Tag: adventure

#45 South Korea & #33 Korean

Guys. I made it. I made it to South Korea. And I loved it so much.

I had the opportunity to go there because one of my best friends moved there last year and I just knew I had to go visit her and use the chance to visit as much of South Korea as I could in my limited time there.

There is so much I want to say about my experience in South Korea, but right now I have no idea how to write a blog post anymore. It has been so long and there are so many goals for me to complete. For now I can say that I have traveled around Seoul and spoken decent Korean that got me by quite well. Unfortunately, my biggest language struggle was accents. As I continue to study Korean I need to focus on understanding people with accents and not perfect crisp language like it is when you are learning and studying a language.

As for my experience in South Korea, specifically Seoul, is that it’s easily one of my favorite places. From the food to the culture to the accessibility to everything around you there. It’s so easy to go from place to place and see so much and do so much. There is just so much to do, that it’s addictive. In my time there I walked nearly 100 miles because I just loved walking around and seeing as much as I could.

Picture Montage!

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#29 Bungee Jump

Okay well I didn’t actually bungee jump, but I’ve done something similar to the point I want to cross of this goal because it was close enough.

See bungee jumps have the big drop and all the bouncing around. What I did was just the big drop and no bouncing around.

I went camping near the Royal Gorge a while back (and I mean a while back, as in end of 2020, that’s how long I’ve been debating whether to count this as a completed goal) and I convinced my father to join me on a zipline tour around the Royal Gorge. He had never been on a zipline and it was right after the first time I went. I enjoyed ziplining so much that I knew my dad would love it. He did.

I know, what does all this have to do with a bungee jump? Well it turned out the final course of the zipline was a race to a platform that was about 50ft off the ground and the only way to get off this platform was to jump. Instead of having a bungee jump cable they had something called a FlightLine. Which is similar a type of cable that lets you safely freefall to the ground, it’s absolutely wild and I highly recommend it.

Now it’s not a bungee jump, but I also jumped from really high up and put my trust in a rope once before already. Granted I may do a bungee jump eventually in the future, as for now I am okay with just my freefall experience with the FlightLine.

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#26 Zip Line

Hello Blog! Hello Goals!

With the world being utter chaos and a lot of my goals involving social aspects I didn’t know what to do about my goals. I wasn’t motivated to do much during this time (except get into dancing, which has been great for me mentally) and everything was just making me too stressed.

Right now I am a little bit behind on my initial plan of getting a goal accomplished every 4 weeks, but I’m starting to get my motivation back and I’m hoping to be knocking out a few more goals in the coming weeks.

Speaking of these goals! Let’s talk about Zip Lining and how have I never done this before!? I feel like I’ve missed out on so many zip lines and needless to say, next time I’m on a road trip and there is a zip lining attraction I’m going. Don’t care if I need to be somewhere, I gotta go zip around.

I’m normally such a baby with these sorts of things, but I only had a little bit of jitters for a moment and then no problem. Heck by the end of it I was running and jumping off the platforms. Plus I was the first person in our group to zip line today. I was with my friend who was the first in line to go down the zip lines and she full on stopped and had me pass her, I paused to look at her and all she said was “You’re going first.” Later she told me she was actually super nervous and I was apparently blind to it cause I was too excited and to focused on getting on the platform.

Without further ado, here are some dorky photos to prove that it happened:

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#77 Say Yes

I decided to go for a full day of saying yes for this challenge and though I have completed my day of Yes I do think I have to redo it.

Not saying I didn’t say yes all day or anything, but it honestly just wasn’t the chaos I was expecting. It was just oddly calm and when I initially thought of this challenge I thought it would get me out of my comfort zone, but instead it just created a very chill vibe throughout the whole day.

Doing this challenge I did set limitations to the things I would say yes to, since I didn’t want any one make me do something that would be against my morals, but none of that came up.

The day started and I met up with Ashley and from there the challenge begun. Beginning with us asking if we were hungry and ending up at yes and then driving 40ish minutes away to this tiny Asian fusion brunch place that I’m not entirely sure how we found it.

After spending a slightly confused time at this brunch place we ended up wandering and found our way to a book store. We challenged ourselves to find the oddest book titles and though we came across a few, none of them really sparked the “this is the weirdest title I’ve ever seen” feeling. Ended up in the travel section and tried to decide where we should go in the world. If we had the money my guess is if one of us asked to go somewhere we would have bought tickets that moment and driven to the airport. Sadly we aren’t financially there yet in our lives to buy a spontaneous trip at the moment.

Ended up in a record store after leaving the book store and bought Princess Mononoke DVD because we have been talking about this particular Studio Ghibli movie for months and we have yet to watch it.

We said yes to go hunt down some cool street art and ended up in a slightly sketchy area which was then that we decided that this yes wasn’t the right place to be. So we pivoted to driving around for an hour until we found a coffee shop. Talked for an hour about life and such and plans cause I actually haven’t seen Ashley in a few months so we were catching up.

This is when we reached the evening portion of our day and so far the day had been relatively chill. Nothing crazy, nothing intense, nothing really bad about saying yes. In fact our last yes of the day turned out to be eating apple pie while watching Princess Mononoke (side note: why is this movie so popular? What am I missing? I wasn’t really a fan of it….).

I don’t know this Say Yes challenge didn’t really go where I thought it should go mostly cause I think the opportunities and the choices we had that day did not lead to the most exciting Day of Yes. I wanted more. I thought more chaos would ensue. Maybe my personal life is too much in flux and my subconscious wanted the chill and though it was a great day, it was not the day I was hoping it would turn out to be.

Not that it was a bad day, but it’s almost so uninteresting that it just sounds like any other day off. Yes we tried to different places we don’t normally go to and explore different areas, but when you put in perspective the other things we’ve done this challenge falls short at the moment, as I don’t think I fully pushed myself out of my comfort zone.

As for now it is technically completed, but I am not opposed to redoing this one in the future. Perhaps somewhere else where the choices of yes are more upped and where I will be completely out of my comfort zone.

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#46 Southeast Asia

Ladies and Gentlemen I have been to Southeast Asia and it was absolutely incredible!

My best friend Ashley is currently doing a semester abroad there and when she initially told me she was going to Singapore for school I knew immediately that I would find time to schedule a trip out there to see her and have an excuse to go to Singapore. Thus a few months back I got Sammi (who does all the things with me, so I can’t not have her be my travel companion) to agree to come along with me and we booked flights out there for October 2nd, 2018 to October 23rd, 2018. We also booked a side trip to Vietnam from October 10th to the 15th once we had landed in Singapore.

Boom! Cue photo collage:

Right off the plane and straight to Old Airport Food Centre Hawker
Reunited with my beautiful blonde one
First day in Singapore thought: Let’s take a 11km hike!
Treetop walk
If you are ever in Singapore go to Haw Par Villa
We freaking love Haw Par Villa and we think of it often whenever we see Tiger Balm

Just me taking a stalker pic of my friends strolling through the Botanic Gardens
Landplants Unite (our team name)
Proper cliched photo of me at Marina Bay Sands

Wandering around Old Quarter
Ash got this shirt and after this photo the most ridiculous events of other tourists taking a lot of photos with her
Waiting for egg coffee!
Traffic is super entertaining here
The ideal Vietnamese Night
On our way to Ha Long Bay
Kayaking Ha Long Bay
Imperial Citadel
Market
We took a cooking class and this was the finished product

Lemur just chilling next to us
Sammi pulling off leopard print and me hiding in a corner
This is her leaf. Leave her alone
Playing around with cannons at Fort Canning

 

I have so many more pictures, but I didn’t want to bombard you all, so I just picked a variety of random pics. I’m so grateful I had the time to go spend 3 weeks with my best friends and that we got to spend it in 2 incredible places.

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Master List

The Plan: Have 100 goals completed before I turn 30.

The Goals:

  1. Know over 25 go to healthy recipes
  2. Clear skin
  3. Find a fitness activity to be passionate about
  4. Get to and maintain a 59 kilograms weight
  5. Keep consistent pace on a run
  6. Dance every day for a month
  7. Do another OCR
  8. 20 Mile Hike
  9. 20 Consecutive Push Ups
  10. Learn some yoga
  11. Master a classical piano piece
  12. Make a table top game
  13. Build a game table
  14. Finish a full art journal
  15. Paint a picture
  16. Scrapbook
  17. Learn calligraphy
  18. Bake and Decorate an Eccentric Cake
  19. Learn ballroom dancing
  20. Write a Book
  21. Zorbing
  22. Sky dive
  23. Parasailing/Paragliding
  24. Canyoneering
  25. Learn to Sail
  26. Zip line
  27. Surfing
  28. Scuba Diving
  29. Bungee jump
  30. Backpacking trip
  31. Read 1000 books
  32. Fluent Spanish
  33. Decent Korean
  34. Obscure history
  35. Connoisseur of Tea
  36. Study Business
  37. Art History
  38. Astronomy
  39. Study a Theory
  40. Learn something I have no prior interest in
  41. Puerto Rico
  42. Spain
  43. Italy
  44. Peru
  45. South Korea
  46. Southeast Asia
  47. Greece
  48. Iceland
  49. New Zealand
  50. Road Trip the U.S.
  51. Budget
  52. Savings
  53. Start Investing
  54. 800+ Credit Score
  55. Passive Income
  56. Financial Freedom
  57. Pay off all Debts
  58. Proper Accounting
  59. Start my own business
  60. Own a Home
  61. Gardening
  62. Fly Tying
  63. Cardistry
  64. Survival
  65. Knife Throwing
  66. Leather Craft
  67. Bartending
  68. Fighting
  69. Videography
  70. Beauty
  71. Go Dancing at least twice a month for a year
  72. Monthly Board Game Night
  73. Go out every night for 1 week
  74. Throwback outings
  75. Live music
  76. Make New Friends
  77. Say Yes
  78. Go to Vegas with a Group
  79. Dating
  80. Join a Club
  81. 9 Ball Break and Run
  82. Complete a Dozen Escape Rooms
  83. See a Play on Broadway
  84. Stay in a Haunted Hotel
  85. Fly First Class
  86. Have the best Theme Party
  87. Go to a World Festival
  88. Cook Everything in a Cookbook
  89. Drive an Expensive Sports Car
  90. Teach dog utterly useless trick
  91. Have a Car Chase
  92. Befriend strangers at hotel
  93. Go to a Psychic
  94. Start a dramatic scene from a movie to someone in coffee shop
  95. Return something lost to someone
  96. Have someone tell me their life story
  97. See someone in a bookstore looking at a book and buy it for them
  98. See a shop that is doing some type of class and go sign up for one
  99. Make up a different persona for a day
  100. Attend a fancy affair

Travel

Half way through making this list! It’s slow going, but I’m really trying to put some decent thought into these goals. This was a hard list to narrow down because I really do want to travel as much as possible, so picking the top 10 was quite difficult.

Travel Goals: 

  1. Puerto Rico
    • Not only am I a Puerto Rican that doesn’t speak Spanish, I haven’t even been to the island. Yeah…My mother is very ashamed of me.
  2. Spain
    • Technically I am more Spaniard than Puerto Rican, but that’s where they came from before they immigrated to Puerto Rico. It all kind of blends together. But I have always wanted to go to Spain, not just cause of my own history. The country itself is full of rich history and gorgeous towns.
  3. Italy
    • Everyone says to go to Italy and everyone is obsessed with Italy. Therefore, I must go to Italy.
  4. Peru
    • Machu Picchu here I come.
  5. South Korea
    • Listen if I am learning Korean as my hobby language I better go and use it. I don’t wanna know a language and never use it! Plus, way better to learn and practice it by going there.
  6. Southeast Asia
    • I’m curious about the culture, the food, the beaches, the water, just everything.
  7. Greece
    • The more that I think about it, Greece seems to be calling to me.
  8. Iceland
    • Everything about Iceland looks absolutely stunning and all I wanna do is hike and enjoy everything about the land.
  9. New Zealand
    • Lord of the Rings. Nuff said.
  10. Road Trip the U.S.
    • I’m from Colorado and I’ve been around to other states a little bit, but I really need to go out more. I’ve only been to like 5 states.

Adventure

Here’s a list of all the cliché adventure, thrill seeking activities that I’ve decided I need to experience.

Adventure Goals:

  1. Zorbing
    • I saw a video on this back when I was 14 and have been curious ever since. Plus, what’s not to like about pretending to be a hamster for a little while.
  2. Sky dive
    • Preferably in Moab, cause someone made a very accurate point that it would be like sky diving on Mars. Everything about that sounds awesome.
  3. Parasailing or Paragliding
    • My parents said to do it.
  4. Canyoneering
    • I wanna repel down sides of mountains and see all the things!
  5. Sailing
    • My brother always goes on about sailing, not that he’s ever done it. But I’d like to try it since he always makes it sound exciting. Though I’d go with a professional because I really don’t wanna get stuck in the ocean and die a most horrible death. This one may terrify me the most, but commit?
  6. Zip Line
    • I don’t know why, but I’ve never been zip lining. There is this place in Kentucky where you can zip line underground in caves and that sounds wild to me. When I go zip lining I’d like to do it there, or some where equivalent.
  7. Surfing
    • Honestly this was Hang Gliding, but then someone was like a friend of mine died this way and I was like never mind that. Then I realized I haven’t been surfing before and that sounds fun. Plus I like the water.
  8. Get scuba certified and go diving
    • Never been into it before, but I think it’s time that I go discover what’s great about it.
  9. Bungee Jump
    • Someone may need to push me off.
  10. Backpacking trip
    • My dad has been talking about this for a little while and I really want to go on a backpacking trip with him. He just recently had a heart attack, so now the want to go is escalating. Right now we are getting back into shape for it and taking it easy with little hikes now. Eventually, he and I both will be in proper shape and then we can do our trip. I’d like it for my brother to be able to join as well so we’d have a family (minus Momma cause we know better) adventure.