KITTEN TALK 42: SEOUL ADVENTURES 🇰🇷💖

2025年12月9日

안녕하세요 여러분! Hellooo Everyone!

Y’all, I came back from South Korea and had a time!

If you haven’t been there yet, I highly recommend going. The country is beautiful, we met amazing people, had good ass food, and frankly I didn’t want to leave at the end. I’ve definitely had a few dreams of still being in Seoul since then!

South Korea is a place I always wanted to go since I was a little girl. I like K-Pop, I've watched shows/variety TV (not a lot of dramas admittedly), watched movies, love the food, and have studied the language for a while now. Since HS, I had set my mind to go at some point and would tell friends and family about it.

Fast forward to this year and it was done! Me and my boyfriend coordinated a trip with friends this past Fall to Seoul.

I have to say that the flight going there was terrible y'all. There was no air circulating in the cabin and I am still traumatized because every 10 minutes the stewardess would announce in Korean and English, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re experiencing turbulence, please remain seated.” I got so nauseous I must have gone through like eight vomit bags, barely slept, and couldn’t stomach any food. Mind you, this was a 15-hour flight. I was a zombie once we landed in Incheon International, all the while having to take an hour taxi ride into Seoul.

I had a much-needed rest that night once we settled into the Airbnb with our friends.

Besides all that, the time we had was amazing. We explored different neighborhoods like Hongdae, Myeong-dong, Seongsu, Gangnam, etc. We went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, where we took cute photos dressed in traditional clothing, went to Namsan Tower for mountain-high views of the city, hit up the club for a night of dancing with locals, and went shopping at the COEX mall.

There was like one extremely cold day, but we spent it inside anyway recovering from the club, otherwise it was beautiful Autumn weather where the leaves had already turned color, and a jacket was enough.

One of my favorite memories is waking up earlyish with my boyfriend and we went to this cool rain-themed cafe here to have cute drinks and pastries. We chilled there before wanting to check out this store to shop. Mind you, GETTING to this cafe required us to go up this steep incline. I’m warning you now that the Korean peninsula is a mountainous region and some spots in Seoul have steep road inclines and even stairs on these inclines. I’m a New Yorker so I thought I’m built different but there were points where even I needed a second. Anyways, I had to go through that shit again and make sure I didn't bust my ass walking to this store, but it was worth it cause it was a cute neighborhood with shops, cafes, bars, etc. It was also cool to be up the mountain again and overlook the city down below. Somehow, we ended up in Itaewon where the store was but unfortunately, they didn’t have what we wanted, so we spent the rest of our day shopping in Hongdae before heading back for dinner.

My time there had me reflecting on a number of things in my life. For one, I fulfilled a childhood dream. I always thought I’d be alone in doing so, but I wasn't. I got to experience the culture, practice my language skills, and meet amazing people. I remember when we were out shopping, my bf accidentally broke his chain trying something on at a store, so we went to a nearby jewelry store to see if they had anything similar. The owner showed us a similar style but asked to look at the broken chain. She took it and came back a few minutes later with the chain fixed! (We bought the other chain from her of course cause what the fuck so nice)

And, I had another reminder on stillness. Travel time is always a great moment to pause and reflect. Travel gives you a temporary break from everyday responsibilities (and distractions). Even in the midst of fun, you should take a moment of alone time chilling in bed to assess where you’re at in life, and if you’re happy about it. This trip made me want to go harder in terms of being more of the person I want to be and the experiences I not only want but NEED. Not in urgency, but in intention. It doesn’t matter if you're going fast if it's not in alignment with who you want to be. There’s also no point in denying yourself experiences and desires.

We may have a strange relationship with “needing”. Many people have a complicated relationship with what they desire vs what they allow for themselves. People see wanting things as needy or selfish, so they block themselves from getting it or they throw it out altogether, labeling it as impossible. I believe our needs are just a reflection of things we’re meant to have in this lifetime. How is wanting a healthy, loyal, passionate relationship needy? Or wanting to make a better income to enjoy luxury travel, or taking a class, or having nicer-quality clothes? Using what other people think or don’t have as a reason you can’t have what you want is a cop out.

Having a good time, exploring new cultures, etc. is part of what I want in this life. We don’t get a piece of paper telling us when we leave this world, so take the chances and I guarantee it'll work out.

Here are some pics from my adventures! I can’t wait to go back!