Beautiful Seoul

I just mentioned in my previous blog entry that one of the ways to cope with this covid community quarantine is to think about happy thoughts.  So, here I am, writing down our Seoul experience as I reminisced it with a smile on my face.  

Beautiful Seoul

My girlfriends and I started to plan about our Seoul, South Korea trip sometime 1st quarter of 2019.  We need to plan ahead as we are all working moms so we need to ensure that our work schedules and logistics match. Our friendship started when we were working in a big IT multinational firm in the Philippines.  We were members of the same team and thus, spent a great deal of our time together.  And during our meetings, day to day interactions, working lunches and numerous conference calls, a beautiful friendship blossomed which I consider as one of my life's biggest blessings.  

We chose Seoul as our travel destination because we are all avid fans of the Korean wave/Korean dramas. We would exchange a lot of blushy and giddy messages about the korean actors and the korean dramas!! So the Seoul trip was a perfect destination to get together, disconnect from our exhausting and very busy lifestyle and recharge.  

It was a whimsical and stress-free get together!  We all agreed on an itinerary but we focused on our Musts/Tops Priorities, if we were to compare it in an Agile backlog. :) We had the major korean dramas shooting destinations as part of our itinerary! 

And the big day came.  After an almost 22 hour flight and almost a 2 hour traffic from the Seoul Incheon airport to Myeongdong, I finally saw my girlfriends!! And I was just the happiest and most thankful! I gave them tight hugs and we all started talking and talking and talking and just talking.  

Our first itinerary was the Myeongdong Food Market.  It is a streetlong showcase of street food. As it is touristy, it is expected that the items are overpriced.  But it was worth the experience! We enjoyed the buttered lobsters, buttered scallops, noodles and sweets! 

 Myeondong Night Food Market

  Myeondong Night Food Market

And what is a Seoul trip without trying the traditional Hanbok (traditional Korean costume)?  It was one of the first things that we did. We were able to get our best tourist packages with Klook,  a travel platform that caters to tourism needs in Asia.  With Klook, we were able to book our Hanbok experience, the Nami Island, Petit France day trip and the Namsan, Seoul Tower experience.  We felt so giddy as we tried on our Hanboks. There was a long queue of clients waiting for their turns to try on the Hanbok and for the hairstyling.  But it was worth it!  We walked to the palace in the city center (and I can´t even remember the palace´s name because I did not pay attention to the culture part of the trip.. This was an absolute fan girling moment hahaha), took lots of pictures as we kept on uttering the beautiful feeling that came with the wearing of the Hanbok.  

 Hanbok experience

We had a day trip to go Petit France and Nami Island to have a feel of the beautiful nature and to see the shooting locations of the Kdramas, Winter Sonata and My Love from the Star.  Winter Sonata  was shown sometime early or mid 2000 so this will give you an idea how long have I been fangirling with these Kdramas hahahaha.  Petit France was small and there´s not much to see.  It was just too crowded!  Nami Island is also flocked by tourists but the island is big enough to accommodate all of us!! It was autumn so it was breathtaking to see the different shades of autumn as evident in the trees and the leaves.  It was chilly but super bearable.  We eventually saw the spot where Winter Sonata was shot! As expected, I did not let the opportunity for a photo op pass by. 

 Nami Island

Winter Sonata statue in Nami Island

We also went to Namsan/Seoul Tower where many Kdramas were shot. Our Korean superstar actors shot scenes in the Namsan Tower and we were just over the moon to have stepped on the spot where they shot the scenes! Hahahahahaha But the Namsan Tower is a sure place visit because it provides a beautiful scenic panoramic view of Seoul. It was just picturesque.  It has a high speed elevator that takes to you to the peak of the tower and there is an observatory where you can see the panoramic view of the city.  We tried to reminisce the Boys over Flowers scene but getting the Tower in the pic was just difficult and of course, the scene in one of my all time favorites, My Love from the Star. Hahahaha 

 Sunset in Namsan Tower

 I heart Korea sign in Namsan Tower

 Seoul Panoramic view from Namsan Tower

My love from the Star photo op 

 Say hello Namsan Tower

 Boys Over Flower Namnsan Tower Photo op

We also walked along the beautiful Han River. There´s not much to see there but it was insightful to see the river in the city center where trade and commerce was done during the earlier times.  It also provided a view of the Seoul "skyline".  And of course, scenes of the Legends of the Blue Sea were shot in the Han River.  When I watched Legends of the Blue Sea via streaming, I was actually teary eyed as I remembered the good times that I shared with my girlfriends  in the Han River! 

 Seoul Skyline from the perspective of the Han River

 Legend of the Blue Sea photo op in the Han River 

Welcome to Han River! 

We also toured around the city, did a lot of shopping (actually, from day 1 we were already shopping hahaha). Best buys included our Kdrama actors calendars, photo albums hahahaha hahahaa, Sum 37, a high end Korean skin care product, my son´s Korean bus and the goodies that our families and friends enjoyed!!  Seoul is a safe city and people are nice and helpful, albeit the language barrier they tried their very best to help us with directions. The Seoul metro/subway system is huge and is efficient.  We, 3 girlfriends, had our responsibilities - G was our planner, our navigator and our googlemaps. :) R was our time keeper and I approached strangers to ask for directions as our last option. Hahahaha. The public transport was on time and efficient! We visited some more places such as Gangnam, Starfield, the instagrammable library and we walked a lot in the area of Myeongdong.  Seoul is also a good place to enjoy an unforgettable gastronomic experience!! Food is an absolute delight! We had a lot of hits and I don´t remember having any miss on our food choices, considering that we just relied on the photos outside the restaurants.  Koreans eat a lot of rice (just like the Filipinos) so it was a very familiar feeling! The Asian flavors and the heavy rice eating during breakfast brought me back home, it was just so homespun!! Several restaurants are operating on a 24*7 mode so we had so many options. There are also fruit stalls/vendors on the streets so we had our daily portions of fruits! We went to some coffee shops to experience the kdrama feels and we were lucky to have gone to the exact coffee shop and exact spot/table where a scene from the Kdrama Goblin was shot!! We also had a reservation in the Oliva Bistro, where some scenes of the Kdrama Something in the Rain was shot. And we were so fortunate as the owners made us sit on the exact table where the lead actors had their dinner! We were just over the moon! 

 Starfield Library

 Myeongdong

Gangnam

 Starfield Library

 Seoul subway

 Dinner in Oliva Garden 

 Glorious Korean food feast!! 

 Bimbimbap

Yellow public bus on our way to Seoul/Namsan Tower 

But as always in our life, some good things must come to an end.  Our weeklong get together has culminated. It has been 4 months since our beautiful Seoul trip but it continues to give me very good feels.  I am almost smiling ear to ear as I reminisce on the good times spent with my girlfriends! We exchanged views and experiences as professionals PMOs, as working moms and I also gained a lot of financial literacy in our week long vacation.  We had a lot of good laughs as we rekindled our previous experiences and how much or how little we have changed! I miss my girlfriends R and G. But I always have this Seoul trip experience and pictures to look at. And in the meantime, I am content with our whatspp group as we all look forward to our next trip together.  

Thank you Seoul! Thank you KLM for the safe trip! Thank you to my dearest sweetie for this          all-expense paid holiday!! Thank you R and G! Miss you bigtime girls. Love you! Mwuah!! 

And most of all, thank you Papa Jesus for your mercy and graces!! 

Covid Chronicles: Community Quarantine

I was empathic when my girlfriends in SG told me that they will work from home as school has been shut down to prevent the transmission of the covid.  And now I am experiencing it! It is no easy feat because it is really a huge change from our routine.  We received the shutdown of the schools with our mouths wide open and our jaws dropped but we were also confident that working from home (WFH) is an option in the business sector of our companies, in short, we are able to simultaneously take care of our family´s needs without sacrificing our work.  

We are only on our day 6 of community quarantine and day 11 since the school shut down.. I would like to share with you how are we coping, physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally in this trying time.  I am writing this down so that one day, I can go back to it and it will paint a smile on my face.  During this quarantine period, so far, we have done and are continuously doing the following:  

1.  Establish a routine. We follow the 9-4 "home schooling" and in my case, I continue to follow the 9-20h (or even later) work schedule.  We do attend a lot of conference calls.  It is imperative that while we are in our conf calls, my son is busy with his seatworks and school activities.  We also try to respect our sleeping hours, trying not to deviate from our usual routine.  

2. Be agile or flexible.  While I am usually monitoring my son´s use of the gadgets and his screening time, in this quarantine period, we watch the tv together during lunch.  It gives us all an insight on the evolution of the covid.  It is also a good way to increase my son´s social awareness.  

3.  Exercise.  We make sure that we do our share of physical activity on a daily basis.  We make it a point to do our basic yoga and meditation, to ride on our stationary bike, do the XBOX version of Just Dance and do some basic aerobics set.  This is important as we are  not moving a lot compared to when we take the public transport nor when we do our typical long weekend walks. We need to ensure that our motor skills and mobility are intact.  Besides, we eat a lot so it is a good way to burn calories, albeit very low mount of calories. 

4.  Do things as a family, together.  We are a small family of 3 but we love doing things together! We watch tv, eat, talk a lot, read and laugh a lot together.  We share in doing our household shores.  It is healthy for our souls! 

5.  Respect each other´s privacy: While we love doing things together, we also respect each other´s space. I will not deny the fact that it can be exhausting spending all the time together and not being able to go out and breathe some air.  We understand each other´s needs for personal space and we respect that and we create that ambiance.  We are fully supportive when dad wants to stay longer in the study room, when my son wants to spend longer time in the toilet or when I want to watch my tablet while cooking the kitchen.  We give each other the space needed to recharge and disconnect. 

6. Cook:  Kitchen and cooking are therapeutic measures for me.  I can say that cooking is one of my love languages.  I love it when my family enjoys all the simple dishes that I whip! 

7. Seize the day: We know that we are all facing a very very distressful, sad and hard times.  But my husband and I are chill about the whole thing and I am glad that we share the same mindset as we impart this sense of tranquility and confidence to our son.  We trust that our government is doing their part.  We trust that by doing our contributions through quarantine and social distancing, covid will pass.  We are seizing the day. We are being like water, going with the flow.  After all, what good will it bring if we become hysterical?  Carpe Diem and trust that this too shall pass. 

8. Keep the home clean: We do our best to keep our house neat and organized. This ensures that build a space that is conducive for family living but at the same time, conducive to learning and working, which our home also serves right now during this community quarantine.  We make sure that books and all of our personal effects are in their proper places.   

9. Speak words of love:  Nothing much has changed as this is one of our family´s trademarks.  We are cheesy and an affectionate bunch.  Amidst this crisis, we continue to say good words and words of love to each other to boost each other´s esteem.  

10.  Organize:  I have observed that during these 2 weekends, I really have a lot of free time as we haven´t been going out.  I use that free time to organize.  It has enabled me to fix our stock room (Before it looks like a junkshop hehehe but not it is a family/residential stock room, with the tool box, christmas decors and other personal stuff properly labeled!).  I also organized our drawers. I did a sort of early spring cleaning.  The winter clothes are properly stacked and our spring and summer clothings are so ready to used, hopefully soon!  I also organized my bag collection and my heart turned all giddy and blushing again seeing all my beautiful bags tidied and properly lined up! Love it! 

11.  Think of Happy thoughts and happy sights:  I now take the time (because I have time, yehey!!) to look at our family albums and look at my collection of korean actors´photo albums!  Happy thoughts are good food to the soul.  They send a positive vibe that radiates from within and in the process, help sustain a positive disposition. 

12. Connect with people:  It is part of our routine to connect to people - make random phone calls, video calls or voice messages to our family and friends.  

13.  Breathe.  May sound so simple but to reach and to practice mindful breathing is very challenging. Breathing helps relax our muscles and helps clear our mind.  Practice deep breathing. 

14.  Pray:  Man may fail us but we always have God, Lord, Papa Jesus who will always be with us.  I spend time to say my rosary, say my prayers and read the Scriptures, Bible.  After all, when man prays, God works.  God will always provide. 

Let's cheer up because this too shall pass.  

Covid Chronicles: Positivity amidst the Covid Pandemic

I have had my personal blog "abandoned" for the longest time given my family and work life commitments.  My busy schedule has not changed, but today I purposely pushed myself to write this post as this feeling, this event, is something that I would like to document and reminisce when it is all gone.  I look forward to seeing this coronavirus pandemic come to an end but I will keep the astounding strength of human spirit as its best lesson learned. 

It was January 2020 when it was made known publicly in Europe, in the news, that Wuhan, China is severely affected by the coronavirus.  Albeit the different geographical locations, people started to massively buy hand sanitizers and masks as preventive measures. It was also noticeable that people who take the public transport are more critical of the other passengers who were coughing by giving them the aghast looks.  There is a strong awareness on the basic symptoms of the Covid-19.  From January to late February, we were still living a normal life - daily and weekly family, school, work routine and weekend routines comprised of children in the park, get togethers in bars and chit chat and social gatherings in the restaurants and shopping malls were still evident.  

It all began to change on the weekends of Feb 29 and Mar 6 when news started to spread that more and more people were admitted to hospitals and were showing signs of Covid.  The perspective of the news also changed to showcase the covid impact in Europe particularly in Italy and in Spain. It became a hot topic as we started to have first hand experience about it.  It was on the weekend of Mar 06 when it registered a high (sort of an outlier figure) volume of patients.  This eventually prompted our government to make the decision to close the Madrid educational system for 15 days from Mar 11. This has a domino effect as the rest of the autonomous regions followed suit and because schools are closed, the companies decided to modify their work from home (WFH) scheme to enable working parents to support and attend to their children.  At this rate, there were images of extensive panic buying of supplies and grocery items.  It was a distressing sight.  The government then made an official announcement that Spain is on a state of emergency and borders and territories were closed. It was also a message to calm the people that there will be regular supplies of food, that groceries and drugstores are open but all other entities are closed to prevent the transmission of the virus.  The rest of the EU and Schengen countries then followed suit. 

Fast forward to today, Mar 21, 10 days since we started working from home and 6 days since we were officially in locked down/community quarantine mode, things haven´t improved in terms of the transmission of the virus, in fact as we talk about the curve, it seems that we are reaching the peak.  Hospitals continue to collapse, more and more people are showing the initial symptoms of the virus.  More and more news and private messages via whatsapp and the social media regarding the obvious lack of medical supplies and lack of preventive measures continue to circulate.  

As these things continue to unfold, I continue to believe that there is a silver lining to this and this too will come to an end.  This is a global test to our human spirit and our commitment to social responsibility.  The positive and grateful person in me acknowledges the following: 

1.  The medical staff, front liners in the public transportation, drugstores, groceries, police and military officers, mediamen and other professionals who are required to go to work:  While most of our working from home and strictly complying with the community quarantine, these are the professionals who are providing 1st hand service to ensure that the affected patients will recover and that the needs of the country are attended to.  I can imagine that the situation in the hospitals regardless of the location is chaotic and very stressful.  And the medicals professionals are withstanding the problematic and chaotic situations as they show their unwavering  commitment to human life.  And the front liners who are braving the everyday commute and the uncertainty to provide support to the community.  Words are not enough to thank you, but let me say it from the bottom of my heart.. Thank you, thank you very much!! 

2.  Our Government and Public Servants:  While most of our governments probably acted late and disregarded the potential impact of the covid, I am grateful that our leaders are taking the stand to protect the citizens and the economy.  Everyday, the national leaders in Spain - the minister of health, minister of national defense and the prime minister make appearances to address national concerns.  Even in my country, the Philippines, which is marred by colossal corruption, the local government units and the national government are making a stand and actively supporting the people.  As the covid has a gigantic impact on the economy, I am most thankful to our governments´support and assistance programs to the people who are affected by providing financial assistance, by automating the paper works for the registry of unemployment and working with other private entities to extend the payment terms for the mortgage and loans.  Again, it is not perfect because the covid´s impact is faster and greater than the actions and decisions of the government leaders but I am not taking a blind eye on what they have done and what they continue to do. 

3.  To our companies and workmates:  Our companies immediately adjusted their policies to adapt to the impact of the covid pandemic. The WFH dynamics is a clear show of confidence  on the professionalism and capabilities of the workforce to stay productive despite being confined at home with the entire family (Remember, there´s  community quarantine). I have always been a strong advocate of WFH as I practice it a lot and I can objectively say that my productivity has been affected by WFH.  Colleagues and workmates have also been more responsive.  

We are facing tough times now but all things come to an end.  This too shall come to an end, without a doubt.  In the meantime, let us continue to comply and do our part so we can prevent further transmission of the virus.  

Psalm 6: Prayer for Recovery from Grave Illness:  O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger nor chasten me in your wrath, Have mercy on, O Lord, for I am languishing, O Lord, heal me for my bones are troubled, my soul also is sorely troubled, But you O Lord, how long?  The Lord has heard my supplication, the Lord has accepted my prayer.