When In July

After an almost 10 hour flight from Honolulu, I landed at Incheon Airport last Saturday. I actually really enjoyed flying on Hawaiian Airlines, despite the cockroach that appeared the last leg of my flight (thank God I didn't notice until one hour before landing!!!). They have the best smelling hand wash, provide earplugs and a sleep mask with palm trees on it. The movie selection was pretty diverse and high quality. And the leg room just felt significantly better than any United flight I've been on.  I took my time heading to immigration because I knew that 1. I'd have to wait anyway 2. I wasn't in a rush to start quarantine. It took almost 2 hours. First, they took my temperature and checked my negative PCR test. Then, I had to download a quarantine app on my phone and headed towards a desk managed by military servicemen. This is when they call the number of a friend or family that you put down in the app. Unfortunately, my friend wasn't picking up so I quickly me

For the past three years, I spent Chuseok (Harvest Moon Festival) rolling around in my bed watching Netflix. I couldn't justify paying triple the price to travel and was okay with being a hermit for the holiday. Chuseok had always been a time to catch up on sleep and binge watch XYZ.......There's nothing wrong with being a homebody and relaxing. But, this time around, I wanted to do something different and meaningful. I finally decided to dip my toes into Airbnb Experiences Seoul! I usually sign up for things the "Korean" way through Naver blogs, but it was so much easier finding a time and date through Airbnb. After scrolling through the options, I signed up for a 2pm pottery class with my friend Magan - we bond on our shared appreciation of art and (good) coffee. 😉 Magan and I arrived a little early at Dasong Studios in Mapo-gu. It was easy to find and I loved the simplicity of the building. Our host for the day, Dahye, greeted us with a bright smile and

After a long week of teaching, my friend Chabely and I were looking for an escape to recharge. We wanted to go somewhere close but far enough to feel well-rested. Ganghwa Island was where my dad was born and raised before moving to the U.S. It had a special place in my heart knowing that this was where he had grown up. I knew that if I never went I would regret it, so I jumped on the opportunity to go last October!  I know, I know. It took a year to get around reflecting on this trip......better late than never! It was crisp and autumn in every sense of the word - my favorite kind of weather. I met Chabely at a cafe in Hongdae and then we hopped on a bus to Ganghwa Terminal! We happened to go on the day of a ginseng festival - people were coming from all over Korea to get their hands on Ganghwa's special ginseng. There was a lot of traffic and it was getting hot on the bus, but we were excited to see where we would land. After a long bus ride, we s