inwangsan travel video

After years of making my friends swallow their pride and dance for my travel music videos, I decided to try the vlog format, er, two years ago LOL. This is my first foray into travel vlog-ing. I encountered a whole new set of struggles in this format (part of the reason as to why this took me more than a year to finish -- plus I'm just plain ass lazy). I'm not sure what style do I even want to adopt but I hope I get to develop one as I edit more vlogs (I have...ummm...six trips for my vlog backlog hihi).

Anyway, here it is --- a vlog of our hike at Inwangsan in Seoul, South Korea back in April 2018.

 

seoraksan travel video

At least I can say that the bed rest forced me to be productive.

This is my "best effort" at a hiking video. I do not hike in general but seeing that this is our nth Korea trip (and some pressure from my Korean boss to do it), we decided to take a break from stuffing ourselves with food and drinking soju by exercising more.

So we booked a shared tour (apologies to our new friends that somehow got forced to do our trail) and told the driver that we wanted to try the Ulsanbawi Rock trail. We know it's an intermediate (2km)-advanced(1km) trail but decided to risk it. The driver however got a case of "tinimbang ka ngunit kulang" moment and told us not to do the Ulsanbawi route and instead do the Biseondae-Geumganggul Cave trail.

Going to Biseondae was easy enough (it was categorized as "moderate" for 3km) but wtf the climb towards the end was pure torture. Our party of 6 soon dwindled to 3...the other half stayed at the viewing deck while I and two of my friends soldiered on to see that cave. No wonder I almost cried from the steepness (and exhaustion) and I can barely film because I can't keep my balance (took off my bubble jacket despite the winter weather so one arm is basically useless) -- that leg is "expert" (so, uh, higher than advanced) level for 1.5 km. I guess our guide thought that 4.5km of moderate-expert is equivalent to 3km of intermediate-advanced (mukhang pwede nga naman).

So with my shaky hands and general laziness in exploring stabilization techniques in the post-editing process, I give you my most unstable mv to date hehehehehe. At least the view was worth it!

Someone please give me a gimbal to overcome this! Oh and this is the first time I used my SJCAM on land. As I said before, not bad for such an inexpensive camera!

boseong & busan trip music video

I finally got around to making this music video about our trip in 2013 (I know! I deserve to get beaten) in Busan, South Korea. Rissee and I made a side trip to Boseong since I want to see the tea fields, which was a huge endeavor since we commuted the whole way although I got to say the place itself is very photogenic. We only spent two days in Busan/Boseong and then squeezed in two more days in Seoul (which won't be featured in this video) so pardon the limited footage.

I also chose a freaking difficult song to edit with, using Gain's Bloom (which was my "jam" in 2013, hahaha). It's the most challenging song I had to layout for so far and may be the reason as to why I've been putting it off for most of 2013/2014 (and the fact that I got sidetracked with other personal projects). Nonetheless, editing the video at the end of 2014 made me reminisce of the craziness that happened in just a short amount of time haha.

So here you go, enjoy. And a super HUGE thanks to my travel buddy Rissee for her patience!!!

awesome 2014

I just want to clock in at the last day of 2014 here in freezing Seoul, South Korea to greet all of you a Happy New Year!

I doubt this is a comprehensive year-end blog post because, as you can very well see, I haven’t been updating my blog lately (last post was my birthday? *facepalm*). I was looking through my social media accounts for a timeline reference but oh well, that seems to be sorely lacking as well. It seems randomly conversing with my friends via LINE and other messaging apps can already satisfy my need to be “connected”.

As was expected, 2014 definitely brought in a lot of changes – decided to enroll in Korean classes (which I only got to the most basic level *sniff* super hard to go to UP given my schedule), turned the big 3-0, and moved in to my new place! Still adjusting to single living life, especially with the fact that I’m always treading near poverty line every time the monthly bills arrive T__T But generally it’s all good! I’m back in Makati, where everything I need is so accessible and I get to dictate my own pace.

window treatment ^^

And this year’s trips were so much fun…costly…but still fun! Finally, after n years, I was able to go to Japan with my family and see the sakura that I’ve been dreaming of since my anime days in high school. Then made a quick trip to HK for another insane bout of fangirling and watch the EXO concert (which thankfully pushed through since the Manila stop did not happen, pfft). Then went to Korea on a sudden solo trip (my best friend wasn’t able to make it), which was fun and eventful. And then a few weeks after that, I went back to Siem Reap to tour my best friend (who I finally dragged out of the country).

 

sakura at Ueno park *hearts*

 

 ...these pictures will haunt me in a decade, i can feel it

she wasn't able to go with me to Korea, but i'm glad we still managed to go abroad

So now I end the year back again in my favorite city (to date). First time to spend the new year away from home and I’m having a great time so far (but seriously, how can anyone NOT have a great time in Seoul?) Memorable way to end what has been an interesting year.

 worth braving the subzero temperature

I end the new year grateful for all the blessings that I’ve received, especially to my family and friends who have helped me through it all (I seriously cannot count how many “house blessings” I had lol). 2015 will be another big year I think – I have a major trip planned that hopefully will push through. So have a blessed New Year and may 2015 be good to all of us! Always be happy! 사랑하자!!!

한국어 를 공부해요

인녕하세요!!! I haven’t blogged in a really looooonnnngggg time. I’ve been busy since the start of the year (still have a lot of “projects” in my pipeline, ugh) and whenever I have any downtime my brain is so spent that I just want to lie on bed and stare into space (or watch feel-good shows, hihi).

So one of the things that took up most of my time is (finally) attending Korean class. I’ve been meaning to do this since forever but my schedule won’t allow it. Having that multiple entry Korean visa and not being able to talk to Lee Seunggi in his native tongue last year finally pushed me to learn it.

Since January, I’ve been attending the Korean Module 1 term in UP every Saturday. The lessons are crazy fast, I’ve long conceded that I won’t be as quick on the uptake as my classmates are (is it a function of age? KMN) and just focus on just even passing the blasted module. Well at least I can finally read and write Hangeul (time to head for the noraebang). I also got to meet a lot of new friends (who share the same *cough* love for Korean dramas and music *cough* read: EXO). I’m one of the oldest in class hahaha (again, why haven’t I enrolled sooner? Oh well, better late than never).

My first decent paragraph (a previous homework). You have no idea how many drafts I've gone through to do this.

So yeah, just dropping by my blog to post this up and remind myself that I’ve done something substantially productive this first quarter of the year. My final exam for Module 1 is this Saturday, and then (provided I even pass) I might go on to Module 2 in May and take TOPIK from thereon. After that, let’s see how it goes.

아자 아자 화이팅!!!