Year 2014 Recap!

Hello everyone!

I haven't done a year-in-recap kind of a post, but this year has been such an incredible year filled with so many adventures that I thought it deserved a recap post.

It's hard to believe that I was at Rice studying earlier this year. I mean, I feel like I've been in Boston, studying at BU for years!  But apparently, that is not the case and I was, in fact, at Rice celebrating Mr. Lin's birthday with my lovely Rice studio just earlier this year!   aww, I do miss these lovely faces  =)

oh, and there's nothing like pictures of the Rodeo to remind you that you were very much so not in Boston when these were taken... haha

2014 was also the first year David and I competed in open level ballroom/latin competition!  Well, David had competed at that level before, but it was a totally new experience for me  =)  It was really fun, and I hope we get to do more of it in the future!

May of 2014 was a bitter sweet month as I prepared to graduate with my Master's degree from Rice - Shepherd School of Music.  I was uber excited to move to Boston and start a new chapter of my life there, but also, I knew I would miss all of the awesome friends I had made in Houston.

It was an incredible 2 years in Houston though, and I'm glad I got to know so many amazing peeps during my time there  ;)

But wait!  Before I could move to Boston and start my Doctorate degree, I took a few 'detours' during the summer.  First, to Korea,

Then, to Taiwan,

Then, to Virginia (Garth Newel Music Center) with the Meadowlark Trio,

Then, to Cali, meeting so many awesome people along the way.

oh, and sometime during all of that, I turned quarter of a century!  I am so blessed to have had incredible friends who threw me a surprise birthday party, as well as having this guy in my life who took me out to Uchi for a birthday dinner  =)    Quarter of a century has been good to me, and have I mentioned just how incredibly blessed I am?

After that wirlwind of a summer, I finally got myself to Boston.

a new home, new school, new friends  =)  all so exciting!

I'm so happy I found these girls to share the beautiful apartment that we call home.   

and for the roomy adventures that we take together  =)   Oh, one of my roomies, Shawn, also has a blog, so check her out here  =)

In November, David and I took a little trip to Cancun, Mexico, to celebrate D & D's wedding as well as our 2 year anniversary!  It was such a memorable trip, and I hope that we can go back there someday  =)

we stayed at Nizuc Resort and Spa during our stay there, and we absolutely loved it!  =)

David and I have been doing this long distance relationship thing this year, and though I don't have the best track record for doing long distance, it's been going well so far!  I think it works because we get to see each other every month or two, and We were so happy to spend Thanksgiving together this year  =)

A weekend full of wonderful food and company!  check out some of the posts here and here!

I am so incredibly lucky to have had so many amazing people in my life, like Bayla, my quirky and amazing teacher at BU.  She has made my transition to Boston so easy, and she has been a lifesaver in so many ways.  I'm so excited to spend the next 3 or so years with her learning and improving my craft  =)

2014, you have been good  =)

I'm so thankful for my family and my friends in all different parts of the world, and I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store!

Hope you all had a wonderful 2014, and hope your 2015 is filled with endless happiness, love, blessings, and peace!  =)

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy New Year!

--Janny

GyeongJu Visit

Hello everyone!

GyeongJu is only about an hour drive from Busan, and since GyeongJu was the capitol of Silla (one of Korea's ancient kingdoms) for almost 1000 years, it's full of historical things to see and do. If you are interested in Korean history (and some awesome food--a post about that is coming soon!!) it's well worth a day trip! 

We left after breakfast, and got there with enough time to visit the GyeongJu National Museum before lunch!  The grounds and the buildings of the museum are beautiful!

I've been to the museum multiple times while growing up in Korea, but this trip I learned so many new things because a guide came over and gave us a very comprehensive private tour of the museum, all in English!!  

There was English translation of everything written, but having someone there to guide you through and telling you so many interesting things not written down on the information cards made everything so much more fun!  If you can, I suggest going to the museum during the weekdays so that you can take advantage of the possible private tour  ;)

After the tour, we went back outside, took some photos with the 'Emile' bell with a rather gruesome legend/story...

and mosied on along over to have some lunch, traditional style!  It was such an amazing experience that it deserved a post of its own, so that will be coming next!

Our next stop was the Anapji Pond!  It was kind of a summer palace/a playground(?)/park for the royalty, and it's amazing to think that they were able to make such a huge man-made pond and a park two thousand years ago with the limited tools that they had!  The whole park is so beautiful, and it's the perfect place to walk off your lunch!

Another day spent with my favorites!  ;)

We also did some more intensive(?) workouts as well  =p

Our next stop was the Cheonmachong Tomb.

In Silla, the tombs of the kings/queens were made into these giant hills, kind of like pyramids, but with the rock covered by dirt and grass.  There were so many different ones of all shapes and sizes, and they are now all a part of this park we visited.

Isn't it interesting how two different cultures (ancient Egypt and Silla) had similar ideas regarding what would be considered to be a sign of power and wealth in terms of tomb building?

The star of the show was the Cheonmachong Tomb, which got its name from the picture of a flying horse found inside when they first opened up the tomb.  The tomb has been designed since then so that you can walk inside of the tomb and see what the site looked like as they were first digging up the tomb, and includes a display of the different artifacts found inside.  You can't take pictures inside, so you'll just have to go visit and see the artifacts in person!  =)

It was a very pleasant walk around the park, and I think it's definitely worth a visit while you are in GyeongJu!

For us, it was a perfect place to catch up with my cousins, chat, reminisce about our time together as children, and enjoy each other's company while walking through so many relics of the past.

Oh, and of course, we got into some frolicking along the way,, naturally  ;)

I hope you have a wonderful beginning of the week, and thanks for reading!!

--Janny

Busan Travels

Hello everyone!

I have a lot of family in Busan as well as in Seoul, so we took the KTX (bullet train) down south to visit Busan for a couple of days.  The train is pretty comfortable, it only takes about 3 hours, and the scenery is beeaauutiiful, so it was a really pleasant trip.  =)

We spent the first day eating (like,, soo much eating) and walking around multiple markets in Busan with my cousins.
ma boys!!

The first market we visited was huge! it seemed like it went on for miles!  Each block or section was designated for a certain kind of merchandise, so we had fun going around exploring each section.

here's a stall in the Kimchi section (Korea has more than 60 different kinds of Kimchi!)

some more food stalls

cross section of clothes and kitchen oriented sections

At desserts section, we decided to try out the honeycomb ice cream!  

Apparently this is really popular in Korea right now, and isn't it so interesting?  I was super excited to try it, but I think the idea of it was better than the execution, per say, because for me, the whole dessert was way too sweet..  It looked awesome though. 

After we walked around for a bit longer in the blazing heat, we went to go try Seul-Bing.  It's a remake of the traditional Korean shaved ice, and is also very popular in Korea right now.

The shaved ice comes with this toast sandwich thing that has Korean traditional sweet rice cake-esq thing in the middle, and it was really good!  I guess fusion cuisine is really popular right now, and it was very interesting to try  =)

While the Seul-Bing was a nice break from the heat, we felt the need to burn off some of the calories, so back we went, out into the heat.

This time, it was to the fish market, and boy oh boy, was it a whole new world..!

I love going to the Pike's Place Market in Seattle which has a lot of seafood, so I thought nothing would be new to me, but I was most definitely mistaken.

First of all, the pure size of the market seemed to dwarf Pike Place..

But it could have also seemed like that not necessarily because of the size of the market, but because of the sheer amount of fish that was being sold

or maybe the variety..

It was really fascinating walking around the market and marveling at all of the different kinds of fish (and other edibles that none of us knew existed) from the sea.

some of us also got pretty brave and shook hands with an octopus as well  ;)

Having had our fill of the oceanic creatures, we headed back home through the market where we met this cute little fellow faithfully guarding his owner's shop  ;)

At this point, we weren't particularly hungry (actually, more like not hungry at. all.), but we ran into this food truck, and apparently it's another food item that is uber popular in Korea, so the cousins insisted that we try.  Seed Hodduck!

Apparently, there's usually a line that wraps around the market, but since it was a week day, we didn't have to wait very long  =)

The verdict?  ok, yeah, it's pretty good, even when we were all full from all of the other sweets  =p

My cousin should be the poster child for the Seed Hodduck, don't you think?  ;)  haha

It was such a wonderful day catching up with my cousins, walking around different markets, trying all sorts of popular foods in Busan, and never, ever being hungry all day.  Actually, I can't remember a time when we weren't full from all of the street food we kept trying  haha.  

They say that when you're in Busan, you have to eat, and I definitely suggest that you do just that when you're there!  you can always lose weight when your vacation is over, right?  please tell me that's the case..  my pants don't fit me anymore!  haha  ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny