Siblings I’ll Never Meet

April 11, 2016 @ 4:03 pm

Yesterday was National Sibling Day, a day which has no bearing on me. I don’t have siblings. I grew up as an only child, and I admit I was a very spoilt only child. Being an only child meant I had all my parents’ love and attention, so I never had to fight a brother or a sister for all of that. Instead of siblings, I had cousins on my mum’s side. I had three older cousins, and then I was the oldest in our “generation” amongst the six of us. I was the 언니 (Unni) or 누나 (nuna), which is what Koreans call their older siblings or cousins, and being the oldest wasn’t a task I enjoyed. Nonetheless, my cousins were the closest I had to a sibling. Realistically speaking though, I have siblings who share my blood 100%, but I’ll never meet them.

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On Meeting Online Friends

March 21, 2016 @ 11:44 pm

Liv recently wrote about her meeting up with some blogger buddies. That reminded me to write this post that I’ve been wanting to write since last August or September. Ack! Talk about procrastinating . . . moving on! *ahem* I love meeting online friends. I’ve always loved meeting online friends. In fact, whenever I know there’s a chance — whether they come to Korea or I travel to where they’re located — I take that chance and arrange a meeting. There’s something about meeting someone you’ve interacted online with for months or years. Don’t get me wrong — I love interacting with people online. But meeting in person feels more rewarding, and that’s not obtainable online. The closest we can achieve that is through video chatting, but I actually hate that method of communication. Give me face-to-face interaction over that, please!

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Turning Thirty-One

January 19, 2016 @ 12:21 pm

Today I turn thirty-one. I don’t feel any different from when I turned thirty, twenty-five, or twenty-two. The last birthday that made me feel “different” was when I turned twenty-one because that meant I could legally drink. But as for turning thirty-one? Other than grousing about turning thirty last year, I don’t feel like turning thirty-one is a big deal. To me it’s just another day, a number, really. To me it’s just an excuse to put in leave for a day off, which is great because I gave myself a four-day weekend. Now that’s a good birthday present to myself. :D

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Sokcho Trip Reflections

November 20, 2015 @ 9:28 am

Although my Sokcho trip wasn’t exactly a trip of enlightenment, I still ended up learning quite about Sokcho and myself. Some were observations and some were realisations I made during the trip. Some reflections only reiterated what I’d already knew about myself. All in all, this solo trip has taught me some things, and the experiences I’ve gained on this trip will be cherished.

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Adventuring Alone

November 1, 2015 @ 9:21 am

With my budget and work schedule, I don’t travel a lot as I want to. In fact, a lot of my vacation have me staying in town and doing staycations or doing day trips to visit parts of Korea with friends. Up until now, my travel escapades have been the following:

July-August 2004: Guam — I travelled alone to visit my best friend.
May 2008: Tokyo, Japan — I travelled with two friends.
October 2010: Tokyo, Japan — I travelled alone, but I met up with a friend every day.
January 2012: Daegu, South Korea — I travelled alone to visit a friend overnight.
September 2014: Donghae and Samcheok, South Korea — I travelled with two friends for an overnight trip.
January 2015: Osaka and Kyoto, Japan — I travelled with a friend.

In between all of these travels, I’d also visited Uijeongbu, Incheon, and Cheongju several times as day trips to see friends or to see the area with a friend. As you can see, I’ve never technically travelled “alone”. Next week, however, I will be completely travelling alone to a new part of South Korea — in Sokcho area. I wanted to go back to Japan, but that plan was way out of my budget. Besides, I really wanted to see the East Sea again, and Sokcho is a place I haven’t been to yet in South Korea. I’m super excited about this trip. It will be a short trip — four nights, five days — and it will be my own personal getaway. I’m going alone, and I made zero plans to meet anybody there. Why am I going alone? Because of several reasons.

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