On Running My First Half Marathon

Well, I did it. I’m back from San Francisco and I can officially call myself a half-marathoner. I’ve been wanting to call myself that for so long and it feels so good to finally be able to do so.

Like I’ve mentioned before, run a half marathon has been on my Life List for over two years now. I decided I wanted to run a half because I had started running 5K’s when I moved home from South Korea and it seemed like a good running goal to work my way up to. Plus, I actually didn’t hate running (it was always my cardio of choice) and was decent at it (I’m pretty athletic thanks to playing sports when I was a kid). So run a half marathon went on my Life List, but it went unchecked for a long time. Instead, I kept running 3 miles on the treadmill a couple times a week and signing up for 5K fun runs every few months.

When I turned 29 in May, I decided this would be the year I finally train for and run a half marathon. It would be The Last Big Thing I Accomplish During My Twenties. It would help me get in shape for my thirties. It would get me off the treadmill and running for longer than three miles at a time. It would establish me as a real runner.

In June, I signed up for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon SF through Team In Training. I chose Nike because it’s the largest women’s running race in the world and I’d heard it’s THE half marathon to do if you’re a female runner and you live in Northern California. I chose Team In Training because the program allows you to fundraise for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society while simultaneously training for the race. Since my mom and grandma both lost their battles to cancer a few years ago, I would fundraise and run in their memory.

My training was challenging at first. It’s hard to transition from running on a treadmill to running outside, on your own, with no machine doing the work for you and no TV to entertain you. Trying to run more than three miles was hard, too. Before I had started training, the farthest I had ever run was 6 miles and I had only done that a handful of times. I had no choice but to break that record though if I was going to run 13.1 miles, and I did. I still remember the day I ran 7 miles for the first time: it was really fucking hard. I had chaffed in between my thighs during the run and ended up with blisters on my feet, and to top it off, it was mid-July, so you know it was hot outside. Even though that run was one of the hardest runs of my life, I was still in awe of the fact that I HAD JUST RUN 7 MILES. That was the day I thought, “I just pushed myself to run 7 miles. If I can do that, maybe I really can run a half marathon.”

After that first 7-miler, I started getting serious about my training. I had discovered that I run better in the mornings than I do in the afternoons/evenings, so I started waking up early before work to run. I made sure to do my long run on the weekends and eventually ran 8 miles, then 9 miles, then 11 miles. I went from a 12-minute mile to an 11-minute mile to a 10-minute mile. I started using Body Glide to avoid chaffing and Balega socks to avoid blisters. I began to use a foam roller to make my legs less sore after running. I officially said goodbye to treadmills and 3 miles went from being my maximum to my warm-up.

Fast-forward to race day: IT WAS AMAZING! I was definitely a little nervous leading up to it, but I guess that’s to be expected. When I got to my corral, my nervousness turned into excitement and I could feel an adrenaline rush coming on. My excitement and adrenaline seemed to sky-rocket once I turned on my iPod and actually started running. “This is it! I’m doing it! I’ve been waiting for this day for four months and it’s finally happening!” I thought to myself while “Eye of the Tiger” kicked off my running playlist. As I ran, Team In Training coaches spread out along the course yelled “Go Gina!” and high-fived me as I passed them. Heck, even non-Team In Training spectators were cheering for me (a benefit of having your name printed on the front of your shirt). I have to say that hearing so much encouragement, reading all the spectators’ funny motivational signs, and thinking about my mom and grandma while running is what kept me going, even when I was at my most tired. What helped even more was seeing my family and coworkers along the course! Chris, my dad, and stepmom saw me off at the start line, my family took a shuttle to mile 7 and cheered for me there, I saw my coworkers at the end of mile 10 (right after running up a huge hill), and Chris greeted me at the finish line with a bouquet of roses and a box of pumpkin donuts. As for my finish time, I finished in 2:14:26 averaging at about 10 minutes and 16 seconds a mile. Considering my goal was to finish in 2 hours and 30 minutes, I’m very happy with my time!

Three days later and I’m still in awe of what I have accomplished, and amazed at what I am capable of when we I just put my mind to it. It’s so crazy to think that four months ago, I was a woman who would only run three miles on the treadmill. Now? Now I’m a woman who has ran 13.1 miles through the hills of San Francisco and is currently planning her next half marathon. I feel like a completely different person. I AM a completely different person: a person who believes that if she can run a half marathon, she can do anything.

Nike Women’s Half Marathon or Bust!

After four months of training, my half marathon weekend is here. I’m so flippin’ excited I can hardly stand it!

I’m ready. I’m SO ready. After I ran that 11-miler a couple weeks ago, I realized that I can 110% do this if I just put my mind to it. Now, after four long months of training, fundraising, and mental preparation, I just want to run this race already.

It’s crazy to think that I am only a couple days away from accomplishing this goal that has been on my Life List for the last two and a half years. I remember when I moved home from South Korea, I signed up for my first 5K because everyone was doing it (running races, that is). After I did the 5K, I decided I wanted to run a half marathon one day. One day. I kept running 5K’s for two more years, then I graduated to a 10K last spring which gave me the confidence to finally sign up for that half marathon. Hmm, I wonder if I’ll want to sign up to run a marathon after I run the half? We shall see.

Chris and I leave tomorrow morning for San Francisco. The race itself is on Sunday morning, so we plan on coming home on Monday afternoon. I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures and stories to share when I get back! (Hopefully it doesn’t take me two weeks to do so like it did with my New York trip.) Wish me luck!

Have you run a half marathon before? If not, would you?

New York Part 2: The Other 6 Days of Our Trip

Yes, I know. I completely dropped the ball on blogging in detail about my New York trip. I’ve mentioned in the few blog posts I’ve managed to scrounge up lately that I’ve been feeling very busy and overwhelmed these past few months, but I’m working on changing that soon because I have a few ideas on how I’m going to start managing my time better (which I plan to blog about). But for now, I plan to share some highlights and pictures from the rest of my trip!

Things We Did

• 5th Avenue: We did some serious window shopping on this street full of expensive stores we can’t afford to shop at. A highlight here for me was having “breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

• Seth Meyers Monologue Rehearsal: When we were planning out trip, we both agreed that we would love to do something SNL-related, like see The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, or even better, SNL; however, all the Jimmy Fallon shows were booked up during the time we were going to be there and the new season of SNL wasn’t starting until the day we left. Luckily, we were able to score monologue rehearsal tickets to The Late Night Show with Seth Meyers; we were walking around the NBC gift shop in the Rockefellar Plaza and an intern approached us and asked if we wanted to see the rehearsal. I thought he was joking at first but quickly realized he was dead serious, so we of course said yes! We came back a couple hours later and met with a bunch of other random people who had also been given the free tickets. Together we went up to the floor where Seth Meyer’s show stage is located, which happens to be right next door to the SNL stage. (!!!) As we walked toward the stages, we kept thinking about how many famous people must have walked down that hallway (SNL cast members, all the celebrities who have hosted SNL, and all the musical artists who have performed on the show). During the rehearsal, we got to sit in the audience area and watch Seth Meyers read aloud the jokes that had been written for that night’s show; whichever jokes that we laughed at the most would make the cut and be used for the live show. We were only up there for about 30-45 minutes, but it was still such a cool experience to see an SNL celebrity and walk down that hallway leading to the SNL stage. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me!

• Top of the Rock: After the show, Chris and I decided to see the view from the top of the Rock since we were already in the building. It was around sunset by the time we got up to the top– perfect timing to see views of the city.

• Central Park: Central Park is huge and you should probably set aside a whole day if you want to see and do everything there is to experience there. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a whole day to devote to it, but we still spent a full morning there. I really wish I had gone running there (I brought my running shoes and workout clothes), but we did so much walking, I had little energy left to wake up early, much less wake up early and run.

• Empire State Building: I have to say, I loved going to the top of the Empire State Building better than the top of the Rock. The ESB is just so classic New York; it has a 1920’s, art-decco look and feel to it. Plus I think the view is better. One other thing that the ESB has that the top of the Rock doesn’t is free audio guides so you can learn about what you’re looking at when you check out the views.

• Grand Central Terminal: We saw it and took the subway from it, but that’s about it! I thought it was kinda cool that it has an Apple Store inside of it.

• 9/11 Memorial: So beautiful and touching! I saw it the first time I went to New York five years ago, but it was still Ground Zero at that point and under construction. This time it was around, it was a completed, perfect tribute to the people who lost their lives on 9/11.

• Wall Street: We walked up and down the streets and tried to imagine what it must be like to work there and have lots of money. So not our lives!

• Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty: OK, while researching for our trip, I read a lot of websites and heard from a lot of people that you can see take the Staten Island Ferry for free and see the Statue of Liberty up close. Well, I feel duped because that’s what we did, and I don’t think the view was that great. I mean, we saw it closer up than we would had we just looked at it from Battery Park (what I did last time I went to NY), but it still didn’t seem close enough. If I could do it over again, I’d pay the $18/person to see it up close.

• The Met: If you go to New York, you have to go to at least one museum, and we chose The Metropolitan Museum of Art for ours. It was amazing, but so overwheming at the same time. It’s so big, we didn’t even get to see the second floor before they closed at 5:30pm. That museum definitely deserves a day to get through it all.

• Harlem: I know what you’re thinking, “Why on earth would you go to Harlem?!” Because I wanted to see the Savoy Ballroom Plaque, a significant piece of Lindy Hop history. Lindy Hop used to be a big part of my life as a dancer, so it meant a lot to me to see the place where Lindy Hop was born.

• Brooklyn Bridge: Definitely a good way to get out of Manhattan for a little while and explore another part of New York! We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, had lunch, then hung out in Brooklyn Bridge Park for a few hours before heading back to Manhattan.

• Chicago on Broadway: This was my choice of Broadway show since Chris chose Book of Mormon. Chicago is one of my favorite musicals, so I was super excited to see it on Broadway in New York. The best part was we got orchestra seats for 50% off thanks to the TKTS discounted ticket stand in Times Square. Score!

Where We Ate

• Carnegie Deli: I’d heard of this place before and had always wanted to try one of their massive sandwiches. Well, I have to admit I was not impressed at all. I found it to be touristy with over-priced food that wasn’t very good. Big disappointment.

• Burger Joint: One of Manhattan’s best kept secrets, Burger Joint is a small, dive-y restaurant located in a fancy schmancy hotel. It’s vibe is so different from the hotel’s you’d never in a million years guess it was there. We loved the food, too. A little pricey for burgers and fries, but still worth at least one trip while in Manhattan.

• Korea Town: Forget Chinatown, we went to Korea Town! And I’m glad we did, because we found some of the most authentic Korean food we’ve been able to find since moving back home from Korea over two years ago. So amazing!

• Eataly: This place is a must if you ever go to Manhattan. It’s basically an Italian food mecca full of gelato, pizza, pasta, wine, cheese, charcuterie, and basically all-things Italian food.

• Doughnut Plant: Super cute little gourmet donut shop located in the Chelsea neighborhood. I love donuts, so this place made me happy.

• Street Food: My advice for ordering street food at a vendor in New York: ask for the prices of the food you want first, and don’t have any maps out indicating you’re a tourist. A vendor charged us $20 for this hot dog, skewer, and a bottle of water. Chris and I didn’t think anything of it at first, but then we realized $20 is A LOT of money for street food. We came to the conclusion that he could tell we were tourists, so he took advantage of us and told us the food cost more than it really did. LAME.

• Joe’s Pizza: Naomi, one of my favorite bloggers who also happens to live in New York, said Joe’s Pizza is one of the best pizza places in New York, so Chris and I made it a point to go there. It was definitely delicious, and so cheap! Probably one of the cheapest meals we had in NYC.

• S’MAC: As soon as I heard about S’MAC, I put it on our list of places to eat. A restaurant that serves nothing but mac and cheese? Sign me up! It was damn good mac and cheese, too. Though it turns out my eyes were bigger than my stomach when I ordered. The medium size portion ended up being too much food and I was stuffed afterward. Being stuffed is fine and all, but not when you have a lot of sightseeing and walking to do.

• Ristorante Rafele: While wandering around the West Village one night trying to find a nice place to eat, Chris and I stumbled upon Rafele’s. This place was one of my favorite restaurants we visited on the trip because it wasn’t touristy, the food was delicious yet not too pricey, and the service was good. Fun fact: the staff were all Italian!

• Grimaldi’s: Chris and I went here for lunch in Brooklyn after walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. This place is definitely popular (we waited in line for 30ish minutes), but the pizza is worth it. Grimaldi’s pizza was my favorite pizza we had during the trip.

In Conclusion…

There’s still so much more I could say about our trip to New York, but I won’t go into even more detail. Overall, our trip to New York was so fun, tiring, but fun. We saw a lot, did a lot, ate a lot, and walked a lot in the process. Because of this, I felt like it was a successful trip and we made the most of our time there. We did joke at the end of the trip, however, that we now need a vacation from our vacation; New York is a busy place and not the place to go if you want to relax and do nothing. So now we are talking about going to Mexico for our next vacation– hopefully for my 30th birthday!

I’m so glad I got to go to New York again as an adult because I experienced so much more this time around. Plus I got to experience it all with my best friend, which made it even more amazing. I love that Chris loves to travel just as much as I do! I’m already looking forward to our next adventure.

Check out part 1 of my trip.

New York Part 1: Flying First Class, a Chocolate-y Brunch, and My First Broadway Show

I’m back from New York! And with a whole lot of stories and pictures to share. Since our trip was 8 days long, I’ve decided to break up the trip into four blog posts (2 days per post). Today’s post will cover my first couple days in the Big Apple.

Saturday

After getting a full four hours of sleep, we took off for New York at about 6am. For the day, we were scheduled a four-hour flight, a two-hour layover in Chicago, then a two-hour flight to New York. Well, unfortunately, we missed our flight from Chicago to New York because United closed boarding for our flight early and we didn’t show up until about 5 minutes before they were originally supposed to close boarding. Even though the plane was still on the ground with 15 minutes until takeoff, the pilot wouldn’t let us on the plane, so we had to be booked on the next flight to New York which didn’t leave for another two hours. I was so frustrated at this point: I was tired from only getting four hours of sleep, stressed from the last 6 weeks, and I just wanted to be in New York already!

After I had stopped crying out of frustration, Chris told me that United had booked us for the next flight in FIRST CLASS. Yes, it still sucked that we were going to get to New York later than expected, but at least we would get to fly first class for the first time in our lives. Flying first class was definitely a cool experience: we had TONS of leg room, we got free cocktails, and we got to sit in the very front row of the plane, which meant we got to be the first ones off. It was hard to go back to economy after that flight, let me tell you.

Once we arrived in New York and checked into our hotel, we ventured out to find food. We decided to head to Shake Shack since it was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel. Shake Shack is like the In-N-Out of New York: very popular, delicious, high quality fast food. As a matter of fact, I think I like Shake Shack better than In-N-Out! I might be a horrible Californian/West Coaster for saying that, but oh well. I’ve never loved In-N-Out’s fries, and I love crinkle cut fries, so that’s how Shake Shack won me over. Plus, their menu has way more variety.

Sunday

Sunday was Chris’ birthday, so that day was all about what he wanted to see and do. The man loves a good brunch, so we started the day with brunch at Max Brenner. Max Brenner is known for being a chocolate lover’s heaven, and since I love chocolate, well, I myself was pretty stoked about this place. I got a mocha and chocolate pancakes for my meal. I was a little worried the combo would be chocolate overload, even for me, but it wasn’t. It was the perfect amount chocolate-y goodness.

After walking off our brunch and exploring Union Square, we got ready for a fancy dinner and a broadway show. We went to Ruth’s Chris for dinner, then saw The Book of Mormon. Chris said The Book of Mormon was his first choice for broadway shows, so I bought us tickets to see it as one of his birthday gifts. The musical is written by one of the creators of South Park, so it wasn’t really my kind of musical, but it was still entertaining and exciting to finally see a real broadway show in New York for the first time. And Chris loved it, so that’s what matters most! Full of food and jet-lagged, we walked back to our hotel and passed out in our comfy hotel bed to rest up for another jam-packed day in the Big Apple.

Have you ever flown first class? What’s your favorite musical?

New York, Here I Come!

Chris and I leave for New York IN TWO DAYS! I can’t believe our belated honeymoon is finally here. I am so excited to get out of Sacramento for a week, away from work/stress, and spend some quality time with my favorite person in an amazing city.

I’m super stoked for all the places we plan to see and food we plan to eat. The first time I went to New York five years ago, I was a poor college student. My reason for going to New York was for a Lindy Hop event, so I spent a good chunk of my five-day-stay dancing the night away. I had spent so much money on the dance event, I didn’t have much leftover for doing fun New York activities, like seeing a broadway show or going to the top of the Empire State Building. I especially didn’t have much money to wine and dine. In fact, I only went to one nice restaurant when I was there and my friend paid for me because it was my birthday. Here’s a pic from that night:

This New York trip is going to be so much better. We’re staying at a hotel in Manhattan within walking distance of Central Park and Times Square. (Last time, I slept on an air matrress in my friend’s apartment in Spanish Harlem.) We plan to visit all the touristy sights, such as the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, museums, Times Square, 30 Rock, etc. As for food, we plan to eat EVERYTHING. I have an Excel spreadsheet listing tons of restaurants, bakeries, bars, pizza joints, and brunch spots for us to check out. The foodie in me is freaking out!

Finally, another reason I’m looking forward to this trip is because I need time to de-stress. This last month and a half has been insanely stressful for me, mostly due to drama at my jobs. At one job, I’ve been dealing with a lot of change in the organization and in my job responsibilities. At the other job, I’ve been dealing with overly-entitled customers who like to complain and throw fits just so they can get free food. It seems like all this job drama has all piled on all at the same time. Throw in everything I have going on in my personal life (training for a half marathon, fundraising, preparing for this trip, social obligations, daily responsibilities, etc.) and you got me way in over my head. In fact, these last few weeks I’ve felt like I’ve been drowning, and no matter how hard I swim, I can’t come up for air.

So, yeah. I’m ready for this trip. If you want to follow me on Instagram, I’m sure I’ll be posting lots of pics there. Otherwise, I’ll catch you on the flipside!

Have you ever been to New York? If so, do you have any recommendations of things to see or restaurants to visit?

Summer Fun: Camping in Yosemite National Park

For the first time in almost a year, I crossed something off my Life List: I visited Yosemite National Park in California! Not only did I visit, but I camped there for the weekend with Chris and our friends, Brigette and Brad, and it was so much fun!

Chris and I left early Friday morning to try to snag a walk-in campsite. Some advice when trying to camp in Yosemite: make a reservation at a campsite ahead of time! Yosemite is very popular and touristy. Campsites book up months in advance, especially if you plan to go during the weekend. Even though we left early, we still weren’t able to get a campsite; luckily, we had a backup reservation at Oh Ridge campsite located 30 minutes from the east Yosemite entrance, so we stayed there on Friday night.

Oh Ridge was nice, but compared to Yosemite? Well, there was no comparison. Yosemite is full of gorgeous trees and mountains with tons of people and activity. Oh Ridge reminded me of a rainy desert with not much to do or see. Luckily we only had to stay there one night thanks to Chris, who was able to book us a reservation at a campsite in Yosemite for Saturday night. (Yay for someone else cancelling at the last minute!) After eating breakfast and packing up our gear, we headed back to Yosemite on Saturday afternoon.

As soon as we got to our new campsite (Upper Pines) and unpacked, we were ready to venture out into Yosemite and go on a hike. We decided to hike Mist Trail since it was right next to our campsite. Another reason we decided on Mist Trail was because it would lead us to Vernal Fall. Who doesn’t love a good waterfall???

The hike itself was INTENSE. It was only 3 miles to the top and back, but the first half was a lot of climbing up some steep hills. We had to take a few breaks to catch our breaths, and we were so relieved once we finally reached the top of Vernal Fall! It was a tough hike, but it was worth it: the views from the top were breathtaking. Once we took a bunch of pictures and cooled off, we headed back down. Our legs were so fatigued at this point, every time we walked down a hill, we felt like we were going to collapse. If you want your legs to feel like jelly, hike Vernal Fall in Yosemite!

After we finished our hike, we cooled off some more in a creek and headed back to our campsite. We had dinner and drinks, then built a fire so we could make s’mores and tell “ghost stories.” It was the perfect way to relax after an exhausting day of hiking.

I’m so happy I finally made it to Yosemite; I’ve been wanting to go for the last couple years, but kept putting it off. Now I know how amazingly beautiful it is and I can’t wait to go back. As well as visiting Yosemite again in the future, Chris and I plan to go camping more in general; now that we’ve invested in our own camping gear, we can go camping anytime we want!

Where’s your favorite camping spot? Have you ever gone hiking? Do you like s’mores?

Working On My Life List

Four years ago, around the time I graduated college, I wrote myself a Life List: a list full of places I want to see and things I want to do before I die. I was pretty proactive about crossing things off my list shortly after I wrote it and for a couple years after, but once I moved home from South Korea in March 2012? I stopped focusing on my Life List. Instead, I started focusing on my career and my finances. You know, adult stuff. In fact, I’ve lost focus on my Life List so much to the point where I recently realized I only crossed off one thing on my list in 2013: my trip to Vegas.

Well, now that I’m very employed and making a decent income, I want to start focusing on crossing things off my Life List again. I’ve already updated it, now I want to choose a handful of things on my list to complete. Here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish during the rest of 2014 while simultaneously working on my career and finances:

Run a half-marathon. Ever since I ran my first 10K, I’ve been thinking more and more about signing up for a half-marathon. Running a half-marathon is something I’ve been wanting to do for the last couple years. It’s also something I know I can do since I enjoy running– I just need to sign up for one, train, and do it! I want to run a half-marathon this year because I’ll be 29 soon, and I think this would be something really cool to do during my last year of my twenties.

Visit Yosemite National Park in California. Can you believe I’ve lived in Northern California basically my whole life and have never been to Yosemite? I’m hoping to remedy this over the summer by planning a weekend visit.

Visit New York again as an adult/Visit Washington DC so I can tour the White House and see America’s Monuments. I’ve never been to DC, but I want to go. I’ve been to New York, but as a poor college student, so I’d love to go back. Lucky for me, Chris wants to go to New York, too, so we’re currently planning a trip there for our belated honeymoon in September. I even convinced him that we need to go to DC for a couple days since we’ll be on the East Coast anyways and who knows when we’ll be there again?

Do you have a Life List/bucket list? Have you crossed anything off your Life List/bucket list recently?

Vegas Vacation: Part 2

The Vegas saga continues! Here’s what we did on Sunday:

We were completely wiped out after our first day in Vegas because of the early flight, all the walking we did, and all the fun we had. So Sunday afternoon was all about resting and rejuvenating– resting by the hotel pool, that is.

After a relaxing afternoon by the pool, Chris and I headed out for another exciting evening on the Las Vegas Strip. Our first stop was at the Venetian Hotel and Casino so we could take a gondola ride.

To make our night feel a little more Italy-esque, we had dinner at a restaurant called Otto Pizzeria in the Palazzo Hotel. I’d say this place was another Vegas gem because of the excellent food, atmosphere, and service.

We got cheesecake for dessert (surprise surprise) at Grand Lux Cafe back in the Venetian Hotel. This place was a lot like The Cheesecake Factory, only slightly fancier.

The highlight of the evening was seeing another Cirque du Soleil show, but not just any Cirque show. We saw Michael Jackson One! And it was hands down the best show I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I mean, just think: Cirque du Soleil acrobats plus Michael Jackson’s music. I know, right? MIND BLOWING!

The rest of the night we spent soaking up the excitement of The Strip since it was out last night in Vegas. We drank, we gambled, and basically just enjoyed our last night together in Sin City.

That concludes our second day in Vegas. To be continued!

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PS – It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month! In memory of my mom, I’m raising $1000 for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk coming up on October 20th! If you can, please support me by making a donation here.

Vegas Vacation: Part 1

Our highly anticipated Vegas trip has come and gone. We went there a couple weeks ago to celebrate Chris’ 30th birthday and had a blast! We were only in Vegas for three days, but we managed to fit a ton of fun activities into our itinerary. In fact, we did so much, I’m breaking up our trip into three separate blog posts. Here is what we did on Saturday:

After landing at the McCarran airport and checking into the New York New York Hotel and Casino, our first order of business was to eat at a buffet and explore The Strip. We ate until we couldn’t eat anymore and then we walked until we couldn’t walk anymore.

After exploring The Strip, Chris and I went back to the hotel to rest, shower, and get ready for our first night out on the Vegas town. Saturday was his actual birthday, so I had a lot of surprises planned for that night. For his birthday dinner, I made reservations at Lemongrass, a fancy Thai restaurant in the Aria Hotel. I’d heard good things about this restaurant, and we’d never been to a fancy Thai restaurant before, so I thought it might be a fun place to go for Chris’ birthday dinner. I’m glad I picked this place, because the food was excellent and the service was great!

After dinner, we headed over to the Paris Hotel and Casino so we could take an elevator ride up to the top of the Eiffel Tower and see the views of The Strip from the top. We were lucky enough to catch the Bellagio fountain show while we were up there, which made for a breathtaking viewing experience! If you ever go to Vegas, doing this activity is a MUST.

The grand finale of the night was two tickets to see The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show at The Mirage Hotel and Casino. Chris said out of all the Vegas shows, this was the one he wanted to see the most, so of course I bought tickets to see it on his birthday. As for the show, it was mind-blowing! Hands down one of the best shows I’ve seen in my entire life and worth every single penny. Since that show, I have a new found respect for acrobats and Cirque performers. Seeing a Cirque du Soleil show is another activity you must do if you’re ever in Vegas.

We concluded the evening with Chris’ favorite dessert: a slice of birthday cheesecake from Carnegie Deli in the Mirage Hotel.

And that concludes our first day in Vegas. To be continued!

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PS – It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month! In honor of my mom and women everywhere, I’m raising $1000 for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk coming up on October 20th! If you can, please support me by making a donation here.

A Trip to the DMZ

Before I moved to Korea, I had no interest in ever visiting the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. In fact, just the thought of getting so close to North Korea scared me. Once I moved to Korea, and the months started to pass by, I heard more and more stories from foreigner friends who went to the DMZ, loved the experience, and highly recommended that I go, too. Pretty soon, I added “Visit the DMZ” to my Korea Bucket List, and this past weekend, I crossed it off with satisfaction.

The tour I signed up for was on Saturday at 9am, and our first stop was the Third Infiltration Tunnel. Before going into the tunnel, we watched a short video on the history of the tunnels: even after the North and South Koreans ended the war in 1953 and established the DMZ to prevent any more invasions, the North Koreans plotted a secret attack by building various underground tunnels that lead from North Korea to South Korea. The first three tunnels were discovered by the South Koreans in the 1970s, and the last tunnel was discovered in 1990. Talk about shady!

I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures of the actual tunnel, but here are a couple of the area surrounding the tunnel.

Our second stop was the Dora Observatory where we could get a closer look at North Korea. This was where I got my first good look of the evil, communist country. It looked just like I imagined it would: pathetic and depressing.

Our third stop was Dorasan Station: the last train station in South Korea before heading into North Korea. You can buy train tickets here, but you have to have special permission. (I’m guessing a visa? Not sure what kind of permission.)

After lunch is when the tour started to get really interesting. Our fourth stop was the Joint Security Area (JSA): the only part of the DMZ where North and South Korea stand face-to-face. Essentially, this is where the two Koreas “talk business” (e.g. diplomatic engagements, negotiations, etc.). The following picture is of Conference Row: U.N. buildings that are used for meetings. If you walk past the middle of the two buildings, that means you are in North Korea!

Did you see the North Korean soldier at the top of the second picture?

We were allowed to go inside one of the conference rooms where a couple of South Korean soldiers were standing guard. The soldiers wear their sunglasses to hide any emotion from the North Korean soldiers, and they stand in a Taekwondo stance so that they are always ready for defense.

The spot I was standing in meant I was in North Korea. Crazy!

After seeing the JSA, we headed over to Check Point #3 where we could get another close look at North Korea. From here, we were able to get a good look at the 1976 Ax Murder Site: On August 18th, 1976, a few UNC (United Nations Command) soldiers went to prune a tree that was blocking their view of Check Point #4 from Check Point #3. Even though the UNC soldiers had notified the KPA (Korean People’s Army) soldiers beforehand, 15 KPA soldiers appeared at the site and ordered the UNC soldiers to stop pruning the tree. The UNC soldiers ignored the KPA soldiers’ request, which caused the KPA to attack the UNC using the axes they had brought to prune the tree. Seventeen soldiers were left wounded, and two were killed. The tree was eventually cut down and replaced with a memorial for the murdered soldiers.

At the end of the tour, we passed by the Bridge of No Return: a bridge that crosses the Military Demarcation Line between the two Koreas and was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the Korean War. After the war, many prisoners who were captured by the U.S. did not want to return home, so they were brought to the bridge and given a choice: they could stay in their country of captivity, or cross over to the other country. However, if they chose to cross the bridge, they weren’t allowed to come back.

Overall, my tour of the DMZ was beyond fascinating. The Korean War is a significant part of not just Korean history, but American history, too. Since I am American and have lived in South Korea for the last year, I’ve made efforts to learn more about the notorious war we helped fight, and visiting the DMZ was one of them. By visiting the DMZ, I was not only able to learn more facts about the Korean War, but I was able to see and feel the tension and hostility between the divided country. Never have I set foot on someplace so dangerous and evil, even if it was for only a short amount of time. And while the experience of doing so was extremely depressing and a little bit scary, it’s an experience I will always remember and one I will never regret having.