Seoul Searchin :)

Hello! It was nice to get out of the city for a few days and experience the fresh air and seafood in Busan. It was relaxing compared to the busy hustle of Seoul, but I personally like being in Seoul a bit better. :) My mom and I are currently at the Westin Chosun Hotel in the heart of Seoul. We can see Myeongdong from here! In the evenings, we've been walking to Cheonggyecheon River down the street which is decorated with lanterns and statues for Buddhist's birthday month.

Cheonggyechon <3 So beautiful at night!

Yesterday while we were checking in, all the staff members were by the doorway setting up red carpets and then lining up in order as if they were about to greet someone famous. And it was definitely someone famous... A minute later, we see the secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon of the United Nations!!! There were cameramen and news reporters surrounding him and my mom and I were a few feet away like... O_O. We are on the 16th floor and we think he's on the 17th floor because we keep seeing security officers on both the 16th and 18th floors.

Here's a picture to prove it...

One of the security officers we kept seeing on our floor. Don't mean to be creepy... but that's cool o_O

Busan pictures:

Selfie by the famous Haeundae beach that we only see in movies <3

Jagalchi fish market- the largest fish market in Korea. We selected the fish/mussels, etc. we wanted to eat and then went upstairs to have it prepared and ready to be eaten. We met American guys from SD! It was funny because they approached me all timidly and talked to me slowly as if I didn't understand & when I started talking them in English they got all happy and excited. Hahaha

Taken on my new selfie stick. Me and my grandma <3 thankful to be able to go on this trip with her :) 

The rest of our time here, we'll be exploring Garosugil, Hongdae and more of Itaewon. Loved hanging out in Itaewon earlier in the week with my cousin Christina and Kyle and...with all the international locals. ;) Now to do some souvenir shopping aka sock shopping! 

#SohsInSeoul

Greetings from Korea!!! :) I've had an amazing past week in Seoul exploring the beautiful city with my mom, family and friends. Every day has been so eventful and I've eaten at least 4-5 meals per day not including all the Korean street food, snacks, and desserts I've munched in between those meals. Heh. It's almost 11pm and my eyes are so tired and heavy but I wanted to briefly update so I don't forget about my experiences here. Today we took the bullet train to Busan where we'll be for the next few days. The train was amazingly fast (80-90 miles) and we got there in 2.5 hours. I remember coming 10 years ago and it being a 5 hour drive. My generous auntie was kind enough to hook it up at the Park Hyatt at Haeundae Beach for us... (wow) so here I am on the 24th floor, writing this post while staring out the huge glass window overlooking the beautiful city of Busan and its famous beach.

View from our pad! Picture taken earlier in the day.

It feels surreal to be here, but I can't express how grateful I am to have been given the time off from work and various responsibilities to enjoy this last trip with my mother! A much needed vacay to recuperate my mind, body and soul.

Picture taken at Cheonggycheon river. Seoul is decorated with colorful lanterns throughout the city for Buddhist festivities. The river was decked out with various animal statues, etc. We liked these water bottle vases with flowers in them :) 

Few pictures on what we've been eating thanks to family and friends who have been taking us out!

My camera couldn't even capture the entirety of the food we ate! Thank you Pastor Justin & family. :)

Food at Insadong! Loved this street and love how every city has its own culture. Thank you Kyle! :)

FEAST. jk. I wish :( This is what the King eats...& was taken at the museum in Gyeongbokgung Palace. Everything is made of glass but it looks...so...REAL!

This is one of my personal favorites. 'Beendehddok' at Dongdemun market. 

Being in Korea, being a bride-to-be and having major food FOMO is not a good combination. Oh well :) More to love~ I'll save the desserts for a different post!

Goodnight from Busan! Zzz

April Recap

April was a crazy month. Outside of my chaotic workplace, there are also multiple weddings to prepare for, people to meet and pray for, details and decisions to finalize... I'm always so lifeless and exhausted by the end of each day and without my mom waking me up, I don't know how I'd be able to hear my alarm and get up in the mornings. It's amazing how God sustains each day and how comforting it is to draw near to Him in times of distress for rest.
The past month I celebrated my last birthday as a Miss. It was bittersweet and I think it's finally hitting me that I won't be living under my parent's roof in a few months. We ate at my favorite comfort-food Italian restaurant Mama D's in Manhattan Beach and then went home for dessert. My mom also left to Turkey the next day so it was nice to have a meal together. I appreciate the times we get to spend with each other and it makes me grateful that we are all united through Christ.

i love my ohana

These lovely ladies took me out for more Italian!lucky to be friends with them.

This month, Matt & I also sent out our save the dates! Everything just got more REAL and things suddenly started to pick up. Our coordinator sent us a timeline of when to get things done, my cousins who are out of town are buying their plane tickets, we're finalizing guest lists, doing our taste tests, booked our honeymoon and currently looking into where we'll be living for the next two years! Now that the bigger things are done, there are a lot of details to start thinking about.
It's funny how different guys and girls are. Matt is a big-picture, chill type of guy and I am so detail oriented with a planner-type personality. It's easy for me to think about ten things at once but Matt generally does one thing at a time. To make things smoother and for us to bicker less (haha), I started writing to-do post-its for him and I find it so cute that he has been looking at those post-it's and getting things done thoroughly one at a time. :)

 This past weekend, my friend Ashley came down from SF to have her bachelorette party in Socal! It has been an honor and privilege to experience engagement and wedding planning with a few of my good friends- Ashley being one of them :') We started the day in an Escape Room in Hollywood where we only had 50 minutes to escape the terrorizing wizard of the abandoned castle...We made it with a minute to spare. Really started to get into it... Hahah. Afterwards, we ate KBBQ and shaved ice in Korea town and enjoyed the rest of the evening walking around LA. It was so much fun and I can't wait to witness her union with David come July!!!

before we went in to the castle! U can see the door behind us.

My view while writing this post. It is 4:55 and I end in 5 minutes but I think I might leave a bit earlier today. :) TGIF!!! Have a good weekend ya'll.