I have a major obsession with Korean dramas right now. I guess you could say, when I fall, I fall hard. While I'm still a rookie, I've watched a good handful in a short amount of time and here's what I've learned so far:

I have finally been sucked into the world of K-drama and color me obsessed. I literally broke all the mom rules and spent all of Saturday binge watching this until 3am. Netflix's Crash Landing On You is a perfect romantic comedy series full of laughter, heart, tears (omg lots of tears in the last couple episodes), and romance (duh). The logline reads: "A paragliding mishap drops a South Korean heiress in North Korea - and into the life of an army officer, who decides he will help her hide." It's 16 episodes and most are between 70-90 minutes. I think the last episode was even almost two hours, so basically a movie. Here are a few of there reasons I loved this series and recommend watching it.

We had our first incident with baby sending something down the toilet without us realizing it. That something was the silver metal toilet paper rod. He has dropped other items in the toilet and I've always fetched them out. How I missed the rod, I do not know.  Anyhow, this fun incident brought to light one of the cultural differences in my marriage.

If you missed it on Telemundo, the entire series is available on Netflix and it is a MUST watch. If you don't know who Jenni Rivera was, she was simply put...a warrior. She was La Reina de la Banda, the Queen of Mexican Regional music, and she was from Long Beach. The series was based on her autobiography Unbreakable: My Story, My Way, and this is more than a story about a great singer. This is the story of a woman who put herself through school, built a successful career in real estate before becoming the Queen that she was, always put her family and her kids first, and was simply unstoppable even as life threw one nightmare after another at her. If you know her story, you know. If you don't know, it's unimaginable until you know. Through everything, she always rose, and stuck to her values. Calling her an inspiration feels inadequate, but that's the best way I can describe her. 

Warning: watching this series may be triggering for some, because there is A LOT of abuse that Jenni endured. But a friend said something really smart to me about watching film or TV that can be triggering, and that is to remember to observe and not absorb. It is worth the watch for all though, also in terms of seeing how abuse affects us and those around us. Jenni is also a great example of someone who is not the "stereotype" of an abused woman. She's strong, comes from a loving family who would literally fight for one another. There's a lot to learn from Jenni and the way she lived her life--full of love, integrity, and a relentless will to rise.

Moreover, as much as this series is about Jenni's life, it also feels very much about her family's, too. I have so much respect for the Riveras and love the love they have for one another.

Next year will be the 10th anniversary of when Jenni was killed in a plane crash, but she lives on through her music and her family.

​Have you watched the series? What did you think? 

(Originally posted on Love, Justine)

Twinings is a must visit for any visitor (or anyone for that matter...in my humble opinion) in London Town, and especially for any tea lover. On my last trip to London, I discovered that at Twinings, you can take a masterclass and learn all about the history of tea while tasting fine and varied teas.  You can book a private class for a minimum of two people, or a regular class for a minimum of six people, and you can also book a bespoke blending experience for a maximum of six people.  So for Londoners, I recommend this as a fun company outing or outing with friends and family. Call ahead or email to reserve your spot!  You can check out the details here. ​

​One of my favorite places to visit in England is Bath.  It's so full of history and charm, and as a Jane Austen junkie, I like to think I'm walking amongst her spirit there. It's a perfect day trip from London or other nearby cities like Oxford or Bristol, but it's also a great little weekend getaway. Bath is a small city, so there are a few tourist staples one must do in Bath (other than walk around and enjoy the quaint town): 1) visit the Roman baths (duh), 2) visit the Jane Austen Centre, and 3) have tea or a meal at Sally Lunn's for the famous Bath bun.

Over the last year or so, I started noticing people were dropping the hyphen from Asian American and other similar terms. To my own ignorance, this wasn't something new. Dropping the hyphen started more "formally" in 1993, though it seems not universally. I guess before recent years, I had only ever seen and was taught to use the hyphen. So, me being the person who will use a semicolon in a text message, first thought people were just being sloppy. However, as I noticed it more and more, I decided to look up why this might be, and eventually came to the conclusion that I'm also done using the hyphen and  I feel so much freer.

When I first saw the trailer for Bridgerton on Netflix, I was not particularly intrigued. I watched it again after watching the series and determined it was a poor trailer, because I never got through the first few seconds of it. If it weren't for two of my good friends telling me to watch it this week, I probably would've continued waiting to watch this when I felt I had absolutely no other series or film peaking my interest. Well, against my better mama judgment, I binged the entire series through the middle of the night as baby and daddy slept, at the expense of losing my patience through a couple diaper changes today (Sidenote: someone please tell me that at some point baby will stop trying to escape in the middle of his diaper changes). Though the plot is highly predictable even with me having never read any of the books, I thoroughly enjoyed the series. It kind of feels like a bunch of Jane Austen books meshed into one, with the addition of a lot of steamy sex scenes. It's a fun watch, and if you enjoy these types of stories and settings, I felt like it has a certain witty charm about it, that I did not expect based on the first few seconds of the trailer.

Have you watched it? What are your thoughts?

I didn't see a trailer before I watched this movie, but heard a lot of buzz about it, and figured I love jazz so was excited to check it out. What I quickly learned as I watched it is that this movie is not about jazz, though jazz is one of the vehicles of the story. It's a thought-provoking animation about life that has a timely message as we leave behind an unprecedented year and enter a new one that remains challenging but has hope. This is a great movie to watch with the family, and the animation is cute, fun, and imaginative. Soul​ is indeed good for your soul.