So, on my last few days in Korea my mom and I took a bus to Seoul and headed to Namsan/Seoul Tower. 

This has been on my list of "Things to do while I'm in Korea" for a while now and it can finally get checked off.

My mom's friends told her that instead of taking a bus up to the tower in order to experience the tower the right way we should walk to the top, and walk is what we did.

We took a cab to the entrance point of the incline to the tower. I had been sleeping in the taxi since we had been walking around Seoul for a minute in the heat and I was a little bit drained. 

We got out and started up the hill. At first it wasn't too bad, the way up was pretty much shaded all the way through but, even the trees couldn't protect us from the heat. I was extremely hungry having not ate breakfast and had worked up a hunger headache and my mom was also hungry, her stomach growl attempting to match the roar of the cicadas. 

Tip 1: Eat a light meal and drink plenty of water before you hike up this hill in the humid Korean summer.

The incline wasn't that bad for most of the way it was pretty gradual. In certain areas you did have to dig a little deeper to make it up but, nothing too serious. But, again, in the heat even the slightest incline was draining. Not only that but when we started the walk I didn't even know how far up it was. I was basically thinking "It's right there it shouldn't be too far." Little did I know it was nearly a 2 mile trek. My mom was walking a little bit slower, for fear of being a hot, sweaty, mess before actually getting to the tower. I on the other hand was trying to get up to the tower as fast as possible, my main motivator being food.

Tip 2: If you are going to walk up to the tower in the summer time wear exercise or moisture wicking clothes. My mom and I were both looking too cute to be hot and sweaty.

Despite all of our ails we did stop and enjoy the views and learn a little bit of history on the way up to the tower. 

After an eternity of trekking up this hill we make it to the tower, bought our ticket, and immediately found a place to eat. We decided on a Korean buffet, the best part about a buffet is that you don't have to wait for your food to be cooked, you can eat immediately and get as much as you want. As soon as we walked in the host reminded us that this is a Korean buffet with Korean food. I'm not sure why but, I think Koreans believe foreigners do not like or cannot handle their food (Korean food can be quite spicy).  We assured him that this is the place we wanted to eat at, found a table, put our stuff down and immediately made a bee line to the food. 

With our bellies full and our energy renewed we headed up to the main event, the reason why we were truly there, we went to the very top of the tower. My mom handed the ticket to the ticket handler and then we waited in line to take an elevator up to the very top. Everyone was carrying popcorn and drinks, it felt like I was in a movie theatre. We waited our turn, and then entered the elevator, there was a LED screen on the roof of the elevator showing a video of us going up in to outer space. It felt like a big build up to something remarkable. 

 We stepped off the elevator and took in our surroundings and it was... underwhelming. 

I say this because I was basically seeing the same views on the lower levels of the tower. The differences being that we were a little higher up and that in the space we were able to walk around 360 degrees. 

After taking a couple of shots of the view, a failed selfie attempt (the lighting in there sucks), and about 10-20 minutes of walking around the circle a couple of times we decided to leave. 

Tip 3: Sometimes the journey is more fun than the place you are actually trying to get to.

We headed back down and walked around the base of the tower. My mom wanted to go see the trail where all the people in love write their names on a lock and hook it to the fence. All the colors were beautiful. There were probably thousands of locks, some of them looking like they had been there for over 20 years. My mom wanted to do the lock thing with her and my step dad but, her Korean friend warned her that everybody she knew that put a lock on the fence ended up breaking up. Who would have thought that a fence of love could be cursed? 

Anyways, my mom and I made our way back down, taking a bus this time, and then went on another bus headed back home and lived happily ever after. 

If you have been to Seoul Tower leave a comment and tell me your experience!

I survived.

I survived my first year of college.

I can hear Destiny's Child's, Survivor playing in the background.

Okay, maybe I am being a little bit dramatic college wasn't that bad.

Some of you guys may know that I go to Kent State University and that I am a fashion design major and I honestly couldn't imagine doing anything else. 

Well, besides traveling the world.

But, pushing my wanderlust aside, I seriously couldn't imagine studying anything else. 

My first year of college I had zero mental break downs. I was surprised, it seemed like a lot of people around me were extremely overwhelmed. I am not saying I'm cool under pressure, I think I just knew that I could handle everything that was pushed my way. Projects, papers, homework, I didn't really stress about it or get sick over it. It's probably from all those YouTube videos I watched about GPA not being that big of a deal and because I used to stress a lot about school and grades in high school. One time I literally made my self ill because of all the stress I put on my body and I refuse to do that anymore, mental health is more important.

Despite this outlook, I did still end my freshman year of college with a pretty good GPA, a 3.6 (have to keep those scholarships).

I may not have had any mental break downs, but I did think about switching schools. Kent State has a beautiful campus and I've met a ton of cool people yet, I still felt like something was missing and that switching schools was the solution. I debated it for a long time. I eventually decided that Kent State was still the best place to get the education that I desired. I think I was just homesick since I have no close family in Ohio and I absolutely hated the winter.

I'm a southern girl, where if there is a less than half an inch of snow schools are cancelled, roads are blocked and everything is closed. Even the Korean winter was bearable. But, going from that to there being multiple inches of snow, freezing temperatures, ice on the sidewalks and I still had to walk to class, I was not about it. When talking to my friends from Ohio and they say that the winter wasn't even that bad, in my mind, if I am suffering through this and this "isn't that bad" how am I gonna survive when it is bad?

I guess we'll see what the upcoming winter months have in store for me. 

Now it's time for the outfit overview!!

I recently bought this top from my local consignment store and I love it!

I spotted it, picked it up, and said quite loudly " This is so cute!" The lady across from me on the other side of the racks averted her eyes in my direction. Whoops, sorry lady, you can go back to your shopping now. Anyways, I loved the off the shoulder style and the ruffle detail. What really pulled me in were the bell sleeves and the corset back. I mean this shirt literally has all the popular trends but, was most likely made way before 2017. Plus how many times can you find an all white shirt at a thrift store that doesn't have a stain on it?

As for the pants, shorts, capris, culottes, whatever you wanna call them. I actually made them myself. Every year for Christmas I ask for fabric, I don't really specify exactly what I want, to challenge myself to make an idea out of what I'm presented with. Which is probably why I love upcycling clothes so much (hint to a future blogpost perhaps). Some times what they get me is good and then sometimes it's not, but I am grateful nonetheless. 

Anyways I love this color combination, for those of you who have been following my blog for a while you already know this. 

A lot of you may know this but I can almost never go full on girly. There has to be a balance between bad ass and girly girl. This is probably the only consistency I am able to spot in my style.

Since this top is girly and I've added my pop of color with my shorts all I need now is to represent my inner boss ass chick. To do this I put on my fake Balenciaga buckle boots, and layer on a couple of necklaces and that completes the outfit!!

For a while now I've been thinking about replacing all of my commercial toiletries with all natural ones. 

Why? You may ask.

Well, I watched a documentary called The Human Experiment that basically went over the dangerous and harmful chemicals that are in commercial toiletries. Theses chemicals in these products have been linked to different cancers and autism. 

So, I since I'm trying to live a long cancer free life and to eventually have a beautiful, healthy child, I figured why not try it out. 

I am also simply in love with the simplicity of all natural products with ingredients that I know and recognize, it makes me feel earthy.

Maybe thats my inner hippie coming out. 

Another extremely important thing about most of these products besides that they are all natural is that almost all of them are small business and are black owned. 

I could explain to you guys the importance of supporting small businesses and black businesses but, you should already know.