that's seoul ravin'

For someone who claims to love Korean pop music as much as I do (I do dedicate half my waking life to [waxing lyrical] about these gene pool lottery winners), it's preposterous that I had never visited Korea prior to last year. I mean, some would almost consider that shameful.

We were thoroughly spoiled by the perpetual perfect combination of a light breeze and soft sunshine cutting through the barely nippy weather. Early Fall in Seoul was just that glorious and I will admit right now to skipping down more than one cobblestone street in glee solely because I live for dat Fall-time breeze, okay.

What I didn't quite expect though, was the absurd atrocious NO REALLY WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE amount of walking we had to do. Oh for the love of all things good and holy believe me when I say that there. was. a. lot. of. walking. Let's not speak of me buying too-big foot cushions from 7/11 in Garosu-gil and then unglamorously trying to stick it in my heeled boots as an attempt to salvage my aching feet. Let's also not speak of me eventually caving to my growing limp later on that very same day in Myeongdong as I went against my sensibilities and bought a pair of outlandishly [glittery toms]. Let's just not.

P.S. Two weeks after returning from Seoul, my right heel was still sore.Yup, being in your mid-20s is not fun.

well if you insist. who are we to disagree-ee-ee?

Eat, we did. We chowed down on fake food,

is it... cardboard flavored?

And then some.

meat and you always, and forever

A good chunk of our time was spent in Hongdae. Confession: I rooted myself at the [3ce] section of stylenanda for far, far too long, swatching everything in sight. [Sora]! Pretty colors! I am weak.

Meandering, getting a feel of youth culture, eating an unholy amount of patbingsu and drinking more mediocre coffee than ever was the name of our Hongdae game. The coffee/ cafe culture in Seoul is extremely prevalent, with a quirky kitschy industrial concrete-floored one at every turn, especially in Hongdae.

The best coffee we had was at [Paul Bassett] near E-dae, though I believe he has outposts in Gangnam as well. While I'm on the topic of recommendations, oh my goodness the patbingsu. My friend from college took us out for some good ol' 치맥 chi-maek (portmanteau for chicken and maekju, which basically is chicken & beer) and patbingsu and even though we were stuffed UP TO HERE *points to throat* with chicken and beer, we promptly finished off 2 entire portions of patbingsu after dinner. It was that good. So good that these two direction donkeys (that's us, btw) set off to hunt for it again the very next day and getting lost for that patbingsu was worth every wrong turn. At this point, I should tell you the name of this place, shouldn't I. It's [옥루몽 ok ru mong] and it is the best icy goodness (paired with fresh, smooth, sweetened red beans topped with perfectly bouncy mochi) you will ever put in your mouth annnd I am now hungry. Good job, me.

spot the tourists!

coffee, tea, cake, beer... and me in a giant mirror.

legendary patbingsu at ok ru mong

My favorite part of Seoul though? Garosu-gil. Garosu-gil was utterly, completely delightful. It was a treat just walking down the gorgeous, tree-lined streets of Garosu and the fact that apparently a disproportionately large amount of pretty people come out of the woodwork on weekends certainly helped. We spent the better part of our Saturday people-watching and trying our best to tuck the tourists in us away from sight.

clearly, we were not part of the pretty people posse 

While there, I also attempted an #OOTD. Hashtag.

(spoiler, i failed.)

Also, selfies. (or should I say...

... seoulfies)

We ate a disgusting amount of food throughout our trip, as we do. A lot of it is documented in the vlog but unfortunately, my memory card ran out of space as we treated ourselves to [jung sik dang]. When we vacation, we try to have one nice-ish meal and this time, we decided on jung sik dang. An intimate restaurant in a quiet part of Apgujeong, we enjoyed every last bit of the immaculate presentation, thoughtfully put together flavors and excellent service. In short, this was pretty damn good.

look ma, fancy korean food

you. too.

♡ 서울, 난 니가 좋아 [x]

비디오 / 서울 2013 
bi-di-eo / seoul 2013

bare my seoul

seoul, korea x oct 2013   (full blog post in a while, crocodile.)

twenty six tricks

I celebrated my birthday for the 26th time last week. As much as I loathe to admit it, I am firmly in my mid (shh, don't say late) twenties, aren't I? Eesh, That's a (particularly) bitter pill to swallow.

I promise I will not sit here and talk about how in all seriousness, I still feel like I'm 20 (that can't be good) or how every birthday past the age of 21 has just whizzed by faster than I can say "GIVE ME BACK MY YOUTH" or how being closer to the next decade older is kind of sort of freaking me out like can I hide under my bed for a second here please I need a moment.

Nope. None of that whining here.

 (╯︵╰,)

(╥_╥)

 (╯︵╰,)

Here, have some happy photos instead. Let me mope in peace.

But no, real talk. I had a great time ushering in my 26th with my favorite people on 3 separate nights, wining and dining to my heart's content. Honestly, this birthday wasn't spent all too different from many birthdays past and that is something I am truly, truly grateful for. I was surrounded by the people I hold nearest and dearest and I ate a lot of cake (and paella). What more can I ask for? The photos really only show one night (the video below is better at a fair representation of the celebratory shenanigans) but every night was glorious in its own, hilarious way.

Thanks, you guys. For being my best, brightest and bombest diggiest. 

 
[v x 26]

vsk x mntg

☼ here comes the weekend ☾
  vesak day weekend 2013 x montigo nongsa

twenty-five in twenty twelve

so
i'm officially 25 and none the worse for wear. (however... also none the wiser. ) video time? video time.

{ twenty-five in twenty twelve }

VLOG #1: 082011

vlog #1/ august 2011

you know i'm such a fool for you

Taipei, why'd you have to be so damn perfect?

To say that I'm in love with Taipei is an understatement. I don't know what exactly it is about the city that I enjoy so much - Is it the food? (I do love the food.) The weather? (I can live without their 37D summer days tbh) The exceeding amount of tall, decent looking boys? (Yes I like that... I like that very much.) I guess it's a perfect combination of all of the above and the fact that for some reason Taipei feels both perfectly familiar and foreign at the same time.

4 days in the thick of the hottest summer Taiwan has seen in years probably wasn't the best time to visit, but we made the best of our nights and days (and crashed every night with tired bodies but racing minds). We certainly made more than enough memories to tide us over... At least until our next visit. My yearly pilgrimage is going to to continue for as long as I can manage it.

To me, Taipei's that kind of city that welcomes you with bear hugs and open arms, but yet is always itching to take you out for a spin, to show you something new. I'm probably romanticizing it a fair bit, but what can I say, that's how girls in love behave. And I'm in love. I'm definitely in love. Taipei, see you again in 2012 ♥

♡ x ∞

byebye braceface

metal mouth monologues

Just plugging my last post ever on MMM - in which I 'bravely' show way too many of my very unflattering pre-surgery/ post-surgery photos. This chapter of my life is officially closed, and I'm thankful. So, thanks double jaw surgery/ bracefacery, you've made me a happier person. And you've taught me that my threshold for pain isn't as low as I thought it was. Go me.

Here's a little video I quickly put together of me right before & after I got my braces off. Told you I've kind of gotten into a love affair with amateur video editing .

taken with taipei

Taipei is and probably always will be one of my favorite cities. We went for 4 crazy jam packed days 2 weeks ago, and I left a large chunk of my soul there, as I have every single time I've been there in the past 2 years. I'm pretty sure that in time to come, there'll be so many bits of my soul floating around Taipei I'd have to move there just to put them all back together. Or something.

PS. I think I might be, just might be falling in love with video editing.


(taken with taipei)

hb, evmw

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