Seattle's Attraction to Vancouver B.C.

I'm sure like everyone else, people would take first time visitors to Pike Place's Market, 1st Seattle Starbucks, waterfront, Snoqualmie, and drive up to Vancouver, Canada. Well, that's what we did when my mom sisters came to Washington for the first time from Korea. We took them to the places above. One of my aunt is a teacher in Korea. She had to take pictures of everything so she can show it to kindergartenders. She found the police officers on bikes really interesting. She couldn't pass by without taking a picture.

We went to Vancouver, B.C. and came back the same day. My aunts were excited that they will be able to visit another country before they head back to Korea. We had a short picnic at a park. My mom made homemade kimbap (Korean sushi) and we had that for lunch. We were able to feel the breeze that was coming from the sea while we were enjoying our lunch. My boyfriend and I took them to Stanley Park and drove into downtown Vancouver. We were able to witness all the damage that was caused by the windstorm in Dec. 2006. More than thousands of trees were torn down and gone due to the storm. The weather was great! We also went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. This was my first time also. It was amazing! I wondered how they got the bridge across to the other side. It was just incredible. I was so scared crossing that bridge. It was soooo shaky when I was crossing it. I had to hold on the rail really hard. My family had a great time!

Downtown Portland

On Sept. 24th, 2007 (Monday), my boyfriend and I drove down to Portland, Oregon. It was my second time there since 1995. It was 2 days before school was going to start. We both didn't get a chance to go on a trip during summer. We wanted to do something or go somewhere but there was no place to go in Seattle that we really wanted to go. Because, Jin has never been to Oregon, we decided to go on a one day trip down and back up. It took us 5 long hours to get there. We had stopped by Tacoma to get lunch at a Korean restaurant. Tacoma has more Korean restaurant than up north. We were so excited when we finally passed the border to get into Oregon. Because we didn't have a GPS system in our car, we had no idea where to get off to get to downtown Portland. We randomly got off at some exit, but luckily it led us straight into downtown. It was very similar to Seattle downtown.

We parked our car and walked around looking for shopping malls. We bothered a lot of people for directions and to take pictures. We saw Saks 5th Avenue and looked around. We also went to Abercrombie, Norstorm, Pacific Center. My boyfriend shoopped a lot because he took advantage of the fact that there was no tax in Oregon. We asked people if there was another shopping mall, a bigger one, near downtown. They told us to go to Lyold Center. They told us to take the 'Max'. We didn't know what 'Max' was. One of the ladies in Nordstorm told us that it's a free bus that people can take. I was surprise there was free transportation in Oregon. It would be nice to have one in Seattle, too!

Maryland to New York

One of my close friend came to visit me from Korea. We went to Baltimore, Maryland to visit a friend of mine that I met during my exchange program at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. Jungsoo and I went to the east during my spring break in 2007. It was my first time to Maryland, but my 2nd time to New York. It was my friend first time to visit the east and she was really excited. We went to Washington D.C. the day we arrived. We visited the museums, saw the Monument, White House, Lincoln Memorial. We walked so much that day! The next day my friend, Mina, drove use to NY. We drove through Delaware, New Jersey and arrived NY after several hours of driving. We stayed at a hotel in Time Square. We went to the Met. We did a tour on a cruise around the lower part of Manhattan and we saw the Statue of Liberty from afar. We went to China Town to eat Chinese food. We went to the M&M store and Hershey store. We did a lot of 'eye-shopping'. It was just fun walking around the busy street. Seeing all the yellow cabs that you would usually see in the movies. We also went to the Korean Town to get some Korean snacks. We didn't get to go to the Empire State Building. We drove by the Central Park and actually went to the "Harlem" area and had starbucks. We saw an off broadway show called the "Altar Boys". It was hilarious! We had a great time!!!

With Families in Seattle and Korea

Most of my dad side of the family live in Korea. 2 of my aunts from my mom side live here in Washington and 3 lives in Korea. I stayed with my aunt when I was in Korea. Sung Lan, the only daughter she has, is the only other female in my mom side of the family. Sung Lan and I are only one year apart so we became very close. I've always wanted a sister and she was like my sister when I was living with her. We got along really well. We went shopping all the time; we would also go to different places to try different food. We both love to take pictures. We got so addicted to the camere phone when it first came out. We took pictures of everything: food, clothes, people, places, and our silly faces!!


I live with my brother, Brian. (Picture below). He is a year younger than I am. We have lived together for along time. We have lived away from our parents since we were both 14 years old. My brother and I went to the same elementary, junior high, high school, and also college. We do a lot of things together. We go snowboarding almost every season and we both love to bowl. My parents would visit us once a year. The only time they came together to Washington was when we graduated from high school and U.W. or on family wedding. My parents are still in Samoa. THey have a business there. They are planning to move here to Washington probably in 2009. So it is just me and my brother living in my parents' house. It's been 12 years that we haven't lived with them and we miss them so much!!

Korea: Baseball Game

I went to see a baseball game in Korea. The stadium is located at Jamshil. The tickest were so cheap to get in. I'm not sure about the exact price, but I'm sure it cost less than $10 dolaars to get in. The LG and Samsung were playing that day. It was LG home game. In Korea, there are cheerleaders that dance and cheer in front of the audience. This is something different from what you can see when you go to an American baseball game. THey don't play the famous baseball song also. The highlight of this game was there was a fight between the 2 teams. The audience started to get involve and they were throwing things over the balcony to the players. This made it more chaotic. This was a reason why food/drink stand sold drinks in plastic cups and bottles. In Korea, eating roasted squid and kimbap (Korean sushi) is more popular than eating kettle corn or hotdog when watching the baseball game.

Korea: Everland/Caribbean Bay

Everland/Caribbean Bay is very similar to Enchanted Village/Wild Waves in Federal Way, Washington. It has all the rides on one side and all the waterslides and pools on the other side. It has an indoor pool with smaller rides.This picture was taken on September 2004 with my brother and my boyfriend. We took the bus at KangNam station and it took us about an hour to get there. We went there in mid-September so most of the water slides that we wanted to get on was close. We were really disappointed because it was our first time there. Everland is one of the popular amusement parks in Korea. It is not located in Seoul; it is located in Kyong Gi Doh.

Korea: Lotte World

When I visited Korea in 2004, I went to all the popular amusement parks in Korea. Lotte World is probably the fastest and easiest place to get to when you are in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. There are eight different subway lines in South Korea. We took the #2 green subway line and got off at JamShil station. There are indoor and outdoor rides at the Lotte World. It is also connected to the Lotte Department store. There’s also an ice rink area, food court, shopping alley, underground shopping stores at Jamshil station.

Zyro drop (<---) is one of the scariest rides in Lotte World. It takes 2 seconds to drop!!! yikes!!

Ocean Shores

I went to the Ocean shores once a year for the past three years. The picture above was taken in 2004 when I went to the shore with four of my close friends. We all met at Edmonds and hauled our stuff into my friend’s car. Pal-do or Boohan markets on highway 99 are the known Korean market in the northern part of Washington. We had to stop there to buy Korean chips and drinks for our long drive to Ocean shore. It took us almost four hours to there. We stayed at a hotel that had a casino. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and went to the beach to feel the sand between our toes and to take pictures.

In 2005, when my boyfriend first visited America from Korea, we went to Ocean shores with my church friends. We went to Boohan, the Korean market in Edmonds and bought Korean food; we were going to have pork belly BBQ party. We bought over ten packs of pork belly, lettuce, sesame leaf, garlic, red bean paste, sesame oil, rice, and drinks. We also bought raw oysters on our way to the cabin at a local market near Ocean shore. The boys got the grill working and we had the oysters on the grill. I enjoyed opening the oyster with a sharp knife, but I didn’t like the taste of the oyster. We rented a house/cabin that was not near the beach. It had Jacuzzi and a fire place. The kitchen had everything we need for that night. For dinner, we had ‘sam-gyup-sal’ or the pork belly BBQ. We went to the casino after dinner. It was a first time experience for my boyfriend. Korea doesn’t have casinos. It is actually illegal. He was awed by the whole experience. He was scared to try out some of the games that were available. Everything turned out really good! It was great to be around fun people. We had so much fun!

In 2006, it was a memorable trip to the shores. I went with three of my best friends and their boyfriends. It was our first trip and our last together before they got married. We stayed at a beautiful cabin that was at the beach. Total of four couples went on this trip to the shores. We divided the things amongst ourselves and carpooled to Ocean shores. When we got there, we went to the cabin and unloaded all the stuff and went to the beach. We rented the mopeds, one for each couple. It was my first time ever being on one. It was really scary at first, but it turned out to be fun. We had coffee at a small coffee shop that was attached to a gift shop. We went bowling afterward at the one and only bowling alley in Ocean shore. We came back to the cabin and World had pork belly BBQ that night at the cabin. Delicious!

Samoa

I was born in American Samoa. I lived there until I was 14 years old. To give some facts about Samoa is that it is a group of six Polynesian islands in the South Pacific. It is the United States' southern most territory. It is known as the heart of Polynesia. If you drew a triangle from Hawaii, New Zealand and Tahiti you would find Samoa in the middle. American Samoa became an unorganized U.S. territory in 1900. (http://www.ipacific.com/samoa/samoa.html)
Samoa has 'one' of everything. It has one general hospital, one post office, one fire station, one police station, use to have one hotel in the downtown area, but I think they build another one in the west side of the island. There's one movie theater, one Kentucky Fried Chicken, one Costco (it's called Cost-U-Less), and one McDonald's. My mom thinks that the McDonald in Samoa is the busiest fast food restaurant in the world. Samoa has no traffic lights. It is one way going up and one way going down.
I used to go there every summer when school was out during junior high and high school with my brother. But when we got into college, we didn't get the chance to go there every year. The last time I went was four years ago after graduating from UW.