Stopover in Seattle

After enjoying the cherry blossom season and the peak of spring in Seoul, I am currently back in Seattle for a short stopover, recuperating from the busy last couple of weeks I've had. The weather is nice here in Seattle, warmer than I thought it would be. And as usual, it's cloudy most of the time, but there're hints of sunshine here and there during different parts of the day.

I had no special plans whatsoever in Seattle other than to mainly rest, catch up on sleep (lots of it) and shop for some winter gears for my next upcoming trip. Although, I managed to squeezed in some catch-up dinners and meet ups with a couple of close friends, including Davina, who I haven't had a proper hang out with for a while. It's always nice to see familiar faces when you are away from home :)

In a couple of hours, I'll be leaving for Iceland (yeay! super excited btw!) with Hannah and Noah, who for those of you who have been following this blog for a while, probably familiar with. I've taken a road trip with them last year in South Korea before they left for the States, and this time, we're going to head to Iceland for 10 days. I've never been to Iceland before and have only read and heard good things about the place. Hannah and Noah on the other hand, have been there before so I've been hearing great stories from them and they can't wait to go back again.

I'll be posting stuff on my instagram, snapchat (id: @greysuitcase) and facebook page if you want to follow along our adventure. In the meantime, check out the video that Noah made during their first trip to Iceland. Honestly, I really wanted to go visit the place right after I saw this vid for the first time. For now, I gotta get ready and do my final packing. Hope everybody is having a great weekend!

Early Spring in Seoul

Around this time last year, things were pretty busy with school so I didn't really have time to go see a lot of the waiting-for-spring-to-come excitements in different parts of Seoul. When the harsh winter wind is no longer slapping your face every time you step outside, four layers of clothing is no longer necessary (I know, I know, four layers is a lot. But hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to survive the winter around here ;P), and you can see hints of colors from the budding flowers around the city, that's when you know that winter is almost over and spring is just around the corner. Plus, everybody just seems to be in a better mood with the arrival of more sunny days and the rising temperature. Myself included :)

This year, since I don't have school anymore, I had a chance to visit a couple of places during the end of winter/early spring days here in Seoul and there were some common sights that I encountered during these visits. Some of them include people sitting down on picnic mats on parks, ahjummas & ahjussis wearing extremely bright-colored hiking outfits, and young people wearing spring clothing—even though on some days, it was still pretty darn cold for those thin spring coats in my opinion. But one thing for sure, everybody seemed to be trying to take advantage of the longer daylight to enjoy the warm weather and soaking up the sun as much as possible, while waiting patiently for spring to announces its arrival.

ps: Things have been pretty hectic these past couple of weeks with the traveling, work, family matters, and planning for upcoming trips. There are lots of stories from my Seoul trip and some exciting trips in the near future that I can't wait to share with you guys. Stay tuned! :)

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Lunch at Hongdae

Last friday, I met up with Ken for an overdue catch up session in Hongdae (홍대). This was my first time back in this neighborhood again and it certainly felt good to back in a familiar place. If you visit Hongdae frequent enough, you'll eventually noticed that there are certain spots that are very popular for meeting point. Exit 8 and 9 are those spots for Hongdae subway station. Whether you come in the morning or in the afternoon, there will always be people standing or sitting around those exits, looking at their cell phones waiting for the people who they're gonna meet to come up from the steps.

So, following the popular choice, Ken and I decided to meet up at exit 8. It's just easier that way to find each other. We haven't seen each other for almost half a year and it was nice to feel that almost nothing has changed since our last meet when he showed up and greeted me like we just hung out yesterday. We made our way to the lunch place, Gaemi (개미), around Sangsu (상수) area and the food there was delicious and cheap. We had the Steak Rice Bowl (스테이크 덮밥), the Cube Steak Rice Bowl (큐브스테이크 덮밥), and the Salmon Rice Bowl (연어 덮밥) to share. And each menu was under ₩10,000. A pretty good place for a solid lunch I would say. We walked around the area for a bit to shoot some stuff before moving on to the next place. It was a successful lunch outing overall. 

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Cloud Forest

One of the best places to visit when you are in Singapore is probably this magnificent Cloud Forest at the Gardens by the Bay. After walking around outside in the 30-something degrees celsius weather (see my previous post exploring the Supertree Grove), walking into this cool-moist conservatory gave us such as nice feeling. We were immediately greeted by the mist of the world's tallest indoor waterfall as soon as we walked in. The view was amazing and it just got better from there. The whole place is like a playground for adults (and photographers I should say). Everywhere you turn, you got a new view of the forest and it's so interesting to see the steel dome as the background to the luscious green plants. You can get lots of interesting angles to shoot on around this place. I went in when the weather was sunny. Sunlight hitting the leaves and there were shadow plays everywhere. But not long after, it changed into a cloudy gloomy weather, just right in time for the mist timing that happens six times a day. The place changed into something else when it's full of mists.

Anyways, this was my first time meeting other instagrammers in Singapore and actually shoot together with them. I had a lot of fun with Venus and Jessica and was really fascinated to see how they see and frame their shots. We took our time and just wandered around the dome for a good two hours or so before moving on to our next location, which I'll share on my next post on this Singapore series. Stay tuned! :)

Wishing everybody a great week ahead!

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Paul Bassett

For those of you who doesn't know, I've been spending time in my hometown these past few months and now I'm back in Seoul again. Spent the first day back just chillin' with @unlikelysquiggle at Paul Bassett (폴 바셋) the whole afternoon after meeting with @soozee324 to wish her a happy birthday. I've passed by Paul Basset hundreds of times before, but never actually tried this place before. The places always seem to be crowded for some reasons when I passed 'em by. Ordered royal milk tea lattes and the earl grey roll and we were pleasantly surprised on how good the food and drinks are. And by good, I mean not too sweet. The cake was really moist and fluffy too.

Anyways, I will be staying in Seoul for a while so things should be interesting in next couple of weeks. You can follow along daily on my instagram or my snapchat (@greysuitcase) to get a peek on what I'm up to here in the city. 

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