I pretty much hit Indian ground running. Three days of shoot down, one more to go for this week, oh and just like 5000 photos begging to be culled, sorted, edited and sent to clients. My laptop is like a ticking bomb about to explode under all the pressure :/
I miss Korea! I had such a great trip. It seemed to all have happened so fast! Grace and I started talking about the possibility of me going over to shoot her wedding earlier this year and at the time it seemed kind of impossible... How would we pay for it? I was convinced no country would give me - single, female, 25 year old "self employed" with very little money in her bank account and no real "job" holding her here - a visa and well it just seemed like a dream. But we slowly started working towards it and wonderful, generous friends came forward to help us with the funds (THANK YOU!!!!) In the process of it all, I managed to get my business registered and became a tax paying professional according to the Indian government. Yay! Such a relief to have that done. I applied for the visa, handing them more paperwork than they were interested in and then waited. And waited. The cynic in me was determined not to get excited until I saw the visa IN my passport and then one fine day, it came! Within two weeks of that, I was heading east to the beautiful country of Korea and to be reunited with Grace - a dear friend from back in the day when we were in boarding school together in Ooty.
I loved every bit of it. I soaked in as much of Korean culture as I could and ate as much Korean food (which is incredibly delicious btw) as I could, made some super awesome friends and saw as much as I could and of course witnessed an incredibly beautiful wedding. If the photos are able to convey in a fraction of the amazingness of that wedding, I will be satisfied. 7 days seemed too short but they are 7 days that I am not likely to ever forget.
Here are some photos taken on my phone that kind of sum up the trip. There are important bits missing - like Grace's wedding!! But there are plenty of those photos coming from my camera when I get around to editing them!
1. Traveling from Daejeon to Seoul by train. Look at those beautiful clean rail tracks! 2. Everything runs on card in Seoul. This is the transport card that Grace lent me to use on the buses and trains. 3. View from the 21st floor of Hanna's apartment building in Seoul. 4. A menu in English for the "waegugin" at a Chinese-Korean restaurant. 5. At a Folk Flea Market in Seoul. 6. The superfast trains that we used to get everywhere around Seoul! 7. About to watch the famous Nanta show. Probably one of my favourite things we did in Seoul. 8. Delicious Citron Tea at a Korean Tea House. 9. Live music at the Incheon Airport. 10. Wonderful meeting one of my favourite people in the world - Ben Stamper in Seoul!! 11. Sung Hwi and I exhausted and waiting for our train home after a looong day of sight-seeing in Seoul. 12. Sunset at Hong Kong Airport. 13. My all-time favourite - Kimbap! 14. A man-made stream running through one of the main business districts in Seoul. 15. Waiting at Hong Kong Airport.
I miss Korea! I had such a great trip. It seemed to all have happened so fast! Grace and I started talking about the possibility of me going over to shoot her wedding earlier this year and at the time it seemed kind of impossible... How would we pay for it? I was convinced no country would give me - single, female, 25 year old "self employed" with very little money in her bank account and no real "job" holding her here - a visa and well it just seemed like a dream. But we slowly started working towards it and wonderful, generous friends came forward to help us with the funds (THANK YOU!!!!) In the process of it all, I managed to get my business registered and became a tax paying professional according to the Indian government. Yay! Such a relief to have that done. I applied for the visa, handing them more paperwork than they were interested in and then waited. And waited. The cynic in me was determined not to get excited until I saw the visa IN my passport and then one fine day, it came! Within two weeks of that, I was heading east to the beautiful country of Korea and to be reunited with Grace - a dear friend from back in the day when we were in boarding school together in Ooty.
I loved every bit of it. I soaked in as much of Korean culture as I could and ate as much Korean food (which is incredibly delicious btw) as I could, made some super awesome friends and saw as much as I could and of course witnessed an incredibly beautiful wedding. If the photos are able to convey in a fraction of the amazingness of that wedding, I will be satisfied. 7 days seemed too short but they are 7 days that I am not likely to ever forget.
Here are some photos taken on my phone that kind of sum up the trip. There are important bits missing - like Grace's wedding!! But there are plenty of those photos coming from my camera when I get around to editing them!
1. Traveling from Daejeon to Seoul by train. Look at those beautiful clean rail tracks! 2. Everything runs on card in Seoul. This is the transport card that Grace lent me to use on the buses and trains. 3. View from the 21st floor of Hanna's apartment building in Seoul. 4. A menu in English for the "waegugin" at a Chinese-Korean restaurant. 5. At a Folk Flea Market in Seoul. 6. The superfast trains that we used to get everywhere around Seoul! 7. About to watch the famous Nanta show. Probably one of my favourite things we did in Seoul. 8. Delicious Citron Tea at a Korean Tea House. 9. Live music at the Incheon Airport. 10. Wonderful meeting one of my favourite people in the world - Ben Stamper in Seoul!! 11. Sung Hwi and I exhausted and waiting for our train home after a looong day of sight-seeing in Seoul. 12. Sunset at Hong Kong Airport. 13. My all-time favourite - Kimbap! 14. A man-made stream running through one of the main business districts in Seoul. 15. Waiting at Hong Kong Airport. 
2 comments:
You're going to go even more places Tina. Congrats on getting your business license done. It's been a while but don't let this sound to freaky, I miss reading your posts!! What amazing photos of your time in Korea. Going through them now. Have a good day!!!
Hey Ping!
Yes, I moved to blogging here, so please update your bloglist! Love reading your comments. Glad to have you back! :)
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