ewha womans university, seoul

on my fourth day in seoul, my true love sent to me... a partridge in a pear tree. wait that doesn't sound right. i don't even know what a partridge is to begin with. i actually had to consult dear google and i was quite surprised that it's a bird! it's a plane! it's superman man of steel! oh the random things that go wheezing in my cloudy mind. my apologies.

let me do it one more time. yes, on my fourth day in seoul, i headed over to ewha womans university and that's the correct spelling so, don't go grammar (spelling?) nazi on me. it was intentionally spelled that way because the university adheres to the idea where every woman deserves respect and collectively naming them as women would give lesser emphasis.

but why did i exactly visit the university and on a holiday at that? aside from me being weird, its campus is by far the most picturesque school grounds i have seen before my eyes. it got to be worth the visit!

itinerary: baguio city, philippines

city of pines. the summer capital of the philippines. panagbenga festival (flower festival). and the other less spoken descriptions that one can dreamily think of, when baguio comes to mind. while the low lands experience the torturous heat during summer, this city nestled in the cordillera mountains, retain its cool.

so, before summer has bade adieu, my family trooped to the mountains last month, enduring an hour flight from cebu and sequentially, hopped on an excruciating 7-hour bus ride from manila to baguio. my mother's query which sounded like "are we there yet?" echoes up until now. of course, i endured the longest travel time, starting my journey at the wee hours of the morning from singapore and taking the lead with my pack of four until we settled finally at our hotel at 6 in the evening. the idea of bed was as alien as the other living things in another planets. go figure.

even if the "getting there" part is a lot to digest to the normal people, here are the activities that we were able to cramp within our 2 full days, equally shared by both sunshine and the mountain rain. i excluded the other 2 days because those consisted mainly of commuting.

nami island with accidental friends

this lonely little man that had not gotten over christmas just yet, awaited for people to take a seat beside him and perhaps, join him in people watching (while reading a book?) on a cold day. in my earlier solo excursion, i just merely passed by him and paid respects by taking a photo but it seemed not enough for him -- given his poker face. wait, i'm completely out of my mind right now to think such a thing.

but little did i know that when i passed by him the second time, i was able to take a photo with him along with accidental friends. was that the little man's doing? i don't know. my disney-inspired mind can only wonder and shall i name him, pinocchio then?

nami island, the solo part

i am not a k-pop nor a k-drama fan but i had seen a few korean drama series and within that transitory time, i was entertained and perhaps, sheepishly giggled a few times. i'm a girl, after all! but for all the k-fans out there, i hope this does not come as disdainful if i would say that the main reason i headed to nami was to frolic in a sea of snow and not because of the winter sonata drama series. i hadn't really seen the series and it didn't help that the channel that adapted/dubbed the drama in the philippines, was not favored at home so, i'm unfortunately clueless with the storyline.

even with my obvious lack of fervor on the series that propelled nami's fame to the foreign audience, i still braved another winter day to get to the island, including the long commute that i had to figure out.