Day 5: The true meaning of Hectic in South Korea (lol)

Korea has been a beautiful dream! Just by reviewing our photos from our winter visit last year, I can feel that cold winter breeze and the unexpected tourist frenzy moments. I know this post has been long overdue (which I am sincerely apologetic about!). I'm sorry, blogging has been out of my mind for ages...but the good thing is I'm back at it soooo, let's celebrate! lol. 

It's our 5th day in South Korea and we still wanted to explore more places. With this in mind, we visited four completely different locations which exhausted every ounce of energy we had for that day. We squeezed in one day to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, Pocheon Art Valley (which is about 1 hr away from the City) and more shopping at Myeongdong. 

The visit to Gyeongbokgung Palace was my second time but I haven't tried on these palace guard costumes so Robert, Ryan and I went to try it! The best thing about it? It's FREE! My bestfriend Shai was back at the Hostel still preparing for our day. She stayed back since she's been at the palace for three times already! 

The Morning of our fifth day was spent at Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village. These places are one train station apart, and it is always a must to visit these two spots together when in Seoul! 

A selca for our palace guard costumes! Would we pass as palace guards in Joseon Era? LOL

Met a Filipino couple and had our photo taken with them because why not?!

Selfie with Ry while waiting for Memshie Rob to get dressed ;) 

The men went to have a look around the palace while I went to meet up with my bestfriend (in a secret cafe) hahaha. We didn't tell the boys about us eating here but they end up finding us! That moment crack me up. We were literally trying to hide from them so my bestfriend and I can catch up on everything we've missed out on while away from each other for months! Too bad, the boys are too keen on finding us because they happen to be hungry, too HAHAHHA! Food gets us all together <3 

Cherry Blossom Festival

Cherry Blossoms at Auburn Botanic Garden

The last time I had a good view of cherry blossoms was in Korea during my Spring 2015 visit with my bestfriend. They only bloom at the end of winter and start of spring, so you've got to watch out before all those beautiful blossoms fall out of those trees. I was clueless about this Cherry Blossom festival until a friend told me about it and the family decided to have a look.

A few weeks ago, the cherry blossom festival was held at Auburn Botanic Gardens. It did not disappoint! All the trees are in full bloom when we came...the only concern was there are too many people. The garden was packed with people, we couldn't get a hold of at least one tree to take a good photo with. I would recommend coming there on a weekday because that weekend, it was too crowded for my liking! 

There are three different areas where you can view the cherry blossoms and my favourite was at the Japanese Garden where the trees seemed to be parallel to each other looking like a tree lane from Nami Island. How I wish I could just tell the crowd to line up because the view was so instagram-worthy. LOL 

Sorry for this low quality photo! Took it with my phone ~lol

A Forgotten Love for Photography

Have you ever loved doing something so much but you had to be practical so you choose to forget it?

Taking photos has always been one of the things I enjoy doing the most. I didn't know how it exactly started but I find myself in awe trying to learn everything I should know about the basics of photography. I love taking photos with high depth of field--focussing on one object while all the others are blurred. It's not easy but once you get the hang of it, you will enjoy taking photos (in between teary eyes too tired from staring at the viewfinder for hours lol).

My friends are my practice models and almost anything that I can look at and try depth of field would be an amazing alternative for models. They started liking my poor photos and have encouraged me to try photography as hobby so I did. 

I covered for weddings, church activities, Uni department announcement posters photo shoot, birthdays and family portraits. They were all amazing and unforgettable but I stopped doing this thing that I dearly loved because it's something that I can live without. It is something that I only get to do if I have long free hours. It is something that I do not consider as a priority. So, it was forgotten. 

As much as I try to avoid getting into photography, Heavenly Father has always find ways for me to do things that I really love. After a very looong time, I had the chance to cover for some inspired activities for the youth. I asked myself "is it time to go back and do what I love?". 

Maybe photography was meant to be a part of my life because it always finds its way back to me no matter how much I try to forget it. So, this time, let me give it another try :)

xx

Twinkle

Winter in Korea: A Mischievous Adventure (Part 1)

Behind me is the Pagoda at Baekje Cultural Land, Buyeo Province.
Shooting Location of Moon Lovers/ Scarlet Heart Ryeo
Shout out to Ryan for taking this photo and patiently dealing with my un-photogenic quality. haha 

Way back April 2015, as my bestfriend (shai) and I wait to board our plane going back to Manila from Seoul, we asked ourselves if we'll ever get to visit Korea again and  hoped that it will be sooner. Never have I ever imagine that "sooner" means 19 months!

Lo and behold, November 2016 we're back in Korea!!!

As a KDRAMA FANATIC with *slight mental* issues when seeing Korean Hotties on screen *ehem* (Gong Yoo, Song Jong Ki, Nam Joo Hyuk.... I can tell you the full list but it will take us days to do that LOL), I am blessed to have visited the only country which I don't mind going back to even for hundreds of times. This is another dream come true! To add more excitement: It's winter!!! It was my very first time experiencing winter--and I'm pretty sure I loved that season but I don't think I could let go of the fact that Spring in Korea is overwhelmingly refreshing and surprisingly chilly.

My friends and I spent a great winter week in Korea (just like the last time) last November 29 to December 5. Sad to say, we were unable to witness the first snowfall which happened three days before our arrival. However, an artificial snow made up for that disappointment when we visited a ski park!

Let me give you a glimpse of how beautiful this country is through my favorite photos of our trip two months ago:

I miss traveling :(

It feels weird for me that I have not traveled for over a year now. As a newly employed in the government, I'm still not entitled to any form of leave until I'm six months old in the job. I got one month left before turning six months! However, the process of getting a Travel Authority from our Department Secretary is very very veeerrrryyyyy tedious and tiring. I need to prepare it months before actually going out of the country. So that's the downside of being a government employee and at the same time having love for traveling. 

If ever I'm not lazy to prepare all the documents to travel, the only country that I would love to go back to would still be SOUTH KOREA. I miss the spring season! I miss the food! I miss the places and the people I met there! Korea is a place that I would never get tired of visiting. It's like a second home to me.

I'm hoping that before I leave for the "great down under", I could visit this beautiful place again.

xx,

T

Torn between Leaving or Staying

I always wondered how my life would turn in such a way that every person I love would benefit from it. Sad to say, that turning point has not yet arrived. However, as much as I would like to accomplish all the things that I wanted to do (eg. travel, staycation, bake, and just sleep in peace for one day), I can't because my plans depended on how much I time I have after work or if I still have the energy to enjoy them. 

Just recently, I have been offered a graduate degree offer overseas (the great down under) and I wanted (extremely wanted) to accept it. I feel so willing to give up my stable job to feel the thrill of living in a different culture and starting anew there despite having very limited resources to support my living. (I have parents who can help, anyway hahaha yes I still have backup but they would be my very last resort for finances). I can almost instantly be there and start the next intake for my Master's degree. However, I am so torn between pursuing it and staying for the job and my family. 

Why? The answer to that intimidating question is: I feel sad just by the thought of leaving everyone behind for who knows how long. I love my job, the people I work with, the place that I live in, my friends, and most of all my family. I have everyone here, why go somewhere far? Knowing that I am in my comfort zone, feeling safe and secured, I do not have any worries but I don't also feel my life progressing. I am in a stagnant case of living a routine without any space for a better change which leads me to the option of taking the offer and accepting it. 

Why oh why is life so difficult to understand?

It's true we can't always have everything, but at least I hope, we can have answers to every thing we needed. I'm still in the process of rethinking in accepting the offer. (I was given a year to decide if I want to accept it). Maybe, just maybe, I will have a final answer next time. 

P.s I'm sorry, I was caught up with all the paper works in my job. Mind you, this is my second job after resigning on my very first job. lol. 

P.p.s hope to hear from you, if anyone still reads this :)))

-Twinkle

#Wonderful: Unexpected Friendships

The word "wonderful" may have hundreds of meanings, still, it can't be denied that this word is a positive word because even when it is paired with a negative word, it remains positive. (e.g Wonderful Disaster, Wonderful Misadventure, etc.) This word has even a better meaning when paired with a negative word. A disaster may be very wonderful when something good happened because of it. Still positive, right? Isn't it wonderful? :)

Just like how my Top Friend (as determined by the Wonder App) and My Bestfriend forever, Shai, and I have a wonderfully unexpected friendship. We have been best of friends since High School and that was eight years ago. Yes, this kind of friendship exists and we're going to prove that Forever exist in the F of BFF. 

(Our 3rd country trip together! It was wonderful visiting Korea, the root of our friendship!)

Our Wonderfully unexpected friendship started because of a single question "Mahilig ka ba sa kdrama/kpop?" The rest is history. Just kidding! See, how an addiction to Korean Entertainment build strong foundations of friendships? It was that question she asked that led to our now "eight years and forever" friendship. Isn't it wonderful how one question can change an entire life? My life would have been completely different if she did not ask me anything about kpop. We might even be strangers until now if that question was not asked. 

However, we will not consider our friendship to be "wonderful" if it were not for the means that we took to preserve our friendship despite the distance (after hs grad), the bad days and even calamities. The secret to our long-lasting friendship is "we stay connected". Even when we took different paths to college (and graduated the same day in two different schools! hahaha wonderful!) Globe paved the way for our friendship to continue even when we're far apart. Through calls and unlimited texting, we stay connected. Facebook does wonders, too, especially when we are using our globe data to tag each other on funny friendship-related posts. 

There are many wonderful people and things ins this world. I'm glad I've met those kind of people. My family is wonderful, my bestfriend is wonderful, every friend that I have is wonderful in their own ways. I'm sure, it would be wonderful to start investing on being connected to your loved ones at all times and that is only wonderfully possible through globe! Dahil sa Globe, Wonderfully Abot mo ang Mundo! Globe loves to Create a Wonderful world and we are a part of the wonderful word that they are continuously creating. 

Anywhere you go, you are connected if you use Globe! Even when we travel overseas, we get welcome messages through text messages from the partners of Globe abroad. Isn't it wonderful? 

I hope your friendship wonderfully stays connected through Globe because our friendship did and is still going strong because of it. 

Philippine Airlines flies to Auckland, New Zealand starting December 2015. 

Book now at www.philippineairlines.com

Seoulid Adventures: Hellokitty Cafe

The long wait is over. After months of lost times for blogging, I am making up for it by posting one of the best places I've been to in Korea last April. It was such a rush knowing that I'll be visiting a cafe that has everything in pink. My sister was actually the real hellokitty fan and I did visit the place for her. Hopefully, we could come back there when she comes home.

To give you an idea how we survived locating the place in such a huge area, my bestfriend and I used google maps and blogs who gives direction about the place. All we had to do was ride a train to Hapjeong Station and walk ten minutes to get to Hellokitty cafe! There are too many Hellokitty Cafes in Korea and they serve the same meals but every cafe has a different interior. So, when you visit korea you really have to find one of these cafes and try the hellokitty vibe.

Of course, I couldn't just visit the place without pictures of it. Gracious goodness! My bestfriend took pictures of everything I do inside the cafe and I'm so glad she did.

*That celebratory smile when we finally found HelloKitty Cafe #noSweat

*Just by looking at this pink creation, I was in awe trying to feel my feet because it was 6 degrees and rain started pouring a few minutes when we got inside the cafe. 

*This is rather a signature

Seoulid Adventures: The War Memorial of Korea

I am the kind of person who would prefer museums over theme parks (not because I'm not the adventurous type but) because I love finding out for myself how some things in the past, actually happened. I find it amusing to know interesting facts from the past that have impacted today's generation.

So, my Korea trip with my bestfriend will not be complete without visiting museums! I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures because I was so engrossed with the museum's beauty. And before I forget, this museum do not have any entrance fees!!! (that's a good reason for you to visit!). You can definitely give donations if you want to, but they don't charge for entrance fees.

The part that I love the most was the 3D short film of F-15. It was an exchange of bombs and bullets on air between flight jets of Korea and Japan. You have to see it!

 You will know that you are already within the vicinity of the war memorial if you see this. Walk a few meters from the subway station and you'll see this monument with a gallery inside.

A vessel that was used decades ago by the Koreans to guard the coast. 

  Some of the armored vehicles and planes were located outside the museum. They don't function anymore.

Seoulid Adventures: Bukchon Hanok Village

I was not on hiatus. I just got a little busy with "review" for an upcoming board exam (which slowly kills me with anxiety). Since I have a few minutes to do stuff online, I decided why not update my little blog? The page views for the last month was good enough so I think people still check this blogspot. hihi.

Our second destination after the Gyeongbokgung Palace was the Bukchon Hanok Village. It was almost 4pm in the afternoon when we got there and I would probably recommend to visit that place at an earlier hour. Since we walked for a few hours at the Palace, our feet were throbbing in pain and walking up the village was a challenge so we only took very few photos (too lazy to take pictures, too busy looking for spots where we could sit and rest).

It was a great thing that Korea have established a lot of Tourist Information booths all over seoul, it was not difficult to navigate the places we wanted to visit because they provide maps and clear directions going to those places. They even have tourist info people who could give you help with directions or finding places you wanted to see. They love tourists!

Here are some of the pictures we took at Bukchon Hanok Village:

Seoulid Adventures: Gyeongbokgung Palace!

Since we stayed in Seoul for eight days, we were able to visit enough tourist/non-tourist destinations and it would be really pretty to feature one destination for each blog post!
Visiting the Gyeongbokgung Palace on our first day in Seoul was an easy choice. I was so excited to see the place where some of my favorite korean-dramas were filmed. We were a few minutes late for the english tour of the Palace so we decided to just roam around the huge area of the palace and take pictures/videos as we stroll.

Here are some of my favorite photos (that were captured using only a phone because my camera didn't have a memory card and we were still in search of a place to buy that memory card during that time).

SPRING TIME: The flowers of Korea

My (dream) Korea Trip with my best friend happened like a blink of an eye. It was so fast I couldn't cope well that it still made me anxious thinking about the eight days (yes, you read it right...eight days!) of quality time with my best friend, in Seoul! It happened! I set my feet on the Land of the Morning Calm and stayed there with my best friend who happens to love kpop/kdramas, too.

It all started when my best friend phoned me telling me there's a seat sale going on and we should book! After a few more phone calls and more convincing strategies (for my parents to say yes), we finally booked the flight that will bring us to our dream country!

I had my hopes too high that the visa processing will be pretty easy until a new policy was posted about "more strict" requirements for the visa application. I am a little horrified that my visa application will be denied (aside from the fact that we filed our visas just two weeks before we fly to Korea). Fortunately, my best friend called telling me my visa was accepted and right then I knew we were heading to that beautiful country!

It was such a lucky time that our stay in Korea was the peak of the Cherry Blossoms and flowers, too! My best friend and I took a lot of pictures of the beautiful sakura and tulips and more flowers that blooms during our stay.

 *flowers at the War Memorial

Birthday Post: 21 Weird Things about me!

The month March is always included on the months that I love the most because aside from the fact that it is my birth month (and my birthday falls on a payday!!! Gimme gimme!), it is also the month we celebrate the end of a school year (or for me this year, the end of being a college student). ALSO, it means summer is officially starting!!!

Last year, my birthday post was about 20 things that I’ve realized when I turned 20. Today, I’ll be giving you information about how weird I am (and it would be great if you could keep it as a secret *wink wink*). As you read along, you might ask yourself why you are friends with me…well, the answer is always simple…because you love me, right? Hahahahaha I hope I don’t get F.O. (Friendship Over) messages after this. 

*I can't remember if this is candid or not...but hey(!) my 20 year old self says hi!*

So here goes the long list of my weirdness…

The Art of Psychology Week in Ateneo de Naga ;)

On the last week of february, I was tasked to create four typography designs for the Psychology Week in Ateneo. It was a great challenge for me because it's been awhile since I last used photoshop to create typography. As usual, the struggle was real...it made me drained thinking how I am supposed to make everything look creative and not mediocre. I even tried googling for ideas but unfortunately I was so uninspired.

So what I did was to listen to old songs (it is a form of therapy to me hahaha). I love listening to Lani Misalucha's renditions and covers of old songs. I must be weird for loving the song "Starting Over Again" but (hey) it was helpful for me to finally create something acceptable to be a placard design for Psychology Week. I think I found the mood of the songs really motivating and inspiring that I was moved to create the following typography:

How do you know?

How do you know when you’ve already moved on?

It has been 255 days since we last saw each other, to be exact. 255 days later and I still think about him but not in the way that I used to when it was just a week after we’ve seen each other. I used to pray for him everyday, pray if he was the one that was made for me forever, and I had very good answers from those prayers only to find that it was a different prayer that has been given great answers. Of course I felt bad knowing that he was not for me, but what really made me feel even worse was when I find out more about his past (that he didn't tell me about which I think, I deserved to know).

It did hurt and I don’t know how to describe that emptiness that filled my heart when I found about his past and his present. I asked myself: “Why am I hurting? If I really love him, I would accept him no matter how bad his flaws are” and I don’t know what to answer. It did hurt…it hurt like hell or even more than hell that it made me (who loves food and more food) stopped eating for a few days that even my family asked if I am on a diet. It was a bad time in my life, I even wished to just unlove him but I don’t know how…and I still can’t resist checking his profile and his new girl’s profile just to check on him if he’s alright without me (but of course he is!!!). [**note: this paragraph pertains to my feelings along time ago]

So, really, how do you know when you’ve already moved on?

Of Sweets and Friendships ;)

I might need to apologize first for the long hiatus of this blog (without even a notice) but I'm back and hoping that this will be a start of a hobby of updating posts on a monthly basis, at least.

So to start with, Last Friday night, one of my closest friends called and tolc me that she's bringing me to a new place (and it's pink! her color!) which excites me because it''s been awhile since I last went out with my friends due to "thesis" (yes, the never ending stress of data gathering/analyzing/writing). I'm glad I'm almost done with thesis so I feel fine going out with friends without worrying too much about it. 

Saturday came and here I am with my close friend in a little pink cafe that almost looked like a real-life doll house, I could live in it forever. So to give you a clue of how it looks like, here are pictures that are drool-worthy and even pinterest-worthy, too. 

The struggles of a College Senior

It would have been a lot better if I typed "I'm a college senior and I love it!" (*insert body wiggling). I don't know but this post makes me sigh a couple of times while writing. Let's just say that I have only two semesters left (including this sem) before I end college.

I thought it was as easy as high school to prepare for graduation. But hell no, it's way too different from each other. In high school, all you need to do is just pass all the subjects and you'll go marching on graduation day but in college (!!!) you have to do the following:

1. fix your enlistment, 

Side Trip: Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Of all the regrets I have in travelling, the thing I regret the most is not taking enough pictures to cherish after the memory of the place fades away. It happens every time when I am home and I want to look back at how my trip went only to find out that I have less than 100 pictures in my camera roll/photo gallery. Isn't that devastating? I felt dumb for not bothering to take more pictures even when I've brought a good camera to capture good places.
This is a tip: Please do take A LOT of pictures when you are traveling (I mean it!).

So, last March my best friends and I went to Singapore for starting summer and celebrating my birthday, and since it is a two hour bus ride from SG to Malaysia, we risked and finally visited Johor Bahru. (We were collecting passport stamps and going to Malaysia would mean another stamp for passport!)

We visited Hello Kitty Town Malaysia (instead of Lego Land Malaysia since we have no time to visit two parks in four hours) but we didn't regret it....our hearts turned back to being children and my love for Hello Kitty grew bigger. (haha)

Cebu, I'm back

The year is almost ending and I'm still not blogging (like how I planned to). It's a little frustrating, right? I don't know if I'm too lazy to blog or I'm having writer's block. What an awkward intro...I can't even find the right words to actually start this post.

When I was young--like a few years ago, I used to think about visiting places that looked so interesting and famous. But now that I'm a little old, I don't have enough motivation to just go and freaking spend money on travels. There's something about traveling that makes me go back home and just sleep for hours. (I'm being weird today, haha)

Enough of excuses, let me just show you how warm I felt when I was in Cebu in the midst of a cold December. Yes, I was back to the Queen City of South and I am glad I did come back.

Lahug, Cebu City
Philippines Cebu Temple

Just some old friends reunited. Add up the sweet home made ice cream while we  reminisce the old times...way back when these kids were so little.  

It was one good afternoon to play with these kiddos and be little kids again (after years of forgetting that childhood was cool).





















Yes, this is a place where every baker would want everything-- I mean it (I almost wanted to stay for the day here if not for our rescheduled flights). It was actually funny how we got lost a few times just to get to this Baking Depot (Add in the fact that we don't speak the same dialect in Cebu--it was hilarious!)

I wish I could write more of the good times during our stay in Cebu...maybe next time... when I have enough words to choose from because sometimes (even when I'm not doing anything at all), I feel tired and it's not something worthy to be posted here.

'til then!
-Twinx

MYSA 2013: Batis Aramin

It's been awhile! Well, to make up with the long weeks of writer's block, I'm finally publishing a post! Last October 30-31, we had a Multi-Stake Young Adults Conference and it was really fun especially when it was held in a huge and interesting place called "Batis Aramin Hotel and Resort" at Lucban, Quezon (6 hours drive from home).

 I really like the design of the letters so I insist on having a picture with it behind me ;)

 As usual, a day like this will never be complete without a photo op.

The Chandelier that took my eyes away (hahahha). 

 Hanging, NOT Hanging bridge. This is basically a concrete bridge that is designed to look like a hanging bridge but trust me, it's a sorcery!

 Yup, that's the name of the Resort! Better have it on your bucketlist!

<<Found my King Kong! :)



An obligatory loot selfie >>

We love this bench on hill top, it's interesting to sit there and listen to the sighs of the wind while having girl talks!

 Yep, it's a view of MT. Banahaw I didn't had the chance to see.  :"(

It was one great experience to be there and the activities held there were fun...I got to meet new people and had the chance to explore the place. I would wish to be back there again!