amsterdam

On Tuesday night, my mom and I headed off to London to begin our mini European vacation. I was not only totally psyched to continue my travels in Europe, but couldn't wait to meet up with Irene, who was meeting us at Heathrow from Ghana, where she had spent the last month working in a sickle cell clinic. After slugging through customs at Heathrow, my mom and I went down the escalator to retrieve our bags, and lo and behold, Irene was standing there with not only a huge smile on her face, but with all of our luggage! Aren't little sisters the best?!

The three of us then boarded our plane bound for Amsterdam, our destination for the next two nights. This ended up being the perfect amount of time to get our fill of Amsterdam, which included visiting museums, shops, and restaurants. The coffee shops (marijuana cafes) would have to wait for another visit, i.e., one without my mom. (Just kidding, mom!)

I loved the laissez faire vibe of Amsterdam, not only in terms of the open availability of certain indulgences that are illegal in most other countries, but for the simple and practical way of living that seems to be embraced there. Hands down, my favorite sight was the Van Gogh Museum, which would end up setting up the perfect backdrop for our upcoming trip to Provence.

Unexpectedly, we had some amazing pig-outs in Amsterdam, including dinner at Nam Kee, a Chinese restaurant famed for its oysters with black bean sauce. I loved the framed posters of blown-up house specialties hung up on the walls.


Here are photos of some additional highlights from our visit.




Touring the red light district. I think that we were the only women there.


Cool bridge in front of Nemo, the science museum.


Maintaining our daily ice cream/gelato intake.

happy birthday mom!

It was so wonderful to be at home to celebrate my mom's birthday. With each year, my mom seems to get younger. Doesn't she look amazing?!

My parents and I celebrated at Morton's with NY strips, lobster, and one of their famous desserts, raspberry souffle. Yum!


After dinner, the three of us went to Wolf Trap for a National Symphony Orchestra concert featuring one of my parents' favorite pianists, Lang Lang.


Although he was no Jay-Z (hehe), I had a spectacular time. I couldn't help but wonder what could have become of me if I had practiced violin when I was younger!

update: pk's hair

It is growing in quite nicely!

new adventures with jay-z

Before I get to the Jay-Z part, I'll set the background for the outrageously fun-filled weekend I had in New York. Although I've been avoiding returning to New York until my leave comes to an end, I couldn't miss Rachel's bachelorette party. Not only did I want to participate in the most important milestone in Rachel's last days of singlehood, but I couldn't wait to catch up with all of my friends, whom I've been dying to see since I left New York in March.

The day couldn't have started out any better. After waking up to a cloudless sky, we were treated to massages and facials by the Westhampton Day Spa. Although my facialist was a little aloof, e.g., incessantly rubbed the same spots on my cheeks and completely neglected my forehead (I know, the injustice!), I was still able to luxuriate in the pampering and came away with glowing skin. The bride-to-be, pictured below, decided on a massage.


After hanging out by the pool for a bit, we got "treated" to our first surprise of the day: the awkward bellydancer. Take a look for yourself.



Despite her inability to bring sexy back with the hair twirling head gyration move, we had a great time learning some bellydancing basics, which would come in handy later that night. Before we got our own moves on, however, we headed out to Southampton for dinner at 75 Main. Here's a photo of me with Jen and Rachel B at dinner.


Our first dessert was chocolate chip cookies and brownies shaped like mini-cupcakes. I really could have eaten the entire plate, but I held back in anticipation of our next treat ...


... the stripper! Now this wasn't just any stripper. This was a stripper in a restaurant! And he was only 19! And wearing boxer briefs (most likely bought by his mom)! Rachel liked him so much he had to wrest her hands off of his chest, as you can see here. (Hehe, you know that's what happened, Rach!)


As if we hadn't had enough excitement or stimulation for the day, we hopped into our limo to make our way out to Dune in Southampton. I'll skip the part about how the doormen put us into the rejects line and told us that we had a snowball's chance in hell of getting into the club that night. The important part is that we got in, as shown below.


For the next four hours, we danced the night away and did our best to act nonchalant with the crazy number of A-list celebs we saw that night, including Jay-Z, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kid Rock, Benji Madden, and Sophie Monk. Where were you, Perez Hilton?! Despite our best efforts to snag a ride with Jay-Z in his Bentley, we went back to Rachel's house and stumbled into bed. I fell asleep not only of visions of Leo in my head, but, more importantly, thinking how much I love New York and my friends. I can't wait to see all of you again at the wedding!

bff

korea

Visiting Korea after an almost 12 year absence was surreal. The city that had become familiar to me after living there for 2 years during high school had undergone a complete transformation to the point where once familiar streets were unrecognizable. In every direction was a newly erected skyscraper or signs of Western influence and a booming economy, e.g., Starbucks on every corner, BMWs and Mercedes abound. One thing that had not changed, however, was the food! From the moment my mom and I stepped off the plane, we were in gastronomic paradise. Here are some of the highlights from our trip.

We took the high-speed KTX train to visit my aunt and uncle who live in Busan, the second largest city in Korea located on the Southern coast of the peninsula. This shot was taken at one of the scenic lookouts overlooking the ocean. Of my 3 aunts in the photo below, can you figure out which one is my mom's sister?


Look who we ran into in Korea! Actually, my mom and I planned our visit to coincide with Vic and Mike's trip to Korea. This was TK and YK's first trip to Korea, the purpose of which was to show off their cuteness to relatives who had not met them, including great grandmas on both sides of the family. Here's a photo of TK in his Korean car seat.


This is the view from Mike's house in Gahoedong, a neighborhood famous for its Korean-style (han-ok) houses. It's one of the few areas in Seoul with this kind of landscape ...


... unless you consider this to be authentic.


While we pigged out at a restaurant in Ojangdong famous for its nengmyun, we put TK on one of the sitting pillows. He had no idea what he was missing out on.


Here's a photo of Mike waiting in line for ddukboki, another one of my favorite Korean eats. According to my cousin's wife, this place is so renowned for its ddukboki that people come from Japan just to eat there. (However, although Mike had grown up right around the corner, he had never heard of it, hehe.) It only took about 10 minutes for this line to appear behind us. The ddukboki was totally worth the traveler's diarrhea!


One of the highlights of the trip for YK was riding the subway. Everyone must have thought that we were from the shigol (Korean for country, in the pejorative sense as well) given the number of pictures we were taking.


This was a dream come true for YK, who is obsessed with trains.


One of my top must-eat items in Korea was Red Mango, the supposed originator of the Pinkberry trend, which had recently invaded New York. As I expected, Red Mango was the real deal. The consistency of the yogurt was smooth and creamy without any hint of that Pinkberry iciness. Given my addiction, it looks like I'll have to move to LA since the first U.S. Red Mango just opened in Westwood!


Here's one last photo of me, Vic, and TK at the Coex underground mall.