Tag Archives: South Korea

Ena’s Thanksgiving 2012

December 30, 2012 Ena Teo Leave a comment

On the 2nd last day of the year, I’d like to recount a few things that I’m thankful to God for. 🙂

In chronological order followed by special people in my life.

Starting in January, I had a very enjoyable short stay at Avilion Cove hotel at Port Dickson, Malaysia with my sisters. You can read about the relaxing stay here.:)

My sisters & I.

Picturesque view at Avilion Cove.

Back in March, Bini and I went for a super last minute but enjoyable 4D3N stay at Korea. It was definitely short but a lot of fun. Check out the stay in a 3 part post 1, 2 and 3.

With Bestie Bini :*

Delicious, best Korean spread ever at Sam-chung dong.

🙂

The combined hauls from Korea. 😀

Unforgettable memories.

At Korean, in-cheon airport.

In May, I went to Philippines (just realized my typo in the banner and image below) for mission trip with my church. It was my second trip there and a lot more fruitful. The growth in the two years is remarkable and there is a lot of work still to be done. Praise the Lord. Check out my post on the trip here.

After I came back from Philippines, I had to immediately attend to Transmission Kaleidoscope exhibition and I am extremely thankful for the work that culminated into a beautiful exhibition, thanks to everyone in the Transmission team! 🙂 More details of the exhibition can be found here.

In June, I received an influx of product review sponsorships, from lip balms, sunblocks to skin care products. You can check them out here.

One of the product reviews.

In July, my birth month, I received two very big presents. The first is to be selected as Estee Lauder’s ambassador, to review and share updates on their latest products and events through the last 5 months in this year. It’s been an amazing journey thus far, one that I hope will continue through to the new year and beyond. I humbly believe that you my readers also enjoy reading the posts as much as I enjoyed the experiences and writing about them. 🙂

First bag of joy from Estee lauder, for reviews see here.

My #LOTD using Estee Lauder Fall Violet Underground collection, see here and here.

A second birthday gift was my license for Real Estate property, a culmination of studies and exams, plus I’m very grateful to pass on the first try.

My namecards & license tag.

The following thanksgiving are for groups of special people in my life, in no particular order.

YPM Benjamin cell group members hold a special place in my heart and will always be, as we spend every Saturday evening (I mean every single week) together, through bible studies, dinners and enjoyable outings.

Acting demure.

Really crazy. 😀

Claire & Xue’s baptism in April. How time flies!

The lovely girls in the group. Ming, Bernice, Claire, Xue, Vivian, Me & Hui Ting.

Our Luge outing at Sentosa. 🙂

I am extremely thankful for a wonderful group of girlfriends in my management class in Lasalle. I really love them, their fashion sense, unique styles, enthusiasm, joy and encouragements. 🙂 <3

Pris, Christabelle, Me.

Photo with the group at Holland V. (My first time there, LOL)

Bev’s 21st birthday with the cray-cray girls, post here.

High tea!

More photos with Bestie Bini, I’ve never had a friend who’s cared so much for me, through words, time, action and gifts and I’m really thankful <3

Together at Chanel Spring Summer show.

Photo with Bini back in Feb, also in a review written about New York Skin solution.

My secondary four classmates are another group of friends I am increasingly thankful for, as we stay together through each year, each month. <3

Celebrating Clinton’s farewell, see post here.

With bestie neighbour, YL, from our HerWorld day out outing.

View from our Flyer outing, after our Estee Lauder makeover experience.

With my mentor, at her surprise birthday party we threw for her in church. 🙂

I thank God for using her to be a blessing to me and many more in church! <3

With my tummies hunnies food date, a special group of us dear to my heart, friendship bonded through the May trip to Philippines! <3

Ena Thanksgiving Meet Michelle Phan copy

With Michelle Phan! One of the inspirational ladies in my life, to meet her in person is like meeting my idol, I have few in my life, hehe. Don’t think I blogged about the meet up when she came, but I have this photo on Instagram. 🙂

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This thanksgiving post is definitely not an exhaustive one, I am thankful for each and every person I’ve met this year, whether they’ve been a blessing – or a motivation / learning lesson for me.

I hope this post inspires you to count your blessings and to give thanks for them!

Ena

Fashion, Travel

Super Seoul Day 3 & 4

May 22, 2012 Ena Teo 2 Comments

Hello! I’ve been back from the Philippines mission trip for about 2 weeks but been busy working at Expo selling biscuits… So, I’m happy to finally bring you the last installment of my Super Seoul Trip – Days 3 & 4!

Day 3//

We headed to Shinsegae to shop in the morning and that’s where I got my super tasty korean seaweed snacks and biscuits! I will dedicate a whole post on that later…

I’m certain I took a whole host of pictures at Shinsegae… But it’s been so long and I can’t locate where the pictures are now. :O But it’s okay… I’ve got one here, a classy store in the men’s department where B shopped for her dad’s suits. (;

We had lunch at Shinsegae, where B recommends their traditional meals, we had to queue about 15 minutes before getting in. A pity it was just 2 of us because they only cater servings for like 4 people so we had to eat so much of the Octopus and meat stew! LOL.

Watch the transition from raw ingredients to tasty stew!

The Saba (i think) fish was tasty!

Watching the Korean Ahjummas enjoying their get-together over lunch.

The wonderful Korean seaweed I bought in bags… You can’t find these tasty brands in Singapore! The ones that Shine department store in Singapore stocks aren’t as tasty as these.

We headed back to the hotel in the evening to put our grocery shopping down and called in Jajjangmyum for dinner! Apparently the hotel says we can’t but they let us do so this once. Haha!

Watching Chinese drama while eating… LOL.

Then we headed down to Myung Dong, night market street with lots and lots of skin care boutiques. I was looking for The Face Shop to buy some on YL’s behalf as well as to get some of the famed facial masks. My sister got us some the last time she was in Korea and it’s good so I also got some back. (: Umm but I didn’t take any pictures of the stores or boutiques. And I even got 10% off for buying like 100k won and above! I think that’s about S$120. You have to ask them for the discount if not they won’t give. HAHA. I’m such a #smartshopper. 😛

No idea how the Korean girls and ahjummas keep up with their high end labels? Here’s how! HAHA. Just kidding. But lots of pirated branded stuff on the streets! Hermes, LV and Chanel scarves above and Chanel accessories below.

LV bags… at a steal! HAHA.

A pretty lame store name, I thought they sold stationaries but it’s a beauty store.

You’d think we ended the day 3 at Myung Dong… But we didn’t! HAHA. We went back to the hotel and decided to head out to Doota again for midnight shopping because it closes at 5am anyway. We were mainly looking for a suitable luggage for B to store all her stuff on the flight back. LOL. So we survived the night till about 2am before going back for the night. And because we were too late to claim the refunds, we planned to go back again the next morning to claim the refunds (#firstworldproblems) before heading back to Samchungdong for lunch, as we did on the first day!

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Day 4 // Packing up… Combined hauls. Mostly B’s lah. HAHA.

Back at Samchungdong for lunch!

With a few hours to spare after check out, we had post lunch tea… Mine’s green tea latte and B’s Americano. HAHA.

On our chartered ride to the airport. ^^,

At Incheon Airport…

We didn’t think check-in would take so long so we had to runnnn all the way for our flight and made it in with 5 min before the gate closed. #phew. Oh btw check out my pair of shoes from Myung Dong’s market. Only about S$30 and has been my go-to shoes since I got back. Been wearing it to death!

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But thankfully we were rewarded with…

LOTS of empty seats HAHA. So we got to hog 3 seats per person. Awesome max. 😀

Hope you guys enjoyed my Super Seoul posts as much as I did experiencing & writing them!

Shopper’s Paradise // Super Seoul Day 2 (enabalista.wordpress.com)
Now or Never // Super Seoul Day 1 (enabalista.wordpress.com)

Fashion, Travel

Shopper’s Paradise // Super Seoul Day 2

May 2, 2012 Ena Teo 3 Comments

For our Super Seoul escapade day 2, we headed out to Lotte department store to shop and lunch!

Check out all the pretty displays at Lotte department store!

Love this pair of shoe, got a pair of black sneaker wedges similar to this from Myung Dong!

There was a lot of attendants at this store, featuring local designer wears.

We had traditional korean food for lunch at level 11!

If you don’t like Korean food, it’s only because you have not tried the authentic korean food in Korea. Dae bak! (The best!)

Reminds me of Rei Kawakubo’s Lumps and Bumps Dress collection:

Love their window display! So artistic and bold.Korea’s Project Runway contestant designs on display~Had sandwich for tea while B was trimming and dyeing/inking her eyebrows!At dinner! We had meat stew for dinner at Hong Dae! We didn’t know how to order and had to trouble B’s friend to speak to the restaurant ahjumma over the phone. HAHA.
Lots of Soju! Bought one back to the hotel and it’s bland. So didn’t finish it. LOL.This meat stew was too much for two of us!At an indie store with a very friendly couple/owners. We told them we came from Singapore and they told us they visited Singapore before, with a $10 bill as proof on their desk. HAHA cute.

The store features some vintage branded clothes as well as some new designer clothes. Quite an eclectic selection. Basically most of the Hong Dae boutiques have their own individual, personalized style yet it’s not different enough to really stand out.

It was a Wednesday night and the lines outside the clubs were INSANE. INSANELY LONG.Never-ending.Then we tumbled across this gothic building. Think it’s a pub of sorts, we didn’t venture in as we were headed back to the hotel for the night!

Here’s one pic of me to end the post, nice? (:Will have the last installment of Super Korea Day 3 + 4 combined when I’m back from the Phillippines! Will be away for a week, on mission trip with my church friends! Do covet your prayers, please pray for our safety and good health while we are there!

Travel

Now or Never // Super Seoul Day 1

April 21, 2012 Ena Teo 5 Comments

** Updated with more pictures**

About 2 months ago, B and I headed to Seoul, Korea for 4D3N. With thanks to my Aunt’s travel package, we managed to get a great deal on the plane and hotel fare there! (:

Titled Now or Never, the trip was planned about a month in advance and I procrastinated a lot before uploading because of all the photos I have from this trip! But since my last and final school submission is next Tuesday I can finally find time to upload them on this fine Saturday. (: Will share more about school after this post!

We didn’t have a good midnight flight to Seoul because the seat weren’t comfy to rest in. We landed at Incheon airport and we took a mini-van ride prepared for us as part of the package to our Seoul hotel, Vabien Suite II.

After checking in, we headed out to a trendy area called Samchang Dong with indie boutiques, a multi-level F21 building and the best Korean restaurant!

Picture taking along the road/pavement outside the boutiques! It was end of winter season and we’d be shivering as the wind blew~

We were finding a place for lunch and we were judging the stores by their exterior and the number of people in it. We saw that this store was quite popular so we headed in! 😀

Best Korean traditional meal for lunch, 7000won (~USD$7/SGD$10) per set meal.

Korea is FULL of bakeries and cafes!

Our purchases from Petite Baguette, a Paris-inspired bakery nearby our hotel. B loves their milk yougurt and their butter buns are tasty!

After lunch, we headed out to shop at Doota, another trendy shopping haunt with a lot of up and coming local designer stalls, think a more up-class version of Far East plaza in Singapore.

Will now let the pictures do the talking~!