry blossoms had only bloomed in the south so far, so that was out for the day, which I didn’t mind so much, I just didn’t want to miss them!  During the drive, we listened to B1A4 because I had just been telling Dal-ah how much I like them. Then we picked up her friend Kwangja whom she had been telling me about. He’s actually famous on social media. And recently also did commercials for Lotteria. So there’s that lol. I was really shy at first, I didn’t say much in the car ride after that lolll. But he was really nice so as time went on I got more comfortable. We got to Itaewon and walked around for a while, going into different fancy stores that I would have never gone into if I were by myself, like perfume stores and over-priced clothes. Just being in the stores made me feel like I was gonna break something and owe hundreds of dollars. Then we we went to get something yummy. We ended up at a chocolate store and got some iced chocolate drink? I guess you could call it a chocolate shake, but it was pretty fancy, and very delicious, though I was still full from brunch! So I couldn’t finish it... Kwangja and I talked about social media, and fans and video views and it was pretty great talking to someone who knows about that stuff! 😊 Next we went to the LINE store which was amazing. SO MANY CUTE THINGS. We walked around, took pictures, and it was super fun. I didn’t get anything myself though because I wanted to save money lol. After that we headed out to find the restaurant we were going to. It was called My Sky and owned by Hong Seok Chun, a famous Korean actor. It was kinda exclusive lol. We took a teeny tiny elevator that barely fit the three of us up, and went into the dining room. First off, the interior was gorgeous. The view was also gorgeous. And also, Hong Seok Chun was there. And also JoKwon was there LOLLL. I was like oh my goshhhhhhh. And then didn’t look at him for the rest of the time cuz I didn’t wanna be a creep 😂 I was taking a lot of pictures out the window, and then a waiter came up and asked what app I was using lol. It is a really good app for pictures though. Pro HDR X 👌🏻 I still didn’t feel very hungry, probably just from excitement so i didn’t know what I wanted to eat. But we ordered a quinoa salad and pizza and a thing with corn chips and beef and it was so good that I ended up eating quite a bit lol. We interrupted our meal and went up to the rooftop to see the view and take some pictures before it got dark. You could see Namsan tower, and the view was just beautiful. Hong Seok Chun came up and was talking to us for a bit and we took a picture together. Then we came back down and finished eating, and got some drinks. I tried a caramel macchiato (I swear if I didn’t work at Starbucks I would have never ordered one lol) and it was really really good. The top if it was sweet, and the drink itself was just right. We sat and talked for a bit, and Dal-ah gave us each a handkerchief that she bought at the LINE store ❤️ By now I became very fond of these two people with me ☺️ I think being with them kind of made me feel like I was the baby sister again, being taken care of and bought dinner. And without realizing it I had been acting like my silly little sister baby self lol. It was familiar and comfortable. I’m really grateful for them looking after me for the day. It was a reminder that I’m really not alone here. God is good. Anyway, we finished up, and I used the restroom which was GORGEOUS. The nicest restroom I have ever seen lol, not even kidding. Though I didn’t have my phone with me so I couldn’t take pictures. Then went up to the roof one more time to take pictures and again, the view was just the best. Namsan tower was all lit up, and the city lights were gorgeous. Then we started heading back to where our car was parked. I didn’t bring my jacket so by now it was pretty chilly, but I survived lol. We stopped in at LUSH cosmetics for a few minutes and then continued on our way. I was telling stupid jokes, and stopping to take pictures every once in a while. Then we were back in the car, and off to my goshiwon/hostel!! weeee! We got there and Kwangja and I took care of my bags while Dal-ah went to park. Buuuut guess what? There was no elevator 😂 We had to lug my two large, heavy suitcases and two other bags up the stairs, to the 4th floor. We were ridiculous lol but we did it. Getting them back down is gonna be another whole issue, but I’ll think about that a few weeks from now 😂 Dal-ah came and talked to the desk woman for me, and helped explain things and how things worked, paid the rest for my room, and got everything settled. Then she and Kwangja were off, and it was just me. I sat in my room looking around. It’s the tiniest room I’ve ever been in lol. I can’t open my suitcase all the way unless it’s on my bed. But it will suit me nicely. It has a shower, a fridge, desk, a tv, a window and some cupboards. And bonus points for having everything within arm’s reach haha. Though the bathroom is down the hall, and the kitchen is down a floor. I went to sleep pretty soon after I got here, because I had my first Korean class in the morning, plus, I was just super tired after a long exciting day. So I slept, but woke up again at 3:00am. I’ll sleep through the night here eventually lol. But fell back asleep, and woke up again. My first day waking up in Seoul. Ready for whatever adventures would occur. Check out my other posts for more pictures from today!

#korea #seoul #itaewon #line store #tony hong #kwangja #my sky #jokwon #goshiwon #adventuresinkorea #food #brunch #korean #oppa #unni

[canaryatlaw]

Alright, well today was pretty good. I set my alarm for 9:50 and managed to wake up on time and get out the door on schedule. I had to go get my back x-rayed because that's what my doctor wanted me to do since its been driving me nuts. The place wasn't far off one of the stops on my usual red line commute so I just took that there. It was fine, pretty easy and over soon enough. I had a little time to kill before I had to go to class since I was already pretty close, so I went into a Mariano's that was nearby (though I had to walk through like two stairways and a parking garage to get there, very strange)- Mariano's is a super awesome grocery store that has a bunch of hot food options, kind of like whole foods (but probably less overall healthy, lol). So I look around for a bit before deciding on some pizza, which was amazingly delicious, and I ate like half of it on the train back over to school. I see Dan in his usual spot, and as I was approaching another girl came over and knelt down to start talking to him, so I joined them and we talked a little- I had given out my last bar yesterday and was completely out of cash, and I felt God kind of nudging me just like "hey Rachel, give him your pizza" and I was like ugh but it tastes so good! Haha but I didn't really protest, so I offered it to him and he was super happy to get some warm food (and he said he was glad it wasn't deep dish, because he'd apparently gotten a lot of that and he was sick of it by now, lol. The overall action was kind of cool though, cuz the other girl that was there was wearing a hijab (she was white so I didn't automatically assume she was Muslim but she then mentioned going a mosque up the street, and I just felt like it was a really cool moment for both of us from different religions stopping and showing kindness to someone who needs help because that's what we believe our God wants us to do. Now, I'm not exactly a universalist- I don't think all faiths are equally valid and any will get you into heaven- but I do think it was an awesome moment considering the conflict between many people of the two religions at this point. I may write up a Facebook post on the incident, but I'll have to think about what I want to say exactly since it could get into some touchy areas when it comes to the finer points of theology some of my Facebook friends are rather keen on debating. I did head out eventually since I had class, but not before running over to Anthony and giving him the bag of smart pop popcorn I had in my bag because hey, I didn't really need it anyway. It's funny, I try to plan ahead and bring food with me when I'll be out all day, but then I end up just giving it to the homeless people I come across- it kind of makes me smile, really. So, class. It was fine, we got to talk a bit more about the finer points of cases were relying on and such and I talked a fair amount and felt more clear on our points, so that was good. We got out around 2:35 and the next thing I had to do was get to the Apple Store at 3:30, which wasn't too far so I had a little time. Since I no longer had any food on me, I went to the Starbucks next door to school and was intrigued enough by their new item, the malt chocolate latte to ask what I was sure was a stupid question, if it was possible to make it without coffee, lol (they can make any of the fraps without coffee using a cream base) and the girl was like "uh let me check" then returned a second later and said they could, so I got that and a warmed up butter croissant because those are amazing. The drink was good, I'm pretty sure it only amounted to hot chocolate really- steamed milk and syrups of different flavors, lol, but still enjoyable. I got on the bus I generally take to the bus at this point on my Friday and stayed on a bit longer till we got to the Apple Store. Didn't have to wait too long, they ran one test and said the computer was having trouble connecting with the hard drive, meaning there might be something wrong with it (which could mean risking losing all my data) orrr it could be this cable that connects it to the rest of the computer that a lot of people have had issues with so they would try to replace that and see if it worked, and since it was a recurring problem they were covering the repair costs, even though it wasn't under warranty, so that was awesome. Bus back to school, got to hang for a few minutes in which I tried to start my mission based lawyering project haha but I got a minimal start at least. Then we had the PAD meeting, nothing interesting really. Towards the end my phone rang and it was the Apple Store saying my computer was good to go, and we pretty much had wrapped up so I grabbed a Lyft to the Apple Store (ugh, traffic) and grabbed my computer, then took another Lyft over to the bar/restaurant the child and family law association was hosting with the child and family law society at the law school across the street from us. So I spent a few hours there and it was nice, casual and some good conversations and story swapping of course. So that was good. After a while I heard out and came home, and decided to finally turn on Supergirl, which I may not react to in too much detail right now because it's late and I'm tired, lol. The episode just really left me irritated though, because Kara barely even had a plot, it was all the Meh-El show and I'm so over him and his stupid drama, so most of the show I was tweeting telling him to just go with his parents and leave us alone, but of course that couldn't happen. I called that his mom was gonna stab his dad like a solid minute before it happened haha so I was pleased with that prediction. Idk, I still get the feeling (although this might be more of a hope than actual intuition) that they're somehow gonna write him off in the season finale. Like I guess he just feels like a one season character to me, so let's hope that's what they do. One good highlight of the episode was of course Sanvers, who continue to have super touching moments and that one at the end almost had me in tears because it was just too perfect. They're seriously the best thing that's come out of season 2 so far, by a long shot. Sigh. After that I watched Riverdale, which was an interesting and intense episode. There are a lot of crazy people in that town, lol. The whole Polly situation made me mad, and while I've pretty much had nothing but contempt for Mrs Cooper the whole time the show's been on so far the way she stood up to her husband for her daughter tonight I thought was really beautiful and showed just how much she did care about Polly, even if she struggles to show it at times. And then the end scene with her and Betty crying because Polly decided to go live with the Blossoms (which of course is a terrible idea, which I'm sure we'll see soon) was so heartbreaking. I like that Hermione (it feels really weird to use that name outside the context of Harry Potter) was so willing to let Polly stay with her, I'd like to think that's the type of mom I'd be. Other than that I didn't really care much about the Archie and Jughead construction plot line that was just kind of meh. But yeah, very dramatic episode, but not a bad one. And on that note I pretty much ended up evening activities, and I think now I will end this post here since it's quite late and my eyes would very much like to be closed right now. Goodnight ladies and gents. Happy weekend.

#daily journal #March 2017

[nedilynndominique]

Hong Kong (June 20-23, 2016)

I can’t believe that it’s almost been a year. I don’t want it to be a year just yet, I want the memories to be so vivid that it feels like it just happened a week ago. It was my first to travel outside of the country, and oh how I want to do it again and again. I want to learn about people, their culture, their food... All these landmarks... All these places that people create memories in. I only wish to be motivated enough to finally find a job and earn so much money that I can get to travel as much as I want. With that being said, here is my Hong Kong experience.

After my graduation and after Kuya finally finished his thesis, papa was happy enough to take is to Hong Kong. He paid for kuya, Layne, mama’s, and my airplane ticket, Disney ticket, and accommodations ticket. On that day, uncle Jay was home from Australia. It’s so weird to think, because uncle Jay went home last Christmas, and it just shows that this HK trip happened months and months ago. Anyway, uncle Jay was home and uncle Alvin and his kids were at home that day. Uncle Alvin is going to be driving us to the airport at... I can’t even remember, I think 1 in the morning. I didn’t get to sleep at all! We were so early that we lounged around and ate some snacks for a few hours. It was so weird! My last plane ride was during my 3rd year in High School, but our Cathay Pacific plane ride now was so much better, and so much comfortable. I sat beside mama, and I started taking videos of our experience then. Cathay had all the best music: from Charlie Puth to Demi Lovato! And also, I used the lavatory because papa told us to. Haha. So with zero sleep, I felt like I was floating by. We rode some sort of a train, rented a pocket WiFi, and looked for our travel agency guide, Randy. We were grouped with fellow Filipinos and a lot of Arab people. We were dropped of at our hotel- Rambler Garden Hotel, and mama talked to some Filipino people that already went to Hong Kong before. We waited SOOOO long to be checked in, that we roamed around at the basement level of the hotel to see a 7-11 store, the Park n Shop grocery,  We were supposed to go with them to Madaam Tussauds, and ride with them at the shuffle that the hotel provided, but we left our room too late. We decided to buy some snacks at 7-11, and then we rode a taxi (100 HK dollars for a 20-minute ride) to Tsim Sha Tsui. 

On our first day, we just roamed around and promised to return here on our free day. We bought some food at McDonald’s, yes! And then went back to the hotel- we had two rooms and Layne and I shared rooms, while kuya and mama shared another one. Since they get to keep the pocket WiFi, we stayed at their room up until before we slept.

The next day was a fun day! We went with a Filipino group to tour Victoria’s Harbour, a jewelry shop in Hong Kong- where a Filipino guy who speaks a different language would always hover around me!, a souvenir store (I think they tricked us because the food were really expensive there, but I got Carlos’ dad the Hopia that he liked, and the mirrors I bought were 4 for 100, when the store at our hotel sold mirrors for 7 for 100!!! I only found out about that later that night), and to this boat place- that mama decided we ride even if we spent 60 HK dollars per person and it was a short boat ride. It was still a good experience though! And, while showing us around, Randy made me stand up at the bus, and he called me beautiful, “ a future beauty queen”! Haha! I made sure that Carlos knows that. The best part was when we went to Hong Kong Ocean Park. Only 3 groups of people went there, alongside a Filipino couple who we got to talk to. :)  Ocean Park was loads of fun. We ate lunch even if the the food was expensive, at one of the stalls there. We road the cable car- and we were ALL scared, especially kuya. And we saw so many animals!!! The penguins and the pandas were the cutest of all. We weren’t able to watch the sea lion show though, but the sharks and the jellyfishes were really pretty. There were a lot of rides, too, but we didn’t ride any because we easily get dizzy. This was a really beautiful place, although it was very tiring because we walked around the entire day! At nighttime, we went to Park n Shop and 7-11 to  buy some more snacks! A 24-pc Ferrero pack was on sale for only 60 dollars at 7-11 so we loaded up on that, I bought 2. Layne bought 2. Mama bought 2. And kuya bought 3!!!

On our third day, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland for the entire day!!! It was so hot there! Mama bought a cap for herself, but it was so hot that I was getting grumpy, so she bought one, too. We took pictures a lot and tried to look for places that had air conditioners on- like the shops, where mama almost had a fight with a Chinese woman who cut to the front of the line, and the Lion King show (which was really beautiful!). Before that, we had lunch at the rocketship/spaceship-themed restaurant, and I ordered a two-piece chicken with rice. It wasn’t that good, but it was really expensive! We also went to take pictures with the Disney characters- we spent the entire day waiting in line for picture- I got a bad sunburn because the shirt was really tight! But we got to take pictures with Donald Duck, Zootopia characters, Sofia the First, and Mickey and Minnie. We got badly sun burnt for the Mickey and Minnie line because it was soooo long! For the Zootopia characters, we were originally in line for Chip and Dale, but the couple before us, the guy to be exact, decided to punch one of the mascots!!! The couple quickly left the scene and guards were suddenly all over the place looking for them. Anyway, we saw Pluto, Goofy, and Elsa, but didn’t get to take pictures with them. My dream was to meet the handsome Flynn Rider, but we never saw them. The Disney princesses, aside from Elsa, weren’t around the time that we visited. We joined the afternoon parade, and I felt like a Disney character being one of the people at the front. Lol. And then we had some overpriced snacks at the Disney Bakery- I had a chocolate croissant with crushed pistachios. We bought several drinks throughout the day, too, because it was extremely hot. I noticed my sun burn in the afternoon, and decided to change into a different, more loose shirt. It was a green sequins top that reminds me of the Little Mermaid. We walked around the entire day- and no, no rides yet again. (I will definitely try and ride some rides the next time, THERE IS A NEXT TIME, I go there). We watched the Disney Paint the Night parade at around 7:30, and mama again almost fought with an old woman that tried to steal our spots while waiting for the fireworks show. We then watched the Disney in the Stars fireworks show, and I greeted Carlos an early birthday in one of the videos I shot. I kept on sending him videos of the fireworks. By the way, the internet connection in Ocean Park and Disneyland was soooo fast! When it came to an end by 9 PM, we half heartedly went home. It was tiring, but I really enjoyed it. We were sooooo tired, but we still went down to buy snacks at Park n Shop. We bought these really delicious cherries, and a lot of different candies and snacks (Almond Roca for 2 for 10, Kinder, Snickers, and this mentos/chupa chups 40 pcs pack for only 11 dollars). I also bought these Oreo wafers at 7-11 for only 11 dollars! We ate at Cafe de Coral at the basement floor of the hotel that night. We were supposed to keep the WiFi that night because tomorrow was Carlos’ birthday and I wanted to greet him on midnight, but it turns out that we used up all of our 5 GB data. So Layne and kuya accompanied me to the lobby, so I can greet Carlos via Facetime. Hehe. That night also, Layne and I realized that the cleaners took our towels, so I had to call to get some towels, and panicked because we thought that we would be asked to pay for it- it was 100-200 dollars per towel! Fortunately, we weren’t asked to pay. 

Our last day was sad! First of all, I realized how dark I got! I hated my pictures with my black jacket on, because I was so dark!!! We returned to Tsim Sha Tsui after checking out at the hotel - we left our luggage there as well. We had lunch at KFC, it was soooo good, and the line was sooo long. We walked around a lot to look for kuya’s shoes, but he didn’t buy any. We looked at Giordano and another store, and the clothes were so inexpensive, because they had a sale around this time of the year- plus 10% discount on your birthday month and it was kuya’s birthday month. HAHA. So they bought a lot, and I bought Carlos a 60-dollar hat from Giordano! So we returned to look at the malls- we bought pasalubong face masks from one of the stores along the strip, and we went to H&M!!! nd we went inside a mall where Kuya bought a G-Shock watch.We returned to H&M and again, it was so inexpensive! Layne bought 2 shoes, and because I was a cheap girl, I only bought one boots- but it’ the best and it’s my favorite!, for 150 HK dollars. I bought a couple shirt for Carlos and I, too, for  60 HK dollars. We were getting late, and taxi drivers won’t stop for us- they don’t like tourists, mama panicked. We eventually had to ride a taxi cab that made us pay 200 dollars for the short trip- he was very rude. We arrived on time. Got to the airport, said goodbye to our WiFi, ate dinner at Cafe de Coral one last time because we still had coupons (coupons are from the travel agency) and walked around. We bought some Starbucks and a couple of Big Macs from McDonalds, before boarding at around 9 pm. Mama and Layne slept the entire ride, but I chose to watch Zootopia. Hehe. Note: We sat at the middle seat next to a Pinay this time, and kuya sat across us. This is where our trip ends. The best days and most memorable trip of my life so far. :) Uncle Jay and Uncle Alvin met us at the airport, and we were all so sleepy, I zonked out immediately. 

Hong Kong is such a beautiful and clean place, I would definitely want to return here someday soon! There were a lot of rude Chinese people, but I guess that comes with territory. Again, I love the place and the food and the culture that I got to experience here, and I hope to never forget all that has happened while I was here. 

Link to my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8_DfFr1gMY