My first Kpop concert (sort of)

Eh eh eh eh eh eh eeeeh 2NE1

What's up we're 2NE1!!!

Top: Our free Polaroid / Bottom: KU Gym

Most (if not all) Kpop fans know that phrase, and me being a YG fan was eager to see them live and when I read about their miniconcert at the Young Samsung ~ Passion Talk event, I knew we had to be there, this is where the complicated part started. First of all the whole website was in Korean, not only that, the text was in image form so my friend Google Translate was unable to help me, after going back and forth between the computer and my google translator app on my phone, we managed to figure out how to apply for tickets and so we needed a Korean phone number, ugh, we were going to as a friend if we could use his number but before he could reply we pressed "SENT" without knowing what we were doing, therefore, my friend was kind of upset about us using his number (Again, Sorry!!!!!!!!), anyway, we didn't hear anything about it for a couple of days and 1 day before the event we searched online to make sure how to get to the venue (Korea University's Gymnasium), we knew it was a "First come, first serve" basis so we planned on going there really early to make sure we got tickets, later that day my friend received another message asking for our assistance confirmation and that was it, as we still didn't know much about the times, except it would start at 5:30pm, we decided to go VERY early, and luckily for us it was raining the whole day (Yay!!!, Not), so, after a subway ride and an unnecessary taxi ride, we found the gym (btw, thanks to our driver for mistaken us for students! lol), we arrived at 9am to find a very empty Gym, there were only 5 people waiting and a couple minutes later, a guy from the staff started giving out numbered "tickets", he didn't speak any English so all he was able to say was "12pm exchange", we had less than 3 hours until that time and we decided to chill there until we were able to exchange those tickets for the real ones, at some point they played 2NE1 songs but us being the cool girls clearly NOT into Kpop (lol) just played cool, the exchange time was moved until 1pm and by then I was already bored out of my mind. ~Did I mention we were the only foreigners there?~. Before 1pm a guy came in and yelled something in Korean and everyone ran out, of course we followed them and they started calling out the numbers, we got 7 and 8 so that gave us access to 1st row tickets (heck yea!), after getting the real tickets and a gift bag with a "Samsung and U" booklet, a notebook, a pen and a Card holder, we were told to come back at 4:30, so, we had another 3 hours to (waste) have lunch and whatever, we left the campus and found a nice small place to eat and then run to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to chill, I took a short nap and then it was time to go back, shortly after we were allowed to go inside and wait YET another hour, by now I was dead tired, sleepy and wet, I did mention it rained all day, right?, but did I mention MY umbrella broke?, unlucky Gisela is my new name!!.

While waiting for the event to start we were approached by 2 guys, apparently they were "Young Reporters" for Samsung, we were asked how did we hear about the event, if we knew it was entirely in Korean (and how were we going to understand the whole thing), if we were there just for 2NE1 (Of course no!!! ~lol~, we also wanted to meet Mr. Park Chan Wook, director of JSA, Stalker, Old Boy, etc etc), asked for our names, age and took a picture, so, there might be a picture of us making a Korean pose somewhere (They asked for a Mexican Pose, but neither of us knew what I do).

Left: MC, Right top: 10cm, Right bottom: Park Chan Wook 

At 5:30 the lights went off and the MC of the day came out, I don't know him, but I think he is a comedian, they played some videos and then it was time for the 1st mini-concert, it was the turn of "10cm", again I had no idea who where they but they have some cool songs so I ended up enjoying their show a little too much, when they finished another MC came out and introduced Mr. Park, we were really excited about it, despite not being able to understand anything but after the first 1/2hour it got slow and a bit boring, and I don't think it was because of the language barrier, the people next to me was obviously bored and I can say we were all a bit uncomfortable on our chairs  :(, years later the Q&A started and Diana decided to ask something, until she realized she would be shown on the big screen and that was a No go for her, after Mr. Park's interview and Q&A it was time for Mrs. Lee Young-hee ~ Samsung's Vice-president, she talked about her inspirations (Coco Channel and Frida Kahlo!!) then introduced some of Samsung's new adds and it was (finally) time for 2NE1's MINI-concert!

Top left: 10cm, Top right: Mr. Park, Bottom: Lee Young-hee

They started with Fire followed by Can't nobody and then a small pause to introduce themselves and then it was turn for Falling in love, the last song was "I am the best" and CL started singing and getting the crowd fired up, to be honest I was expecting a bit more, CL was amazing and seemed like she was the only one aware that was a show, a short one but a show, the rest looked like they heard about the show on a short notice :/, I understand it wasn't a big show or a TV show and they might wanted to look more natural, but at some point Bom seemed not caring much about the singing/dancing part and more about the looking pretty aspect... I know some Blackjacks would be upset about me saying this, but it's just my opinion, I still like them and I LOVED the show and I understood why CL is the leader, she has such a strong presence on stage and Charisma (there, I said it!)

Here's a lil video of Falling in love and some of my lousy iphone pictures (sorry!)

By the end of the day I was very tired but it was totally worth it, I can't wait to go to a "real" (aka long) concert!

-Gisela V.

P.s. Check 10cm's Amerikano video, I really liked this soong!

Korea and Me

It's no secret I love Korea, and when we decided to pack our backs an Travel the world, Korea was a MUST, after some crazy 5 weeks in Japan it was time to Fly to Korea for what would be (is) a VERY different kind of traveling, 1st because we are not staying for 1-2 weeks, 2nd because this isn't like Italy last year, that we got to live the Tourist life, this time we are staying a little bit longer and just enjoying the city in a more day-to-day kind of way, we are not staying in nice Hotels (or even Hostels for that matter), our expenses are not being payed by someone else and we are basically on our own.

Bye bye Japan.... see you soon!

Despite this being my 3rd time in the ROK, I can't help but to feel some pressure because I'm the one who is supposed to "know" around and because studying Korean for a couple of months (Self studying!) means I speak Korean according to my sister lol.

Bigbang welcoming us to Korea

We arrived 18 days ago after a VERY short 2 hour flight from Japan, while we were still in Japan I was very excited about comming to Korea and it wasn't until we were leaving for the airport that I realized that we didn't (still don't) have ANY plans for Korea, we only knew we were staying for a "long" time and that's when I started to panic, not knowing exactly where are you going is nerve wrecking, but somehow arriving at Incheon seemed more natural to me than last time I was here, so, it was decided... YOLO would be the new motto, I know some of you don't like that whole YOLO thing, but when you've nothing to lose, YOLO seems to be a good way to enjoy life.

This time we are staying with a friend, this is already a challenge because we are used to living on our own, yea, the WorkCamp was sort of like a Training of "how-to-share-a-room" but it was only for 2 weeks so, I feel like this is totally different, you have to learn how things are done around and just the basic House rules, if you have ever been here, you know the recycling culture here is different, I've read there are special bags for Cans, Glass, etc, so, that was something we had to learn from the beggining (more about this later), just being in someone else's house can be awkward sometimes, isn't it?

Anyway, we arrived on September 4th at 4:30pm, after migration and getting our lauggage, we took a Bus to Seoul where we would meet my friend, we got to my friend's house, left our backpacks and went out to have dinner... my sis' 1st REAL Korean food, we had Samgyeopsal and then went to hang out at the Banpo Hangang Park.

Samgyeopsal

The next day was our 1st Official day in Seoul and the plan was go out around the area and familiarize with what would be our "neigbourhood" for the next weeks, check out the nearby restaurants, stores, markets, buses, subway, etc, after this, we decided to take it slow and just make our plans day to day, meet some of my friends and just try to let go that "traveler" life for a little bit....

We found the GOOOOOOOOODS!

Of course we had some things we HAD to do, but besides the "touristy" things we are up to almost anything, so, if you are in Seoul and want to hang out...let me know! lol

The first days, I took my sister to some places I know, Insadong and the Chonggyechon stream being the 1st thing on our list, that day, we met the coolest girl outside the KTO Offices, she was promoting the KOINMO (Korea in Motion) event and we ended up buying tickets for the show Nanta and got Free tickets for the N Seoul Tower and a Free coffee from "Angel-in Us"... oh yea!!

We walked around, got lost, walked some more trying to find suitable food for my sister (She's soooo picky...) and walk some more, went for drinks to "The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf" by the Chonggyechon (This is the Coffee Bean where Kim Sam Soon goes on the show... and you know how much I love Kim Sam Soon!!!!) and then went to chill by the stream and decided to call it a night by going back "home" after having Burgers(!!!) for dinner.

얼큰 만두국 for lunch

Sunset at Gwanghwamung Square

King Sejong the Great

Admiral Yin Sun-Shin

Dinner - Not so awesome and took over 1 hour to be ready

I guess this is it for now :D, but stay tuned because next post is about my friend Jo-anna's Korean Traditional Wedding!!!

-Gisela V-

Japan no More....

Hello everyone,

I've been postponing my blogging for almost 2 weeks already, I just didn't feel like blogging and then I felt frustrated part because of my lack of posting and some other things not worth talking about, anyway, I didn't blog before because whenever I'm upset I end up complaining or the ideas just don't flow.

Finally I decided not to continue blogging about Japan and blog about what's going now now... Korea.

IF you still want to know a little bit more about our trip to Japan, I would recommend checking my sis' blog here, she's quite a good blogger and got some better pictures than mine :D

Peeeeeeeeeeeeeace Yo!
lol

-Gisela V. 

Kyoto

On our way from Tokyo to Kyoto

After the workcamp we traveled back to Tokyo to pick our lauggage, spend the night and just get ready for our next destination.... Kyoto!

On Monday Sept 19th, we went from Otsuka Stn. to Tokyo Stn. to take the Shinkansen towards Kyoto, we first had to stop by the Ticket Office (Outside the turnstiles of the station) because we had to Exchange our JR Pass, the JR Pass is a Ticket you have to buy Outside of Japan (For foreigners only) and will allow you to travel "for free" on JR Trains, buses, etc, I say "free" because you obviously have to pay for this pass but compared to the price of the Shinkansen (Bullet Train), you'll see it's well worth it if you are to travel a lot through Japan, we got the 14 days JR Pass and we payed 45,100 Yen (about $450 USD) but it was SO worth it as we took several Shinkansen and some local trains :), anyway, we arrived at Tokyo Stn. and took a local train and then took a bus towards our Guesthouse, thing is, the local train was not really needed since all buses depart from Kyoto Stn. (We didn't know about this!), we stayed at the Kingyoya Guesthouse at the Female Dormitory, the place is really nice and traditional but it's about 30 mins away from the station, a big inconvinient when you are traveling with a 20kg backpack and a 2nd 7kg backpack :(. 

Pros about the Kingyoya Guesthouse: 

- Japanese Style all the way

1st Bus ride

- They have frozen pillows for the summer!!! How awesome is that?, I didn't even know such a thing existed, but it was heaven considering the average temperature in kyoto those days was 34° but felt like 50° with a lot of humidity.

- There's Hot water 24/7, free Tea and WiFi 

- Breakfast is not included on the room price, but you can easily add it 

Cons: 

- The walls are (literally) paper thin, so, there's noise most of the time, they do give you earplugs but I don't like sticking things into my ears, so flock it lol. 

- Rooms are booked in advance, we booked about a month before and they didn't have any twin rooms available anymore :( 

- The female dormitory looks WAY bigger on the pictures!, so carefull, I realized I'm not a Hostel-Room sharing person lol

- It's about 30-40 mins away from Kyoto Stn, and from the Bus stop, I mean, not too far away from the bus stop, but again it was WAY too hot for us and we had HUGE lauggage lol. 

- There's not information about where and what time is breakfast served, we didn't order it, but people asked us if we knew when and where was it served lol. 

Over all, it was a good place to stay in, they provide you with a map of the area and are always willing to help you, you can get a free fan (wooo!) and they also sell the Day-Pass ticket, for 500 Yen, very convinient because each bus ride is 220 yen and there are buses everywhere, oh! and the buses have an awesome A/C system. 

We arrived in Kyoto around 2pm and had to meet Eric (Ex-workcamper) at the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine/Temple (sorry, I still don't know the difference~~ I know google is my friend and I promise I'll ask him one of these days!), luckily the Shrine was close to the guesthouse and after leaving our backpacks at the Guesthouse we walked over there, on the way we melted and died... ok no, we didn't die but I did melt a little, we met Eric at the entrance and then he explained us how to pray at the temple, we completed our prayers, walked around and then took a very needed break and got ourselfs some drinks until we decided to head to the Kyoto Tower conviniently located in front of the Kyoto Stn, so, we decided to take the Bus, 1st obviously going into the wrong direction under the sun lol, the ride was nice and filled with AC (can you tell I loved the AC?, I just can't function with such a hot weather), the tower is not that big, but you do get a nice view, I love high views and we got a chance to see the many awesome things Kyoto has, that way we found easier what to do while in Kyoto since we only had 2 full days there. 

Kitano Tenmangu 

View from the top of the Kyoto Tower

Kyoto Tower! aka Kyoto TowO

Oh, Hi!! Me-Eric-Diana @ Kyoto Tower

Sunset looking at the Kyoto Tower

After the Tower Eric had to go to meet his friends, so we decided to call it a day and after walking around the station, we found our Bus and went back to the GH, on the way we stopped by a Lawson (Convinience stores in Japan are THE best thing EVERY!!!-- I kind of miss them) and then went back to the GH, where they had already moved our backpacks to our room (yay!!), good thing because their stairs are Tiny Mctinyston. 

Kinyoya GuestHouse 

For our second day we started with the Nijo Castle but it was closed lol, so, after our total fail, we waited for another bus to take us to Gion aka Geisha Paradaise ;), we 1st visited the Yasaka  Shrine (formerly known as Gion Shrine), if you didn't know, before going into a Shrine/Temple you must wash your hands at the entrance, there's like a mini-pool (I bet it has a real name) and then you can go in, I loved doing this to freshen up, but does anyone know if it also applies in Winter? I heard winters in Japan are VERY cold.... 

After walking around and not being able to understand anything because everything was in Japanese, we walked some more and ended up at the Maruyama Park, we chilled there for a bit before going out to explore Gion and find somewhere to have lunch, sadly we didn't find a place of our likes and decided to move on after going into the "Udon Noodle Museum in Japan" and realizing it wasn't a museum but a restaurant lol. 

Yasaka  Shrine

This is were you wash your hands

Maruyama Park

At this point we didn't know what to do (yay for lack of planning!!), so we found the closest bus stop and decided to move on, we took yet another bus and made our way towards Fushimi Inari-taisha, if you saw "Memoirs of a Geisha", well, this is the place when she runs through the red Tori ~gates~, the place is HUGE and is said to have 32,000 sub-shrines O_O, this was my favorite shrine in Japan, we then decided to go to Sanjusangendo, a temple with 1001 human sized statues, but we couldn't make it on time and ended up going back to Kyoto Stn to take yet another bus and look for an Izakaya, a recomendation made by my sis' french friend.... a not so good recommendation if I may say, he only gave her the name and told her to google it, we didn't know where it was, but luckily (and thanks to the app MapsToGo) we found it and turns out the speciality are ONIONS (Diana's national dish! not), the place was... cute (?), looks very Japanese, but I found it overpriced, the service is too slow, portions are tiny and if you don't like onions you'll have a hard time there, we got a "side dish" for free and it was sliced green onion lol, we had to add lots and lots of chilli powder and so, we ended up asking for a chilli refill like 3 times, I bet when we were leaving they were saying "Goodbye crazy-chilli powder girls!!!" lol, since we were close to the Shirakawa river, we decided to take a night walk and just explore more of Gion by night and since that Izakaya wasn't enough we made a last stop at a convinience store to stock on some more food n_n. 

The Onion Izakaya 

Sunset-night walk

Fushimi Inari-taisha

A billion Tori (Gates)

Day 3 came and it was time to go back to Nijo Castle, this was a disapointment for me, you go inside the Main building, take off your shoes, walk around it and go back to point A :/, photos are not allowed, there are other buildings but it was TOO hot and we didn't think it would be that different, so after that we decided to go to the "Giant Buddha we saw from the Kyoto Tower" aka Hoko-ji Daibutsu (Giant Buddha), we just googled the address and took a lovely bus towards Gion, walked a couple of streets and made a stop for a drink at the 7/11, good thing because then we had to walk up the hill and then some more stairs until we were up in the mountain breathless and sweaty lol, but we found it!!, who could miss such a Giant Buddha?, to be honest, we didn't had to go all the way to the top of the hill, we made a mistake and ended up there but it's ok, that kind of thing is what makes a trip better, I like not making such tight schedules/plans and just go with the flow, but also, thanks to this, we were late to meet Eric again at Kyoto Stn. (he had to catch a train) but we made it just in time to have lunch with him and say our goodbyes since we wouldn't be meeting again (At least in Japan.... in 2013 lol), by that time we were exausted and as I said before sweaty (TMI?), so we headed back to the GH to do laundry and re-pack to leave for Osaka early the next day. 

Outside the Nijo Castle 

Top of the Mountain-- Can you see my finger at the corner? I was so tired I didn't even noticed it when I took the pic

Giant Buddha

Last Lunch with Eric @ Kyoto Stn.

And that's how we did in Kyoto, if you ever get the chance, you must visit, it was one of my favorite places in Japan, just don't go in Summer or you'll melt. 

-Gisela V. 

Workcamp Homestay, River fun and the Farewell Party

On my previous post I blogged about the WorkCamp in Hanawa but I didn't blog about our HomeStay nor our Farewell that was...well... busy.

For the Homestay we were divided into couples, I went with Martina to Yuko's house, aka The Ogawa Family, a family that reminded me of my own, Yuko, Yuko's older sister and their Mother, despite Yuko's sister and mother lack of English and out lack of Japanese language, I think we got along pretty well, I just loved Yuko's mom, she is like my mom in so many ways, or just like Diana would say, she's too cool for school, there was no need to "pick us up" from the Camp because Yuko spent the last couple of days (before the homestay) with us at the Camp, helping finishing the Toros and hanging around all of us, she came with us to the Karaoke, so, when I heard SHE would be my Host-Family I felt embarassed after she saw us (Maï, Diana and I) going crazy at the Karaoke.

The Ogawa family lives close to Koriyama, so Yuko had to drive us for about an hour, after dozing off for a little bit (lol~sorry Yuko!), we arrived at her house, a quiet neighborhood where we waited for her Mom and Sister, she took us to what was going to be our room for the weekend, a room used by her mom to teach Caligraphy to children, soon her mom and sister came back and after the proper introductions we went out to have dinner to (what now I know is an Izakaya), we arrived at this Restaurant/Bar were we got seated, the place seemed a Tikki kind of place but they had the worst-shortest playlist on repeat, anyway, I didn't know what kind of place this was, nor I knew about the existence of "Izakayas" aka a place for drinking and eating. Yuko and her mom were mostly in charge of ordering food, the 1st thing were Fries, I think because they wanted to get us something "regular" to prevent us from declining to eat, after asking us about our lives, and what kind of food we don't like, they went ahead and order some more "fitting" food for our likes, I got Spicy pizza (because Mexican = Spicy lol), so, when the pizza arrived with Tabasco sauce, they got shocked when I told them Tabasco sauce is not really Mexican haha,  we ate a lot and had some soft drinks, (I'm all about soft drinks now) and after finishing over 10 diferent kind of dishes, we were out of there, we went back to their house and as they seemed busy, we just settled in the living room watching TV, after a little bit, they came back and told us they had the Tub ready for us to take a bath (aww!), aren't they the nicest?, we took a bath, got comfy and once we finished, Yuko's mom already had more food for us, Cold water, tea, steamed sweet corn, fruit, we weren't used to this kind of treatment, specially after the workcamp lol, we ended that day early since we had to get up and be ready early the next day to go sightseeing

Driving towars our HomeStay!

Martina showing off our room for the weekend.

Yummy homemade breakfast n_n

On sunday at 8:30 we were ready to go, after a quick stop at a 7/11 and another one to get some gas, we were off to our next destination, we went to 大内宿 - Ouchijuku which is a small post station in Japan's Edo period and part of the Aizu Nishi Kaido and it is located in the Town of Shimogo in Minamiaizu District, Fukushima prefecture, I think the drive was over an our, but I'm not sure because again, I dozed off for a little bit lol, this town is actually just like an avenue, there are shops on each side selling Food, snacks, souvenirs, and just about anything, I really wanted to get souvenirs, but I wasn't allowed to shop in Japan (lol), we walked around, took pictures and just chill, Yuko's mom got us ice cream^^ (See?, how can I not love her??), she was really funny, going in almost each store just looking around, I can tell she likes shopping and was looking for whatever caught her eye, something my mom loved to do, go into each store to see what could she possibly find (Oh, how i miss that), once we had seen everything, it was time to leave towards the next destination but before that, Yuko's mom gave us a Keychain/Cellphone hanger as a present n_n.

大内宿 - Ouchijuku

大内宿 - Ouchijuku from the Top 

Leaving 大内宿 - Ouchijuku

The (会津若松城 - Aizuwakamatsu castle, it was a shorter drive this time, but again, Yuko, Martina and I dozed off for a little bit lol, the Aizu Castle is also known as the Tsuruga Castle and is a concrete replica of a traditional Japanese Castle in the northern Japan, this is also located in Fukushima, we left the castle and went to have lunch at a nearby Denny's where we got ice cream again!, this time it was shaved ice with green tea / banana icecream and chewy rice cake (yumm!), after lunch we got in the car again and Yuko's sister started driving, this was such a long drive, I never realized we were so far away from their house (I guess sleeping on the way to both places was what kept me from realizing how far were we), after some more sleeping in the car (I didn't want to!!!, but it was too hot outside, we had the A/C and were quite comfortable at the back of the car, so, it was inevitable), at some point, we had to stop and it was Yuko's mom to start driving and then we went to a Mall (AEON-sp?-) to buy some things we needed and decided to hang around and just "window-shop", and of course, we found the Purikura Machines (Japanese photobooth!) and took some pictures, a couple of hours later, we met with Yuko's mom and sister and went back to their house, we had a nice homecooked dinner, took a bath and Martina and I went to "our" room to watch the latest episode of "Running Man" haha, I felt bad because we didn't do anything for them, everytime I tried to offer my help at cooking,cleaning or whatever, they would decline it and send me back to the living room, I didn't even got presents for them :(, and just when I was thinking about it, Yuko's mom came and gave us another present, this time it was a small mirror she got at the Aizu Castle, according to her it was for us to look at our pretty faces (hehehehe), seriously, I wanted to stay there some more or take her mom back with me lol, the next day (monday) it was departure day and since Yuko had to work, her mom would drive us back to the camp, I thought it was going to be weird/awkward since we can't speak Japanese and she doesn't speak English, but it was a nice drive, listening to Oasis (Her music not ours!!) and at some point she asked me if I knew how to drive or if I had license, too bad I don't know how to drive, otherwise I would have rocked that car lol.

会津若松城 - Aizuwakamatsu Castle

View from the 会津若松城 - Aizuwakamatsu Castle

<3

Icecream!!!!!!

I didn't want to say goodbye to her mom, specially because I knew they would not come to our farewell party u_u, anyway, i had a great time with Yuko and her family and hopefully we'll get to meet again some day.

The next few days we continued working on our Toros giving the final touches, cleaning and helping others, because on Thursday we had to take the Toros to the river, when Thursday finally came I was Excited/Scared, I heard stories about the river being to deep if it rained and they said that day it was going to rain, in the end it didn't rain but I think it was actually somehow worst, there were some deep places in the river and other not deep enough, we had to carry our 2 meter Toros in the river, walk with them being careful because each team had their own Electric power supply to light the Toro O_o, I could see myself slipping and falling with the toro and then the power supply would explode or something lol, and while I was being extra careful walking-swiming-crawling in the river, I couldn't help but get distracted as soon as the fun started aka once the small Toros were released into the river and we started walking (like a Parade), then they decided every so often we had to turn the Toro 360° lol, and then the Fireworks started and lost all my concentration while checking the fireworks and greeting the people who gathered to watch the Toros lol, I felt like on a Christmas parade O_O, once we reached the "meeting" point, we took the Toros outside of the river and were told we had to take them off, luckily we didn't have to do it right there so we all went back to the river for some more fun, I don't know how it started but once we were all inside of the river, the Boss told us to make a circle and after the speach, if someone called your name, the rest of us would splash you with water....so much fun, so much water, so many falls LOL.

Showing off our Toro "Tori Tori aka Baby Chicken"

What up? - us chilling at the river

Looks pretty, doesn't it?

That day made the whole Camp worth it, I could barely see the faces of the people watching the parade, but I could tell they were excited about it and it's there when you realize that "You are where you are supposed to be"...

The next day we had to work like slaves again u_u, bringing the Toros back to the Work camp, removing the paper, dismantling the structure and cleaning again, this time, I was sent to clean the kitchen, but not just regular cleaning, I mean, END of the year cleaning, when they take out everything, throw water and soap everywhere and give you a toothbursh to clean lol (Just kidding...well...I'm only joking about the Toothbrush lol), later that night we had a meeting to rearrange the Cooking teams since we were supposed to cook for the Town's people, so, we got to cook some of our "national" dishes, Diana, Maï and I were a Team and were of course cooking Mexican Food, we brought Mole and corn flour to make tortillas, but at the end, decided to make Tortillas for the Pork Tacos (Shout out for Roberta aka Maïl lol for being excelent at making Tortillas!!), Cheese Quesadillas, Cheese gorditas and Sopes + the Mole with Chicken and rice, being the awesome team we are, we finished cooking early and had more free time to rest and shower before the Farewell party, we were expecting over 50 guests, I don't know how many people made it into the party, but that Gym was CROWDED, we toasted, ate, talked, took pictures and did everything you are supposed to do at a farewell party, except for crying lol, I had a great time.

Looks like a classroom party lol - Can you see Mexico's flag?, I made it!

Camp Leader Speach

Sensei going all Origami on us

O-R-I-G-A-M-I (The national hobby)

Maï making Cheese gorditas

So,I want to Thank you Hanawa City, City Hall, Ottomo Family, Boss Yusuke San, Shiori San and everyone who made this such a wonderful experience :)

-Gisela V.

Ps. We did some other things in Hanawa, but you can read more about it on my sis' blog here.