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Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Day 4, Seoul City Tour Bus
Day 4 was to be spend on the Seoul City Tour Bus!, I was really excited about this ever since I found out about it, probably because I love taking this Tour Buses here in Mexico (Turibus), I found about it HERE , so Tuesday I got up around 7am to say goodbye to Jeff who was leaving Seoul to go on a business trip, after he left the house I packed my backpack with water, maps, the info he printed for me and a pocket book "Korean at a Glance) I got at Bandinlunis @ the COEX Mall the day before, after getting ready I left the house around 9:00am and went to Euljiro4ga station, took line 5 and 2 stops later I found myself in Gwanghwamun. The Bus Terminal is infront of Dongwha Duty Free Shop in Gwanghwamun, right on the corner! (Subway Line 5, Gwanghwamun station exit 6) be careful with the exits!! I took Exit 8 and I ended up on a diferent street lol. There are 2 kinds of Buses
My bus with the super nice driver n_n |
Single Decker Bus - Downtown Tour - First 9:00am / Last 19:00 (every 30mins) $10,000 KRW Adult/ $8,000 Under 18years old
Double Decker Bus - Palace - Cheonggye Tour First 10:00am / Last 17:00 (every 1hour) $12,000 KRW Adult/ $8,000 Under 18years old
//Both have a Night Tour that leaves at 20:00//
My tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicket! |
There is a 5% Discount for T-Money Card Customers (I ofcourse payed with mine and got my discount...yay!!) I took the DownTown Tour, this tour consist on 27th Stops, since I was pretty much sure of what I wanted to see I decided to take the whole tour 1st and see if there was something else I was interested in, and Off I went!.... The only downside is the buss is like a regular bus, not one of those top less buses (not even the Double decker!!), but anyway it was comfy, warm and not very crowded :), I obviously got the 1 day pass and cost only $9,500 KRW because of the T-Money Discount and the actual ticket comes with another 15th Discount cupons for Museums, Theater and other amusements....
Anyway I took the 2 hours bus ride and just relaxed while I listened to the guide explaining each of the stops,
I was really excited to go to the N Seoul Tower, despite it was also one of the visits we had schedules for the
Tour I had already organized for a few days later, but It wasn't going to be the same... and you know what...I'm glad I got to see a bunch of things twice beacuse 1.- Most of those things are very Cool/Entretaining, 2.-Is something you will enjoy better with Company or 3.- You didn't have enough time to see enjoy it, so when we got to the N Seoul tower the driver said we could hop off for 8 minuts (Yup, not 5 or 10,,,8 minutes!!) so I took off and got my sis' Nikon Camera just because the Tower and the view were Totally Worth it!!, it was around 10:30/11:00am and chilly, I thought about going to the tower (the bus stopped below bcs cars are not allowed to go all the way up), but I didn't...and it was better (i'll let you know WHY later), so when the driver went back to the bus I followed him and waited for him to sit in order to find a nice sit, I don't know if I had a condused face or what, but the driver was really nice and was telling me something that I ofcourse didn't understand and then he gave me a Chocolate candy...yay!!!, the Tower is step #13 and I still haven't decided what I wanted to do, so I continued on the same bus and finally decided I was going to get off at the Changdeok Palace (Stop 27).
I got off and the day was sunny but REALLY cold and windy, went to the ticket booth and got my $3,000 KRW ticket :D, right on the entrance I found a big tourist group with a guide, too bad the guide was in Chinese lol... otherwise it would've been Perfect timing! hahaha, the palace looks BIG from the outside but it's actually... HUGE because it's also "connected" to another palace, I was there for about 2 hours, most of the times I was surounded by other people, but there was one time I was taking pics of the back side and sudenly everything went quiet and chilly, I could only listen to the sound of the wind.. O_O it felt...weird like when on a movie something like that happens and then the scene transform into a scene of what happen hundreds of years back...well it was something sort of like that and I got a tiny bit scared lol... then there was no more wind and sudenly I could heard people talking again PHEW!!! after walking around and taking 100's of pictures decided it was time to take the bus back so I went to catch the 1:45pm bus, by NOW I was really hungry and all I had on my stomach was water and the candy the bus drive me gave me earlier,
once on the bus I had to wait for another 15-20 mins to start the tour again, my next stop was Namdaemun Market (Stop 3) to do some shopping, exchange money and get something to eat...
Isn't this place awesome? |
This is the weird vibe place... |
Sam Sook |
I got off and cruzed the avenue where the Seoul's Great South Gate was located (I say was because it was destroyed by a Fire on February 11th, 2008 by an elder man because he had a grievance over a decade-old land dispute.... sorry but WTF!!!, by the way he also had been arrested in 2006 for trying to start a fire at the city's Changgyeong palace over the same grievance...) it was there when it HIT ME,,,I was in SEOUL! all by myself!!, have you seen Resident Evil (the last one...)?? there's a scene of an Avenue in tokyo and under this avenue is where the "bad guys" hide...well... I felt like being there only it was South Korea instead of Tokyo lol... I just stood there for a bit thinking how amazing it was to be there finally!!, then my stomach reminded me I was really hungry and went straight to Namdaemun Market, the place is CROWDED, you can buy from food, candies, hats, clothes, bags, make up, gloves, chopsticks!, Kpop stuff and more, at first I was looking for a Hat for my aunt but then I got distracted by this stuffed pig (The one they carry around @ My Name is Kim Sam Soon), I've been wanting to get one since I saw the show and now THERE IT WAS!! OMG!! I got a small one because it wasn't very cheap, the small one cost $10,000 KRW (witch now that I think about it it's expensive for a small stuffed animal, but I was blinded by the excitement hahaha), after getting my Piggy aka Sam Sook i got a few gifts for the family and ofcourse for me, then I went to MISSHA because if you really know me, you know I LOVE Missha make up and as always people were staring at me O_o of course you are a foreigner!, the sales girl @ Missha was following me around the store and let me tell you,,,it's a SMALL store, and when I was going to pay she finally decided to say something.. "Where are you from?", Mexico I said and she started "WOW-ing" as most of the people that dared to ask me where was I from and since she seemed to speak english I asked where was the nearest bank to exchange money but she didn't understand but thanks to my handbook and a few words in Korean she finally undertood and told me where to go :) (Thanks Missha Girl!), I went to the bank and the...umm the guy that opened the door asked me to wait and then took me with another girl
(probably because she speak English), I exchanged my money and went out because it was time to eat something...I was worried because 1.- I don't like eating alone, 2.- I don't speak Korean and 3.- I'm SHY!, so I was looking for a not-so-crowded-but-pics-menu place to eat, and I went into an alley with a bunch of small restaurants, I went back and forward until I saw a small one with 2 Halmonis eating... turns out they were the owners of the place and as soon as I got in they stood up and started runing aroung getting me water, a heater, rice and the usuall Panchan...they didn't have an English Menu nor one with pictures so it was sort of complicated to comunicate but also very funny, I had my lil book/dictionary and it has a special section of "Food terms", they managed to say FISH FISH FISH!!, and me being so hungry accepted the Fish, it was a black caserole with what I think it was Gochujang (a hot paste made of chilli peppers) and 2 pieces of Fish, so I had sticky rice, seaweed sheets, water, the Fish, Pajeon (Korean Pancake with onions and veggies), Kimchi Ofcourse!! and other side dishes...when Halmoni #1 brought the Fish caserole and I was about to dig in she decided to feed me... O_O ..funny isn't it?? I bet I was all red because as I said before... I'm SHY!!! so she comes and puts some rice on a seaweed sheet, roll it and put it in my mouth.. it was Good but I was ready to eat on my own,,,hehehe after a bowl of rice, kimchi, 1 piece of fish, a yummy Pajeon and water I was full, but she kept saying "more?, more!!!, more!!" but it was more than enough for me and it was time to pay since I wanted to catch the 4:45 bus to go to the N Seoul Tower, when I payed ($6,000 KRW) my-new-Halmoni (lol) asked to stay for some Coffee (I assume because she was only saying.. Kuhpi!! Kuhpi!! Kuhpi!! ) but I had just enought time to catch the next bus so I had to decline the Kuhpi hehe, while I was waiting for the delayed-bus I decided to call my CouchSurfer #3 and just when we were talking about when and where to meet my bus came and I had to hang up yelling "Call you back!!".. I feel so sorry for hanging up on her :$ ..so I took the 5:00 bus because it was time to go to the N Seoul Tower and the OMG-I'm-Inlove-Teddy Bear Museum, we got there around 5:30 (thanks Traffic!!, you rock as always), and before going up to the Tower I had to go to the bathroom...again if you know me you know this is a MUST for me lol (so I was really excited to see you can find a pretty decent bathrooms and bathroom signs EVERYWHERE!!!, most of them are pretty clean, have cute decorations and some even play Classical music...lol), after my quick visit to the bathrooms it was time to climb.. (ha! climb!! as if it was too much), it's not a LONG way but it's inclined and I was tired u_u when I made it to the top it was getting dark!, so I had to hurry to catch the sunset and have a nice view of Seoul... I asked where was the teddy bear ticket booth and they sent me to the "top" part...but it WASN'T there!... at least I made it to the viewer and got some nice sunset pics :), when it was DARK I decided to go to the museum since my night-pics are not goot (You'll see....) and went to the "basement" where I got my ticket for the museum...$8,000 KRW for the Teddy Museum and $12,000 if you wish to include the Observatory (but I didn't do it)
The Teddy Bear Museum is....well all about Teddy Bears and History, it's actually a very good way to make (People) Kids understand some of the Korean History, on the Hall 1, you are 1st welcomed by a very cute-looking teddy bear and then you can find the story of Dangun Wanggeom ho found the Joseon Kingdom.
Hall 2 is Present-Time-Korea, there's a tunel with a video of seoul and some teddy bears are just walking
around...aww super cute! lol, then you can find the K-pop Teddy Bears, Nanta Bears, The Blue House, and a bunch of bears representing the current Korean-day to day-life...I fell inlove with all of this bears, and after a quick visit to the gift shop I had to take off to catch the last bus because I was TIRED... at the bus I realized I had lost my bottle of water, where? that remains a mistery to me hahaha, I saw a couple speaking spanish and made me miss my family (weird, huh?), I had to talk to them and asked them for their map (because I lost mine so it seemed like a good excuse!), since it was dark and I was tired after walking for many HOURS, It was time to head home (ok ok ,,,Jeff's home), I got off at Gwanghwamun and was going to take a Taxi (can you see I was tired?) but I walked towards the subway O_O don't know why....so bleh!, I took the subway, it was only 2 stations while I was there I decided to call my CS #3 (again) and we agreed to meet the next day at Euljiro4ga at 7:30pm :), then I walked to Jeff's appartment, when I got there I was really excited to see all the things I had bought!!! and so I did, after watching a bit of TV (impossible to see more if you don't speak Korean, and I actually tried to watch something that s
eemed to be a Gossip Show but I didn't recognize anyone there, so I turn it off and went to "my" room, I went on msn but it was 5am in Mexico, so there was no point on staying online...I watched a few videos on youtube and fall asleep... Let me tell you...this day was a LONG day, I did alot of things and I feel like this post dosn't do justice to my day lol, I had a great time and really enjoyed it... My day 5 had nothing planned, I just wanted to take it easy because the "real" Tour was scheduled to star on the 16th (Day 6) very early.
For more pics go to my FB :)
Good sunset, isnt it? |
Who wouldn't want to live there? |
Inside the bathroom lol |
I really like this pic.... |
Teddy Bear Museum Entrance |
Aw look at the cute bear painting the wall |
The Teddy Bear Museum is....well all about Teddy Bears and History, it's actually a very good way to make (People) Kids understand some of the Korean History, on the Hall 1, you are 1st welcomed by a very cute-looking teddy bear and then you can find the story of Dangun Wanggeom ho found the Joseon Kingdom.
Hall 2 is Present-Time-Korea, there's a tunel with a video of seoul and some teddy bears are just walking
around...aww super cute! lol, then you can find the K-pop Teddy Bears, Nanta Bears, The Blue House, and a bunch of bears representing the current Korean-day to day-life...I fell inlove with all of this bears, and after a quick visit to the gift shop I had to take off to catch the last bus because I was TIRED... at the bus I realized I had lost my bottle of water, where? that remains a mistery to me hahaha, I saw a couple speaking spanish and made me miss my family (weird, huh?), I had to talk to them and asked them for their map (because I lost mine so it seemed like a good excuse!), since it was dark and I was tired after walking for many HOURS, It was time to head home (ok ok ,,,Jeff's home), I got off at Gwanghwamun and was going to take a Taxi (can you see I was tired?) but I walked towards the subway O_O don't know why....so bleh!, I took the subway, it was only 2 stations while I was there I decided to call my CS #3 (again) and we agreed to meet the next day at Euljiro4ga at 7:30pm :), then I walked to Jeff's appartment, when I got there I was really excited to see all the things I had bought!!! and so I did, after watching a bit of TV (impossible to see more if you don't speak Korean, and I actually tried to watch something that s
It's blurry because you are not allowed to take pics at the gift shop |
Bears Bboying O_o |
OMG NANTA!!! |
See? told you my night pics are blurry |
Bears @ The Blue House |
K-Pop Bears...Rock on!!!!!!!!! lol |
For more pics go to my FB :)
-Gisela V.
Working on it!!!!!!!!!!-Gisela V.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Day 3 in Seoul, South Korea (FINALLY!!!!!!!!!)
Okay, so again I've been meaning to write this post for quite some time...and lastnight I realize I have to
do this ASAP before I start forgeting things about my trip u_u
My Monday (aka Day 3) started EARLY, it started at 6am -it's early when you are on Vacation, isn't it?-, I
woke up at 6am because I had to get ready to leave JoAnna's house at 7am and meet my 2nd Host at 7:15am, I'm glad his house is close to JoAnna's and I didn't have to take the subway...yay!!, so at 7am I was ready to leave and JoAnna's bf Sangyun*** was kind enough to help me with my laugage and then told me where should I take my Cab and also wrote the instructions on a paper for me to give to the driver, phew!!!, the driver was a very nice older man who helped put my suitcase on the truck and then off we went to the National Medical Center close to Euljiro4ga subway sation where Jeff will wait for me , I got there at 7:16 (the cab ride was about 4-5 min) and it was just $2,600 KRW!(It's about $26.00pesos), I met Jeff and we walk 1 block to his house, where he had to give me a password to open the building door and then another one for the Apartment door, I knew I was going to do something wrong whenever I had to use the door by myself...lol (but I didnt!), we walked in and left our shoes on the entrance (by now I was used to take off my shoes and I would tie my shoe laces anymore...), he showed me "my" room and then the rest of the appartment, he lives on the 4th floor and has a nice street/park view, I specially liked the Kitchen (I'm a cook so I have a thing for kitchens, ok?) so Jeff if you are reading this and you ever need a Roomate...Call me!!!! -lol- Ok, so after he showed me the apartment he gave me a purple cake for breakfast because it turns out his Bday was the day before!!, after we had our cake he took a shower and then we went out because he had to go to work and I...I didn't have any plans yet but I went with him... his building it's just a few setps from Euljiro4ga station so it was really convinient to take the subway, we went to Samseong station where I took off and he went to his office.
I had to take Exit #5 at Samseong station, once outside I realized I was on my own and I didn't know what to
do...Oh! and it was also freaking cold!! so I just sat in a bench while I figured out what to do, since I didn't really know where I was I went to a bust stop to check out the map, turns out...I DON'T know how to read a map!! lol, so I just started walking, I passed the Grand Intercontinental Seoul Hotel (Fancy pantsy!) and I turned around (I was looking for a "mall"... at that time I didn't know I was looking for the COEX mall) so I was walking and saw a Sign pointing to a Temple, GREAT! now I have something to do!, before getting to
the Bongeunsa Temple I passed the Korea Air City Terminal, Hyundai Department Store, KEPCO Headquarters and Gangnam Fire Station...(I just remembered that I DO NOT have pictures of this day :( , when I came back to Mexico I realized the picture files of this day were damaged and I didn't have enough pics of this day...SAD I know!! I was pissed when I realized this...but well.. maybe that means I have to go back to Seould to take more pics, right? ;D )... so... back to the Temple
The Bongeunsa Temple is a buddhist temple that was founded in 794 during the reign of King Wonseong by the monk Yeon-hoe. A fire in 1939 destroyed most of the buildings, and other parts of the temple were destroyed during the Korean War. Fortunately, one of the very few halls which escaped destruction during the Korean War continues to hold the woodblock carvings of the Flower Garland Sutra.
The place is amazing, the old contrast with the New buildings like the COEX Mall, I went there early (around
9am) and I didn't get to see the buildings on the inside since most of them were holding a service at the time, but I got to walk around the place, the gardens and I almost crash with a Monk when I was walking around... I was there for about an hour, it was peacefull and quiet so when I found a bench I just sat there next to an old man and relax for a bit while I decided what to do... after a lil while it was time for me to move on since i was freezing, when I was about to go I found an information booth (wich I didn't found when I enter the temple) and I saw they offer a "Temple Stay Program" and also you can go in something like a "guided tour"... but it was only on Thursdays and I already had lots of things proggramed for that day *insert sad face here*...anyway I left the temple feeling calm (Weird... I know!) and somehow relaxed, I crossed the street and went straight to COEX Mall, I was sort of hungry and I found a McDonalds (Yup, the name was writen
in Korean!) but I didn't eat there since I figured it would be the same as every other McDo...so I decided to
explore the COEX mall... turns out.. it's HUGE, I only walked trough the 1st floor and I was TIRED lol, I
shopped a little, went to a bookstore because I needed a Korean/English dictionary and when I was tired of
walking I decided to go for a cup of tea and rest a bit, I wanted to go to the movies but there were only
"American" movies and I was not interested in watching an American movie in Korea...so I went to the 7Monkeys coffee , it's like a Starbucks only cooler cuz it has a Monkey!! lol, I had a Cold Green tea while I sat there and watched all the people passing by, by the way when I got to the mall (around 10:30am) there was alot of people @ the Movie Theatre,,, I thought it was weird to be at the movies so early on a monday.... also I felt weird because everyone there was a couple and I was all alone, I would soon realize that Couples are all around Seoul, you most likely only see people alone when they are going somewhere (where they will meat their "other half" probably lol), when I finished my Tea it was arund 1:30 so I still had around 5 hours to burn because I had to meet Jeff close to his office at 7:15 outside exit 5 of Seolleung subway station and I thought it would be a "good" idea to walk around and see what I could find... again...NOT such a good idea, because it was COLD outside (remember...I'm from "sunny" Mexico...) and since I could only find the Hyundai Department Store I decided it was time for me to sit down on a bus stop and check my maps and books to see what else to do...I finally decided to go to the 63 Building, it wasn't that close but 5 hours was enough time, I went to the subway and it took me about 3 mins to figure out where to go... I had to go from Samseong Station to Sindorim Station (Line 2), from there I had to transfer to Line 1 to go to Dae-bang station, it was quite easy to transfer from Line 2 to Line 1, this line is more like a Train than a Subway, finally took me about 1hour 20mins to get to Dae-bang station where I had to take the Yellow Bus, I was a bit lost when I got out of Dae-bang sation so I had to ask where the bus stop was (and I was actually standing right there...duh!). I took the bus and since I didn't know how long it will take to get there I had to be very carefull,finally there it was a Shiny building!!, I took off at the 63 bus stop and walked to the building where AGAIN I didn't know where to go, after walking around a bit I found the ticket booth and got my ticket $12,000 KRW to go all the way up to the observation Deck (63rd floor). To get to the 63rd floor I had to take an express elevator with a panoramic view of Seoul, there was a Picasso Exhibit but I have to say... The Panoramic view won my attention over the exhibit... it was AWESOME!, you can see up to 50 km around Seoul (on a Clear day...), I took tons of pics there (the ones I aparently lost :( ), I even took pics of the bathroom because it was really nice lol... on a corner of the Gallery the floor is made of crystal ... I HAD to stand in there!! I'm not the kind of person who is afraid of highs but I was a tinny bit agraid of standing there, lol, but I did it! at the end of the Exhibit you can find the Wishes Wall (???) where you can hang a paper and write a wish or something, of course you have to buy this Shaped-paper, but it's only $1,000 KRW (about $10 pesos) so I went and got a Heart-shaped paper and wrote my wish, after taken a final look at the view (from the exit side you can see the Norgaying market sadly I didn't have time to go because it was almost 5pm and I had to go back to meet Jeff since we were supossed to go have dinner with one of his friends... *insert another sad face here* but at least I got to see it!, right? it was so weird to see all those things like "for Real".... anyway... I took the express elevator again and walked out, I went to the Han River just to take a look around and then went back to the bus stop to catch the bus back to the subway, I was really hungry but didn't want to eat anything because we were supposed to have dinner with Jeff's friend, this time it was ALOT easier to use the Subway and transfer to line 2, I just had a small problem when trying to exit on Seolleung station because I don't know what I did wrong when I passed my T-money card to exit because it charged me again lol, I was lucky because there was a Policeman there and he let me exit trough another door and he must have seen my OMG-I-Think-I'm-Lost face because he asked where do I wanted to go and showed me where to go hahaha, I got there before 6 so I had some time before meeting Jeff... so I went to the Dunkin Donnuts outside Seolleung station and texted Jeff I was going to wait for him there because it was really cold outside. About 20mins later Jeff came to pick me up and since his friend cancelled dinner we decided to go back to Jeff's house and cook dinner :) yay!, we took the subway again to go to Euljiro4ga. Jeff cooked bulgogi, rice and cucumbers and I cooked pasta with a "whiped" cream that was not whiped enough because he didn't have a whisk or a fork...but it was good, after dinner I went to "my" room to get everything ready for
the next day because I was supossed to take the Seoul City Tour Bus...oh! it was that night when Jeff told
me he was going out of town on a bussines trip O_o ....I thought I had to move out of his place but he was
really nice and said I could stay at his house :O since I already had the password and everything (Thanks Jeff!!) After a lil while Jeff came to the room and handed me a bunch of info about the Seoul Tour Bus he downloaded and printed, isnt he nice?... after that I went to bed because I was exhausted u_u after such a LONG day...
Talking about LONG...this was a long post isnt it?...you can expect more of these soon... lol hopefully with
pics to go with it! :D
The following are ALL the pics I have of this day :( . I was gonna google for pics of the 63 Building but it hurts too much lol
Temple Entrance |
Do I look funny or what??? |
That looks like a cabbage, but I don't know what it is..... |
Salud! |
.
-Gisela V.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
New projects!
Finally!!
I would like to thank my mom and my perritow for the support, luv ya guys!!!!!
-Gisela V.
I feel it's been forever since my last post, but this week has been hectic and I haven't had time to write anything about anything :(
But today is the day!!!
1st of all I would like to share something with all of you...as some fo you know, My mom, sis and myself are
starting this new adventure... it is something I've been wanting to do for quite some time and it's finally
coming together... I'm talking about our very own Coffee Shop!!, we decided we wanted to do this FOR REAL a little more than 2 months ago, my sis moved back to Mexico in order to work 100% on this project since it's not only a Coffee Shop, it will also work as a "Gallery" where she will expose her Photograpy, we want it to be a place where not only you can go with your friends to enjoy a coffee or snacks, but a place where you can enjoy art, read a book or just "chill" lol, so, everything pretty much took form while I was in Seoul, while being there my sis told me they had found a place and the Coffee Maker... since at the moment I didn't know anything about what my mom and sis were really doing I was kind of in the dark and it was until I came back from Seoul that I realize this was ACTUALLY HAPPENING!, I came back on Dec 22nd (at night!) and by the 23rd early morning I was back to work, then it was Christmas and then it was "New years eve" week, so I still didn't know much about it...it was until Dec 31st that I went to see the place where our new Project (Life?) would be, it was bigger than I thought... even thou I only got to see it for a couple of mins I knew it was going to be perfect.... That was the moment I began to be really nervous... I was completly sure the food will be good since we were going to begin with some "basics" you can find in a small coffee shop, but the Coffee??..I didn't/dont know much about it, my sister worked in a small coffee shop when she was like 15 but it's been 13 years since that happend and I've only made a capuccino here and there about 5 years ago, so I was REALLY worried about it... Thank god for my sis' friend(s) who are willing to help us to improve our Barista skills (wich btw...are non-existing at the moment).
starting this new adventure... it is something I've been wanting to do for quite some time and it's finally
coming together... I'm talking about our very own Coffee Shop!!, we decided we wanted to do this FOR REAL a little more than 2 months ago, my sis moved back to Mexico in order to work 100% on this project since it's not only a Coffee Shop, it will also work as a "Gallery" where she will expose her Photograpy, we want it to be a place where not only you can go with your friends to enjoy a coffee or snacks, but a place where you can enjoy art, read a book or just "chill" lol, so, everything pretty much took form while I was in Seoul, while being there my sis told me they had found a place and the Coffee Maker... since at the moment I didn't know anything about what my mom and sis were really doing I was kind of in the dark and it was until I came back from Seoul that I realize this was ACTUALLY HAPPENING!, I came back on Dec 22nd (at night!) and by the 23rd early morning I was back to work, then it was Christmas and then it was "New years eve" week, so I still didn't know much about it...it was until Dec 31st that I went to see the place where our new Project (Life?) would be, it was bigger than I thought... even thou I only got to see it for a couple of mins I knew it was going to be perfect.... That was the moment I began to be really nervous... I was completly sure the food will be good since we were going to begin with some "basics" you can find in a small coffee shop, but the Coffee??..I didn't/dont know much about it, my sister worked in a small coffee shop when she was like 15 but it's been 13 years since that happend and I've only made a capuccino here and there about 5 years ago, so I was REALLY worried about it... Thank god for my sis' friend(s) who are willing to help us to improve our Barista skills (wich btw...are non-existing at the moment).
This 2011 has brought many many good things from the beggining, the 1st weekend we went to visit my grandparents outside the city...we just went there to relax, eat and drink (yay!), we had planned to go on saturday and come back the same day, but at the end we decided to spend the night and had a nice Wine/Appetizers in a very "Italian" style (as my grandma call it O_o) as dinner :) . The beggining of the first week went well, working on the Coffee shop plans... the next weekend we went to paint, considering the place is not THAT big my sister and I thought it was a good idea to paint it ourselves.... WRONG!!! it looks like something easy, and it kinda is, but then you go out and realize you are dizzy cuz of the smell and at the next day you have a back ache, can't lift your arms and just don't feel so good with the idea of painting again.....EVER!...lol but I have to say that we did a very good job, the place looks very good... after painting and 1 barista "lesson" it was time to head home (yay!!!!!),, 5 days later... We Opened!! everything was so fast I can't believe we are really doing this... and tomorrow is the "Grand Openning", so hopefully I'll see some of you there :)
I would like to thank my mom and my perritow for the support, luv ya guys!!!!!
The address is: Queretaro #165 Casi esq. Tonalá
-Gisela V.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
2nd part of my Sunday in Korea (buzz Korea)
Buzz Korea!!! (see previous post!)
That's a BIG cabbage... or is it a Lettuce?? |
After leaving the House of Sharin with JoAnna, we took a Bus to take us back to Gangbyeon subway station, it was a fun bus ride, I was with JoAnna and a few of her Friens/co/Ex-co-Workers (??) and we were talking about the House of Sharing experience, but after a while they started to talk about their school and since I don't know anything about it I concentrate in the landscape and the people on the bus, just the same way Koreans stare at you for being a foreigner, I...was looking at them, not STARING just looking around, right infront of me there were 2 elder man, one of them seem very upset by the fact that our group was a lil bit Loud, and I don't mean LOUD-OMG-SHUTUPNOW!, I mean they were talking, laughing and that was it... sudenly this man stand up and start yelling at them what I believe it was something like "Shut up!!" ... I was like O_o and then..SILENCE....the other man next to the one that has just yelled was asleep and woke up when he was Yelling at us to Shut up lol, and then he was telling something to the Angry man, I think he was telling him to calm down and stop yelling at people (I know I don't speak Korean!, but that's how my sis and I act when she starts yelling @ people randomly....lol)...after a few stops we finally got a sit and just relaxed for a bit before we get to Gangbyeon... just across the Gangbyeon station you can find the Techno Mart Building a super-size shopping center holding a shopping mall, various discount stores, and a total of more than 2,000 electronic shops from the 1st to 8th floor... YUP like the Wonderland for Geeks..... JoAnna took me there to buy DVD's,I was just looking for the My Name is Kim Sam Soon dvd but I couldn't find it :( ... I only got 2 Korean Movies we were walking around just looking when we found Jo's boyfriend (Sanghyun), since we were already tired AND hungry we all agreed it was Food Time!!!, they offered to take me to eat LIVE Octopus...but I ...I... I just couldn't do it (lol) at the end Sanghyun said he would cook something at their house (They are really nice n_n), the night view from the Techno Mart to Their house was amazing, the river, the lights, the old houses, the new buildings... I loved it!!!, we had to go to their local Market to get some veggies, I was amazed that this market was open on a Sunday at 7pm, I got to try Bungeobbang this is a fish-shaped cake filled with beans 3 X $1,000KRW (about $10pesos/$1USD),
Bungeobbang |
Veggies!!!!!! |
POST hehe
SEE PICS BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Entrance of the Market |
Again the BIG cabbage/lettuce lol |
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I stole this pic from Chris in South Korea |
-Gisela V.
PS. More pics about the House of Sharing here!