Looking Back at 2017

A layover in Incheon gave us an opportunity to walk around Seoul and celebrate the new year in a totally different but gastronomically exciting way.

My friends and I met up in LA and then drove to San Diego. It felt like being in high school again–staying up all night and talking about whatever we could think of.

I quit my office job (that had the best view) and went back to working from home. It was sad too because I had gotten to know my colleagues and liked them, but I had good reasons. I needed the free time so I could take classes and learn other things I was interested in.

I was curious about the Farallon islands after mindlessly navigating Google maps (yes, I like to explore the map every now and then). We learned that you can’t really dock on the islands but can view them from a boat. It was my first time seeing Humpback and gray whales in the wild!

My favorite part of New Orleans was the food! I can’t stop thinking about it. We had grilled oysters, flavorful gumbo, fried chicken, and Jambalaya. I can’t wait to go back!

I wish I had written about this trip before the year ended. So much happened when we drove around Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah. We stayed in beautiful cabins, conversed, and had a better understanding of people who had opposite views and beliefs from us, experienced endless landscapes, and encountered wild animals that we’d only seen in pictures!

What I love about New York is that there are tons of immersive theatres you can be a part of. During our first trip to NYC, we experienced “Then She Fell” where you are led between rooms to uncover the story. It’s like being in a video game where you can interact with your environment or just observe the story unfolding in front of you.

During our second trip, we experienced “Sleep No More” where we all wore masks and explored the beautifully-designed sets based on Macbeth and inspired by Noir films.

This was a project I had been building since I left my office job. My goal is to share places that inspired us with only a few words and more images. At this moment, I’m pretty lax about posting content. I think I just want to push out all this information without having too much pressure on myself.

Update: I wasn’t able to renew the hosting and lost the domain name. 😔 Now it’s too expensive for me to afford it.

There’s a quaint little town north of San Francisco that we stumbled upon. I love that this was planned at the last minute and we ended up with tons of surprises.

We sailed around parts of the bay area with captain Alex and his first mate Nara! The best part was learning a few tricks about sailing and seeing the sky turn red and orange as we headed back to land!

My childhood dream finally came true when we went to the big island and Kauai. It wasn’t perfect, I struggled a lot with my broken foot but through my weakness, I saw the good in humanity and learned to take things slow.

Jeremie and I spent Christmas in our tiny apartment. We bought our first real Christmas tree and decorated the house as best we could. We had a good meal (Filipino food of course), opened presents, and just enjoyed each other’s company. A simple yet meaningful way to end the year.