Yoga photos!

Aaron didn't have ANY classes yesterday (LUCKY), which gave him plenty of time to choose some photos from the weekend to edit!  I love how they turned out!  He hasn't finished editing some of my favorites: the blurred bicyclists in front of Dawn and Jess, and the roof shot of Dawn, but here's some eye candy for ya to enjoy for now!

....and the crew that made it all happen! :)

Monday in Seoul!

When I told Jess that I wanted to have a breakfast date with Aaron somewhere special, she recommended a darling little french restaurant called The Flying Pan for breakfast...

She said their french toast with grilled bananas and ricotta cheese was amazing. I may or may not have been a little hesitant!  Cheese on french toast?  Hardly my cup of tea... or so I thought!  I went with her recommendation, and WOW!  It was a heart attack on a plate... but a delicious one at that!  While my thighs weren't happy about my order, my mouth definitely was!  OMG!   

Aaron's came out equally as decadent and calorie filled!  :)

This was THE LAST unhealthy thing we ate (will eat) for a long while!

We decided to work off the calories by walking back to SPACE instead of taking a taxi or bus!  We spotted this cute little dog, laying in a box, on a scooter along the road in Insadong.  Not sure why it was like that, but kinda cute none the less. 

As we were walking back, we found an awesome, artsy style cafe, and stopped in for some coffee and magazine reading! (I had just bought In Touch and Women's Health at an English bookstore down the street!)

Jess and Carlos walked over and met us there for some tea on the 2nd floor!  We got on the tangent of healthy cooking, which is Jess's passion, and ended up getting a bunch of great ideas from her!  She's gonna be working on putting together some healthy recipes, catered to the things that we love to eat!  I'm really excited about it!  Man, it's great to have friends like her!  If you're interested in trying some of her recipes, check out her cookbook, HERE, on etsy.

Even Kristen and Alicia stopped in to see us one last time before we headed back to Busan! 

Aaron and I have been talking a lot lately about starting a photography business when we get back to the US... maybe doing weddings, engagements, couple shots, family, graduation, you get the idea!  Jess and Mayo graciously allowed me to take their photos with my new camera!  I actually took these inside the cafe, since Korea doesn't exactly have the types of backgrounds that I would actually love to shoot in.  I think they turned out beautiful, regardless!   

 

 

I think this one is my fav! 

One final group shot outside the cafe before Kristen and Alicia jumped on their scooter and headed for a temple in the hills to relax at!  Alicia said we look like an add for a new TV sitcom!

Jess and I did a little shopping in the local market on our way back to SPACE, and bought tons of fresh ingredients for her to give me a little cooking class before we had to leave to catch the train!  We kept it classy by eating out of tupperware on a table held up with paint cans!  hahaha!

Jess picked up these beautiful peonies in the local market for the equivalent of $2!  I've been looking for peonies for the wedding and they're about $5.00 a stem in N. Carolina!  Wish I could ship them from Korea!!!

After a delicious home cooked dinner, and a quick taxi ride to Seoul station, Aaron and I were on the KTX, headed back to Busan!

I speak for both of us when I say that we wish we never had to leave!! It's funny what spending 3 1/2 days with good friends will do to you!  I feel like a brand new woman with an added sense of excitement, creativity, passion, and drive... not to mention, I think my English may have even improved a tad! haha  :)

Sunday in Seoul!

If Busan had more places like The Bakers Table to eat breakfast at, I might consider staying a 5th year!!

Seoul is filled with these charming little authentic bakeries and Aaron and I woke up extra early to take advantage of the opportunity to indulge at it!

It was another early morning this morning!  The 4 of us met Dawn and Derek at the bus stop outside the bakery and headed to Bukchon, one of the oldest traditional Korean neighborhoods in Seoul!  I love this photo of Dawn!

Mayo, in his new FOREVER 21 french pirate shirt!

My love, with his coffee, on our walk to Bukchon Village.

Jess wasn't feeling very good, so she and Mayo stopped in at a tea shop while Aaron, Derek, Dawn and I went into the village for the photo shoot.  (behind the scenes) at a traditional Korea knot making home where Dawn did her thing.

Derek hoisted Dawn up onto this fence, where she then climbed up onto the roof for this shot!  (this was taken with Instagram... the real photo is even more awesome!)  I'm telling you, this girl is fearless and will do anything, anywhere!

Dawn and Derek had a train to catch for their beach getaway, so Aaron, Jess, Mayo and I walked the streets around the BLUE HOUSE (the president's house)...

... and landed here for lunch!  We were originally drawn in for their frozen margaritas on the first floor and then found out they had awesome food upstairs, and an outdoor balcony, which we're always huge fans of!  It's nearly impossible to find outdoor seating in Busan. :( 

There was tons of strolling, people watching, and relaxing to do in this area!  

It was a nice change of pace!

My love and I, waiting on a step while Jess looked in a shoe store! :)  

Thanks for the photo Mayo.

 We didn't have anything left on the schedule to do but shop, which we were saving for later, so we ducked into this traditional Hanok style tea house and ordered some tea while sitting next to the serene Asian garden!  As you can see, we were all very relaxed by this point!

Wall carving graffiti on our walk...

Brothers from another mother!

We went over to Myong-dong again and for some shopping at H&M and FOREVER 21, which were both HUGE... much bigger than any I'd ever seen in America (besides the Manhattan H&M, which is 4 stories!)  I probably could have shopped for another 3 hours, but we had a dinner date for 8:30pm at Kristen and Alicia's, and didn't wanna be late!

Kristen and Alicia had gone ABOVE AND BEYOND and made all kinds of stuff for tacos! (Soy tacos, that is!)  These two are health nuts, and I was thankful for it!  I had had enough junk in the last 3 days to fill a whole month!

Kristen even made fresh squeezed lemonade for us!!!

Just the way I like it! :)

These two were in charge of heating the tortillas!  

BTW: Kristen's place is by far the most awesome Korean place I've seen, to date!  I was bummed that I only had my 35mm lens and couldn't get any photos of the whole place! She and Alicia live in an actual neighborhood, on the 2nd floor of a home!  It's technically 3 bedrooms, but the smallest is used for their closet!  Yes please!  There are huge windows, wood floors, a big kitchen, and a REAL bathtub!  

Ahhhh, it made me miss America!

 

Kristen and Lucy girl.

We got into a pretty deep conversation about relationships after dinner!  Mayo is studying and reading a bunch of stuff on relationships and wants to start community groups where people get together and discuss love and stuff!  He got us all weighing in on the subject, which I loved, loved, loved!  I'm not big on small talk... I'd always rather delve deep into people's lives and see how each other ticks!

I'm blessed to have met Jess, Carlos, and Kristen way back in the first week of orientation in February of 2009!  I'm even more blessed to still have them as my friends! Adding Aaron and Alicia to the bunch just made it that much better!

Cheers to another fabulous day in Seoul!

Saturday in Seoul

We all work up at 6:30am, and were out the door by 6:45am to meet Dawn and her boyfriend Derek at the bus stop.  We rode to a park on the edge of the Han river where we set up a yoga photo shoot, under the bridge. 

 Jess played stylist (and wardrobe cleaner!), which she actually used to do back in the states! 

Wait till you see how awesome these pictures turned out on Aaron's camera!  

They're amazing!

Aaron, doing his thing!

Derek and Mayo were feeling a little left out, so they entertained themselves behind the scenes, doing their own yoga moves and laughing about them...

Checking out the raw photos.

Jess, getting into her move!  As you can probably assume, we all laughed a lot today!  Yoga can look really crazy sometimes, and the positions you get into in order to morph into the final position can be really funny!

How?! Seriously, how does she do this stuff?!

A quick snapshot of my sweet Jeshi!

We ended up drawing a bit of a crowd for photos like this one!  Everyone wanted to watch the yoga girl doing splits on the edge of the bike path! LOL

Ohhh Jess!  She'll kill me for posting this, but I couldn't resist!  She wanted to try!

 

Aaron had the girls pose completely still so he could get photos of blurred bicyclists riding in front of them!  Mayo had to jump in, on the side, to make the girls laugh!

After the bridge shoot, we walked along the river to this beautiful area of wild daisies where Aaron got some shots of Dawn, and this snapshot of the three of us girls

during a little break!  I WISH we had more areas like this in Busan!  I'd go and sit amongst all the flowers after work and eat a kimbap or something!! 

Dawn had to rush off to teach a yoga class, so Jess, Mayo, Aaron and I took a taxi to a really cool and upscale area of Seoul (can't remember the name), but it's where most celebrity sightings are, and we sat and had lunch here, at Deli Heinz Burg, a really cool German style deli.

Jess and Aaron at lunch.

We walked through the streets of this shopping area and had ourselves a nice little (out of character for me) shopping spree at FOREVER 21!  Man, I miss that place!  Me and Mayo outside a cute little bear cafe.

Another reason we came to Seoul this weekend was for Aaron to find an English speaking tailor to have his outfit tailor made for the wedding!  We were referred to this guy in Insadong, and after choosing fabric, sitting down and talking design, we decided to go somewhere else.  He kept saying, "Yes. It will look like that" after every photos we showed him, and "My shop is closing in 30 minutes, so we need to hurry."  We felt rushed and it just didn't feel right there, so we left. Sad for him!

Luckily, Aaron had seen a video on a foreigner's blog about getting suits made in Seoul and this was the place they highly recommended!  This felt a whole lot better!  More stylish, more options, free drinks!  Yes, this will work! 

The woman was really nice, and paid a lot of attention to each detail of the outfit, including what seemed to be about 15 butt measurements! I think she was just enjoying her job! :)

Can you believe all the measurements they have to take in order to make a custom suit (and we didn't even order a jacket!)?!  We were given the option to choose just about EVERY detail of every stitch of the thing!  Pretty fun, if you ask me! 

We chose a medium/light gray for his pants and vest, a small white and black checkered pattern material for the shirt, and a yellow skinny tie!  I'm not gonna lie... I am SOOO excited to see how it turns out!  The ivory swatch is a piece from my dress!

After spending a very enjoyable hour and a half with the tailor, we took a taxi back over to Insadong where we met Jess and Mayo for dinner at Vatos, an awesome MEXICAN RESTAURANT!  Aaahhhh, how we miss Mexican food!  They had the hugest and most delicious blended margaritas for $12, and kimchi/beef fries, Jess's recommendations!   

After dinner, we walked back over to SPACE and hung with Pete, the apartment hamster!  So cute, huh?!  We had a little down time before heading back out to meet up with Dawn and Derek again for more yoga photos!

 

The next photo shoot location was in Myongdong, a VERY busy outdoor shopping area in the heart of Seoul!  Aaron and I climbed to the third floor of a coffee shop so he could get an arial view of Dawn doing yoga positions in the middle of the crowd!  The photos turned out really cool because Dawn is completely in focus, while the passerby's are blurred. Talk about a hilarious thing to watch from above! Have you ever walked through a busy market and run into a random person doing an intense yoga position right in the middle of the crowd?!  My guess is no.  People's reactions were classic! 

I'm not gonna lie... I was definitely the proud fiance of the photographer who was drawing huge crowds with his yoga photos! 

The next photo stop was the Cheonggyecheon river, which runs right through the middle of the city!  We came a just the right time to get a shot of the lanterns which are hung across for Buddha's birthday celebration! 

We set up right on the river and had Dawn do some really cool poses on the rocks that run through the middle of it!  ...Again, drawing HUGE crowds!!!  People couldn't believe the stuff she was doing, while balancing on a rock!  Heck, I couldn't believe it either!  You'll just have to wait to see them until Aaron finishes editing. 

We had a VERY full and long day and were all pretty happy when we got back to SPACE and were able to kick our shoes off and relax!  Tomorrow's schedule is yummy food, more yoga photos, dinner at Kristen and Alicia's, shopping, and basking in the sunshine! Yes please!