Summer of Quarantine 2020

Summer went by in a blip. There were lots of cooking, zoom calls, social distance outdoors with a few close friends, reading and long walks in the sun absorbing as much sun as we possibly can before PNW fall and winter locked us inside again. Around this time, I had an idea of making and printing postcards to send to my loved ones all around the country. We knew it’s going to be at least another year or so of quarantine from this point on and I wanted a way to connect other than video calls. I’ve always been so fond of snail-mails for the tactile feel and excitement I get from getting cards or notes when I opened my mailbox - it makes perfect sense.

This March 2021 marked a whole year in quarantine. Time moves differently in quarantine. Slow and fast in ways that are wholly inconsistent and unpredictable. In the beginning of quarantine, I felt agitated, angry, sad, frustrated, trapped and sometimes all of those feelings at once. Looking back, my agitations came from knowing - deep in my gut - living in the individualistic society like the United States means it will take so much longer to escape self-imposed quarantine we have to do. But that in itself is an oversimplification of what I’ve been feeling brewing underneath my skin for a while now.

We spent some time walking around Ubud Market where we spotted quite a few amazing and intricate building entrances. We also found amazing art being sold in shops around the area. Juan got to spend some time in this basement shop playing with souvenir items and seeing if they make cool sounds. We actually found a thing that would make sound not so different from the sound of thunder. Juan got so excited it was hard for me to get the lady to lower the price. Oh well, anything for my sound crazed husband. haha.

My father’s favorite spot in Bali would be Kintamani. I can see why, the air is cooler there’s Danau (Lake) Batur* and Mountains surrounding the lake. The place is absolutely stunning.

I’m definitely on my travel journal kick right now. As well all know and experienced, 2020 put a halt on most people’s travel plans. Juan and I have been talking about the time where we get to travel and experience other countries again. But it still feel so far away from now.

We were trying to decide what we are going to do for our 2 Year Anniversary Celebration. We thought about dressing up really fancy and going to Canlis for dinner, but then Juan found an amazing flight deal to Tokyo for March 2019! Right before the sakura bloom season. We thought about it for a minute - literally a minute - because the next minute we purchased flight tickets! It was so exciting I started planning the same night. Planners gonna plan, y’all. 😂

It is time to share our Christmas/Holiday Celebration of 2018! We decided, pretty last minute that we would actually head to Colombia for the holidays in 2018. His parents were thrilled that we were coming because Juan has not been home to celebrate Christmas for about 12 years. Juan’s mom decorated the house thoroughly every Christmas so we were very excited to be able to spend our time in their beautiful apartment.

This post will conclude our 2 week(+) long honeymoon in Japan. It was magical from the beginning to end. We learned a lot about each other along the way and also getting to experience Japanese culture, food. Not to mention, great memories to share with each other and our loved ones.

We started the new year taking a surprisingly short trip from Kyoto to Osaka. We were extremely surprised that it only took about an hour on Shinkansen. We literally had to shovel the content of our bentos into our mouth just so we can get ready to deboard the train. It was still delicious regardless. 🍱

I wanted to share some photos and travel journal I did for our honeymoon for a little while now. Since we both decided to give up most social media - facebook a few years ago and I personally have also given up IG recently- I am running out of ways to share pictures, stories and thoughts with my friends and family. I’ve always wanted to write more and in a blog format where I can go back and reminisce.