Watching Selena

Who's your guilty pleassure?, mine is Selena and I'm currently watching the movie with my sister^^

Today afterwork we went to Myeongdong to get me new glasses since mine are old and I broke my other pair :( lol

We ended up doing a bit of winter shopping and just hanging around, I'm just so happy we get to spend more time together now^^

Lousy post today.... sorry!

-Gisela V

Hello fall!

It feels so good not to sweat all the time....

Although, I'm not sure I'm ready for winter and I hope 4 sweatshirts and a Jacket are enough.
I am still happy fall is here, last year I enjoyed Fall in Korea by traveling on an awesome weather (except for those windy days in Jeju-do).

By the way, anyone knows why Ice cream is always on SALE in Seoul?, not complaining thou...

We are planning on a little gathering on saturday at our rooftop^^ and apparently thursday is Girls night out!

Another day, another random post

-Gisela V.

P.s. someone remind me to change my phone's keyboard... it's too small and I cant type lol

안녕?

Knock knock

Is there anyone there?, wow, how long have I been gone from the bloggosphere?

It might be time for another "Daily Posts Month"!, I don't have a crazy fun and exciting life, but hey, sometimes random things might happen and what's better than to put that into writing to keep it forever...

We are back (actually, we came back a week ago) from our Vacation in Kuala Lumpur, I still can't believe how blessed we are for being able to experience all of this. m

Some will say our situation isn't that good but we've learned to appreciate the little things and those surrounding us. We have a nice bunch of friends to Party, cry, have fun and just chill around us and I have the most important person I can ask for.... my Sister whom I'll always be thankful for allowing me to live my dream and take it as her own.

And since I don't want to cry and get all sentimental; this should be it for today.

Don't forget we are now Vlogging over at Youtube as: Double Trouble en Corea

-Gisela V

R16 Final Championship in Seoul

 

All my Bboys and Bgirls lalaalalalalaaa

Wow, I can barely believe it's been almost 2 months since I said goodbye, to be quite honest; I've been blogging in my head for over 2 weeks, seems like every time I try to take a break from blogging, my brain explodes with Posts ideas lol.


I'm coming back because I finally did something more interesting than going out with friends (although a Bday celebration post will be coming soon!).

I was invited to the R16 Final Championship in Seoul, R16 Stands for Respect for the 16 countries that participate in it and is an annual international b-boy tournament and urban arts cultural festival sponsored mainly by the KTO and the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The Festival was first held in 2007 in Seoul. The 2008 event took place in Suwon, 2009 was in Incheon. In 2010 it was brought back to Seoul.

Korean-American b-boy, singer, rapper, Jay Park has been the Official Ambassador since 2011.

Jay Park after a B-boy demonstration

The event was held this weekend (July 5-6th), the 1st day was Solo competitions for Bboys, Popping and Locking while the 2nd day was the BBoys crew battle.

To be honest, I don't like Popping nor Locking very much, ergo, it was a bit tedious after 4 hours of non-stop competitions.

The 1st day was open with an AMAZING act of Beat box that pumped the audience and kept us going. My favorite competition was Locking because the 2 finals were a Husband and Wife from Japan, and I'm sorry dude, but your wife KILLED IT!, she was awesome and show him who's the boss (hehe).

DAY 1 Champions!
B-Boy Champion: Issei - Japan
Locking Champion: Cio 
Popping Champion: Kid Boogie

The 2nd day was Bboys Crews Showcase and Battle with a Performance by Jay Park, Loco and Gray (AOMG) that was then followed by an After party at one of the most exclusive clubs in Korea (Octagon in Gangnam).

Gamblerz Crew

[R16 KOREA 2014 WORLD FINAL Day-2 Winners]
Bboy Crew Performance Winner - Predatorz (RUS)
Bboy Crew Battle Winner - Gamblerz Crew (KOR)

Being a Jay Park fan, I was very excited about it, and since I've written about bboys before, well, the battles got me all excited (lol).

The showcase was Amazing, Russia, Taiwan, Korea and Japan (They used Jazz music...it was AWESOME!) were my favorites, but the Battle, Wow, they did a really great job.

The final battle was Korea vs Russia, while Russia had my heart most of the time, I have to agree with the judges because Korea really stood up and got the 1st place. At the end, one of the members of Gamblerz Crew (Korea) gave a speech about how excited they were; they 1st won the R16 3 years ago but after, they had a bad time, no money or studio to practice and they had to endure a lot of things, this just makes you respect them even more, doesn't it?

Gamblerz Crew #1

At 10 pm (show started at 6) the winners had been announced and it was time for AOMG's showcase, it was a short but good show, I enjoyed it and even though I feel extremely tired this monday (hehe), I can't say I didn't enjoy it, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go.

I would like to Thank the KTO and the K-Supporters for the tickets, hopefully this won't be the last time!

 

10 Year old Japanese kids battling outside the Olympic Hall

 

The "Double Trouble en Corea" vlog will take some more time as there's much editing to do hehe.

-Gisela V.

Goodbye

For a while now...

I"ve taken blogging breaks before mostly because of a lack of inspiration but this time I'm just tired and I don't think updating random posts is good enough.

I started this blog back in.2009, it's been a while isn't it?, it went from a cooking blog to a Korean promotion blog to a Everything Korea and lastly to a My experiences in Korea kind of blog; but I'm not sure this is being enjoyed.

I know for sure some people is not happy because I stopped "promoting" Korea; at least the way they wanted me to, but living in Korea is a whole new experience than just coming for a Vacation, you get to experience the Bad and Ugly of the city and its habitants, I'm not saying I dislike Korea, somehow I ended up loving it more and therefore I started writing about my day to day.

These days things are... weird?, hectic?, complicated?, yup, Complicated is the word... we (my sis and I) started Vlogging over 2 months ago, we mostly post random videos about our life in Korea and this has taken more time than what I thought it would take but we are enjoying it VERY very much, last weekend we had our 1st Google Hangout with our viewers and it was really fun, we talked to them for close to 2 hours and answered some random questions like: Our favorite color and number but still we had a great time sharing a bit more about Korea and our lives here.

I still have lots to blog about but I'm just not inspired or in the mood to do it these days... Hopefully i'll be back sooner than I expect it but you just never know.

Anyway, I'm still around on Twitter (@Gisela_Verdin) and over at "Double Trouble en Corea" on youtube.

See you soob Blog!~~

I'll try to come back preetily LOL

-Gisela V.

Long weekend and Youtube!

Hello everyone!

We are halfway of our long weekend... oh, I still remember last year in Chuseok when I said "Man!, next time we have a long holiday it.will be until May..." gosh, where is my time going?

Yesterday was chores day and today since it was cloudy and rainy; it's been bed day, I've been sleeping and every time I napped, I dreamed about my mom ♡... actually after the 2nd time I forced myself to sleep again because I just miss her soo much.

Anyway, I wanted to show you guys our latest video over at "Double Trouble en Corea", this time is about our visits to Japan^^

Viajando por Japón: Fukushima, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiro…: http://youtu.be/TQYeYBIO_lU

-Gisela V.

Days off!

Yesterday May 1st was Labor Day over here and even thou I didn't have the day off, I ended up having a great time^^

Kiki and Julian are always fun to be around and after my time with them, it was time to meet my sis and our Baby Bro to do some bowling.

Baby bro invited a friend, we have met him twice before and it was always VERY awkward, I thibk his time at the Army affected him a little bit too much, but he keeps on wanting to meet us and he claimed he missed us lol.

We met just in time for dinner, the good old BBQ always does the trick and then we were supposed to go bowling; turns out none of us (Baby bro's friend included) is actually good at it so, we decided to go to a 노래방 (Noraebang/Karaoke)... I was reluctant to go because well... we can get a lil crazy while singing and I didn't want to scare Baby Bro.and company but we did it when they said they liked to Dance while singing and even thou I can't dance; I love seeing people dance (lol).

The 1st in taking over the Mic was Baby bro (BB) and he apparebtly rocked Pokemon's song or some kind of Kids song, it was AWESOME, he danced, jumped, screamed and did everything I was afraid to do lol...

Their song choices were... ODD to say the LEAST, they went from Kids songs to sorrow to Englishman, Singing in the Rain and some Really old songs (English and Korean). My sister and I opted for the fun songs, Ashlee Simspon, M2M, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, 2NE1, etc... we seemed to be less mature than them haha.

BB was surprised wheb we sang in Korean and got very excited and the guys from the place asked him to keep it low LMAO!, after our 1st 2NE1 song, They requested "I am the Best" and of course we had to sing it.

It was SOOO much fun, they really go crazy, they sang, danced and  cheered, it wasn't even awkward with BB's friend (I can't remember his name... sorry dude!), at some point BB hugged my shoulder and kept swinging and WOW... real Human contact! Lol... I was shocked because lately he has been very polite and just shake hands when greeting us.

We sang for close to 2 hours and then called it a night, they walked us to our station and then said goodbye... although it seemed like none of us wanted to part ways because we kept walking sloooowly and 2 hours later BB messaged me that he was drinking nearby (We kind of knew since we walked by the place and saw then but ran away LOL) and wanted us to join him but well.. it was only thursday and some of us had things to do on friday.

We already agreed to meet soon for some Fried chicken and some hard drinking!

I seriously love Baby bro, he is super sweet, cute and caring~~

His girlfriend is a lucky dudette^^

-Gisela V

Can't say this enough

Being sick again SUCKS big time and the rainy/gloomy days are not helping...

Yesterday I was chatting with my Boss/Friend and told her I wasn't feeling well, she said she would get me medicine today.

Today I showed up for work but I was useless as my illness took the best of me; my boss gave me medicine and even prepared a light snack to eat before the pills, she showed ne how much she cares about me. I was told to take tomorrow off and get better because she said she was feeling bad cuz I went to work today while being sick....

Back in november when I was working at *****, I asked my Boss to help me get medicine for my cold (we were friends, that's why I asked him), he basically ignored me, made me work for up to 15 straight hours and a week later asked me if I was sick....

Everyday I feel blessed for the new family I've found away from Home and I'm sure my mom's working something up there for us to be having such an amazing time/life now...

I can't thank my boss enough for being so cool and for loving me so much^^

Tomorrow I'll rest and hopefully my sore throat will get better!

I know I haven't been blogging much, but our Vlog is consuming more time these days and I want to focus on that now that is growing, it's been so much fun to make videos and to reply to the comments on Youtube/Facebook...

But do stick around as I'll try to update more often!, even if it's a random post about.my boring day lol.

Or, you can check our youtube channel (Double trouble en Corea) but that's in Spanish hehe.

Time for me to sleep and I'll see you guys soon^^

-Gisela V.

....

Hi everyone!

It's been a week since my last post and over this week everything has been pretty boring... like seriously... nothing out of the ordinary, on the weekend we filmed 2 videos for our Youtube channel and sunday we finally relaxed; we had a BBQ on our rooftop and finished with some wine and strawberries.

Things over here have been kind of depressing, the whole country feels sad and is VERY attent to the news of the Sewol Ferry disaster.

Me and the people around me, feel very sad about this and would like to help but now is not the right time, perhaps in a couple of weeks we'll be able to do some volunteer work over in Jindo, meanwhile, we keep praying....hope is the last thing we loose, isn't it?

I hope you understand why I've been so "quiet" on my blogging and I'll come back soon with better contents (here's hoping!)

-Gisela V.

Omgomgomg!

Bigbang in concert with the YG Family in August in Seoul!!

I'm dying of excitement lol

Anyway,it would be awesome if you guys would check on Youtube our channel "Double Trouble en Corea", we just uploaded a video of our weekend drinking in Hongdae^^

-Gisela V

Drunk in Korea

Every day of this week I said "OMG, I haven't blogged yet...", I wanted to blog but I either didn't have time to do so or I didn't know what to blog about.

We've been working on our Youtube channel (Double Trouble en Corea), our regular jobs, some new ones and a T-shirt project we are starting!~

I'm very excited with everything that's going on, on friday we got GREAT news about a "thing" we had pending in Mexico, that's finally coming to an end!!

This friday we also went out partying with some friends, we went to Hongdae because a friend's brother was opening a restaurant and drinks (Soju & Beer) were only  1,000 won (about 1USD), we had dinner and way too many drinks to be true and then we moved to that "Girls only" club from last week; where our good friend Audrey caused an immpact with her dancing lol, we had lots of fun and decided to call it a night after 7am... we came home and I slept until 2pm, we ordered Fried chicken (lol) and theb showered and left the house again, my body was sore and I was tired but we had to go meet our friend Kiki but she had to go home earlier than we planned...

We were plan-less and after texting our friends from the night before we decided to go back to our friend's restaurant for more cheap drinks, it was really fun, we met old friends there and we met a whole table of 20 year old guys who seemed to be enjoying our company way too much... they were cute but too young and loud for me hahaha

We came home before 7am and now I don't know how am I going to survive this week... it's going to be crazy busy and I can't wait until next weekend...

Right now I'm on my bed next to my awesome sister who's editing this week's youtube video, she is just better at it than me ;).

Hopefully we'll show you our t-shirts project soon!~~

I'm sorry I can't give you a better post but with my almost 29 years and after 2 days partying...I feel like dying.

-Gisela

Bridge of Life

사랑해주세요 - Please love me or Love me....

Remember how on the weekend I finally walked the Mapo Bridge?, I had crossed that bridge by car and bus many times and each time I thought about what the bridge represents…

The Mapo Bridge crosses the Han River in Seoul connecting the Mapo District and the Yeongdeungpo District, this bridge was completed in 1970 but was called Seoul Bridge.

This Bridge has been re-named Mapo Bridge but is also known as Bridge of Life (Since it was renewed on September 201) to prevent people from jumping off the Bridge.

Korea is known for having quite high Suicide rates and this bridge had over 100 attempts Between 2007-2012. According to a note on the Huffingtonpost.com; South Korea’s suicide rate has been the highest among developed nations for 8 years, with almost 42 people choosing to end their lives EVERY DAY.

"hmm..."

All along the bridge you can find messages and pictures of Korean people and Korean food, the messages on the bridge were chosen by psychiatrists and are aimed to reduce tension and getting people to relax with humor.

Messages such as: “Have you eaten yet?” (A popular greeting in Korea) can be found and funny messages like “Did you know Gorillas all have blood type B?”, to messages like “Doesn’t it feel good to be outside walking on a bridge?” or “Worries are nothing”.

There’s also a statue of a person comforting another one.

After the renewal of the bridge more people tried to take their own lives but the actual number of those who DID jump off the bridge decreased by 47% from the previous year.

Besides the pictures and messages, there are also mirrors –I guess looking at your own reflection when trying to jump can make you stop and re-think your decision-  there are also 2 Emergency phones in case you see someone attempting to jump and CCTV monitoring systems have been also installed.

I don’t really want to get too much into the Suicide subject because I’m not expert on this, I would never do it but I don’t judge those who attempt it, while walking on the Bridge I felt at peace and despite not really understanding the phrases –in Korean- you can sense certain peace there, I wish I could help those who feel so bad the only exit they see is Jumping off a bridge or tell them to just Fu+k everything off and do not let themselves down by doing so, anyway, I wanted to explain a bit more about this Bridge because it’s has become a somehow an Attraction when you are around the area.

I wish I had the right words for those who need it, but I suck at this whole Comforting words… :(

Well… there you go, that is it…

-Gisela V.

Tired

Remember how this was supposed to be a chilled weekend?... it wasn't, AT ALL.

On friday my new Mexican friend (whom I met at that odd Spanish speakers work on tuesday) invited me to a club, before that she asked me if I had any Gay friends and I obviously said Yes, it was a random question that I understood a bit later; when she told me she was Gay (lol) and then I found out the club we were meeting at was an Only Girls club...

Honestly I was BLOWN AWAY when we got inside, I couldn't believe all of them were girls and made me think I've been confusing boys with girls ALL this time, OMG, there were pretty looking "guys" and others were "I totally look like a guy not like a girl" girls... All night I was tempted to talk to those "guys" but I'm too shy... we ended up hanging out with what turns out to be one of the "most popular gay girls" in Korea, she is very well known (whatever that means) and if you hang out with her group it means something, what that something is? I have no freaking idea but the girls were nice, they invited us drinks and we had a great time... and it go me thinking, do they think I'm gay? But I didn't bother asking them.

I remember years ago at a gay club (mixed, this was my 1st time at a just girls club) I was with some friends and a friend of a friend told me I didn't look Gay, I guess I have that "I'm straight" look... but I don't know how that works out...

We ended up leaving the club after 5am, I had to bring my friend home with me because she was way too wasted and didn't know her address... it was quite an interesting cab ride and finally at 6:30am I made it home only to wake up at 9:30 because we were meeting friends at Yeouido park.

I'm glad I can now take alcohol like an adult and control what's going on, I wasn't really hung over but I was tired and sleepy and I took 2 aspirins just in case lol, after a shower and breakfast we caught the 261 bus to Yeouido where we were supposed to film 2 videos for our Youtube channel.

Little did we know the weather was going to get crazy, it was sunny but got cloudy on the way there and after we got off the bus it got crazy windy and cold with some random light rain, we only got some shots of the cherry blossoms and we got upset because we were cold, hungry and got nothing to do... we walked and after some... discussion we found a cool Dancing crew at the Park, I remember them from Myeongdong so we stayed the whole act, when they finished, another guy came and installed his suitcase, it was like a Magician without being one... I don't know how to explain it...perhaps the word I'm looking for is Entretainer but you'll see when we Vlog about it.

We were supposed to meet other friends at 4 but among so many people there, we ended up missing them and so we decided to go back to our hood, get dinner and go to a Noraebang to release some stress by singing.

Luckily the same 261 bus stop was right next to the park and we got to Hoegi station around 7pm, we had a nice Tonkatsu dinner followed by a cheap waffle (that's the good thing about living next to Universities!) And headed to the fancy Noraebang where we rocked all our songs... you can click the following link for our Noraebang Vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLKgfCmsFFU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

On our way home my sister said something in Spanish to someone (don't know what or who) and I told her "one of these days someone will reply in Spanish and you'll not know what to say", we went to buy bread and as soon as we got in EVERYONE in Seoul decided to go in, so, my sis complained in Spanish...turns out the owner spoke spanish LOL... it was sooo funy, I love how many spanish speakers we have found in Seoul....

We finally got home around 9-10pm and had to decline another friend's offer to go out, I was dead tired and we needed to get up early the next day to go to 2NE1's Inkigayo pre-recording, that turned out well, since the day was sunny we ended up going to Yeouido park again but got off at the wrong stop so we got off at Mapo station, we had to cross the Han river through the Mapo bridge also known as Bridge of Life, it's called like that because there's a lot of people that decides to jump off of that bridge, mostly young people... I will talk more about it later as I would like to properly get you information about it, somehow I found that 30 minute walk peaceful and relaxing...

We came home around 6 and I'm finally chillin' at 11pm...

Tomorrow we need to do the recording we didn't do on saturday at 8am and then I have a Korean language exchange with baby bro^^

We also received an awesome call but that's for later...

It was a crazy-fun-exciting weekend...

How was yoyr weekend?

-Gisela V.
Ps. I wanna thank Melanie for her comments and for taking time to email me, I always get very excited when a reader contact me as is very unusual...

Is there anyone else out there??

Dude!

I'm still here!

This week came and went... friday is almost here and we've done too many things.

Currently I'm singing "GZB" while my sis and I remember what we've been through with our Instagram pictures. I know you must be tired of me saying how Blessed I feel but I really do feel Blessed everyday.

Today I was walking while waiting for the train and I was thus close to take a picture of a random tree because I thougjt it looked amazing and it made my day brighter (despite being cloudy and rainy all day).

Yesterday GD (hey... you already know I'm a fan here!) Posted a quote that said something like "When a door closes another one opens but sometimes you are so busy pondering about the closed one that you don't realize another one has been open" and that's very true... I got a job yesterday doing marketing in Spanish but I wasn't convinced it was a legit company so, I decided not to take it and instead I decided to focus on what was going on at the moment and BAM! I received another proposal!!

I then went into my 1st and most loved job and ended up cooking Pizza with a student and my sister, we had a great time...like we always do~~

My boss got me a Giant baguette because she knows I love REAL bread (nothing against Korean bread but its not the same), she is awesome and always worry about us ♡.

We have also RSVP'd  for a party with Jay Park next weekend! Wooooo~~

This weekend we have 2 videos to make for our Vlog and then is Chillin' time because I have the worst Dark Circles ever... my boss even told me today that she felt sorry cuz I cooked and I looked VERY tired 헐.

Anyway, just wanted to post a little update, I'm working on a "Single Mom in Korea" post but the next weeks promise to be very busy ones.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you wjen I see you!

-Gisela V.

Double Trouble en Corea

I'm just gonna leave this here.....

- Gisela V.

BBQ Party!

Hello everyone!~~

I'm trying not to be lazy but this has been yet another busy weekend, I actually love being busy but I'm old and I also need some rest (lol).

Friday night was Mexican dinner night and cleaning night (the rooftop that apparently was last cleaned in 1980). I came back from work around 10:30pm so, it was a long night, we had to get up early on saturday since we had to clean the rest of the house, shower, do some grocery shopping and getting started with the party stuff...

Since we are suuuper lucky; it was cloudy and rainy so we had to stay indoors, goodbye pretty lights we set up outside :( , but despite the weather we had an amazing time, lots of people came (more than we actually thought), we all ate a lot and we even had Quesadillas thanks to Douglas aka Mr. Pendejo ♡ (hahaha).

We had drinks and my friend Kiki insisted on singing but thank god her husband stopped her (lol... jk Ki!), I met lots of new people and was glad to see some friends we haven't met in a while. Finally around 7 the rain stopped and we went out to enjoy some fresh air and get some people dancing (yup, I mean you Sally and Douglas!), we were having so much fun that when we came back inside we forgot our shoes outside and it rained again so.... wet shoes for Sally, my sis and for me!

Our last guest came after 10pm, by that time we were pretty tired already; receiving over 15 people and feeding then is a handful...but he came with Ice cream!!, that's why I love our Baby bro, he is the cutest thing ever and if by now you found our Vlog Youtube channel, you might see him on our next video.

We ended up going to bed around 2am (again) and getting up at 6:30 to go for another 2NE1 Inkigayo prerecording.

After the recording we decided to head out to Mapo Bridge because today the filming of "The Avengers" started in Seoul, we walked around Yeouido park where we got a glimpse of what this Cherry Blossoms season will be, I'm very excited cuz this is our 1st time to catch such an event^^ , at the end we didn't see anyone from the Avengers but we had a nice Picnic by the river, we had fried chicken (you just call them and its delivered to you at the park!).

When we were heading back home, I got a message and we were invited to the Seven Luck cassino at the Hilton near Seoul station, we went there and now we have a  Membership card lol,we also got to meet the Sales Rep of D9 in Korea, I love their clothing/Hats line and he is a pretty cool guy (Guy, can we be friends?~~ I'm so lame I know)

We finally made it home around 5pm where we just chilled for a bit and then cooked our dinner, after that I wanted to take a nap but my OCD told me to clean the after party effects (good thing cuz now the house is clean again!) And here I am blogging instead of napping...

Talking about cleaning, why everytime we have visitors they mention our House being very clean and tidy, do people never clean in Korea or what?

Anyway, I had an awesome time and I'm ready for a new week!

What did you guys do this weekend?

-Gisela V.

I'm into...

Image- Instagram @seeven777

These days I'm very into sneakers. Being in Korea makes you want to have awesome shoes, everyone is wearing a pair of New Balance tennis and I feel like I need a pair... the more outrageous the better, from babies to older people, their motto is "Shoes are how we can express our identities", because you can run into 10 different people wearing the same exact outfit but it's rare.to find someone with the exact same shoes (unless some Idol has them, then everyone wants them and will get them... like those Rick Owens shoes for Adidas... ugh).

Ice cream!, I don't know how that happened, I used to eat ice cream just a couple of times a year, now? I crave it all the time... back in winter most places had Ice cream on sale and we were smart enough to buy some for later (lol).

The coolest snack ever, is like a rice cracker but had some drops of a glasse... I don't know what are they called but I loooove them!... wait, the name is 쌀과자 

Hats & Hip hop, somehow I got into Hip hop while being in Korea and that lead me to Hip hop parties (where I got a cool Snapback!), my new hobbie is goin to Hip hop parties and the next target will be Dok2's birthday party (jk!). If you wabt to listen some.of it you can youtube: Dok2, Beenzino, The Quiett, Bizzy, Tiger JK, Yoon Mi...by the way, today is Dok2's birthday so....Feliz Cumpleaños Gonzo!!~~

That time we met Dok2 at The A

Now that Spring is here and we finally cleaned our rooftop I want 2 things, grow something outside; onions, carrots, cucumbers, flowers, anything wiol do really! And have outdoor partieeees, I love having people over and this weather calls for it. Tomorrow we'll be holding our 1st, the grill is ready and so are we!.

What are your favorite things lately?

-Gisela V.

P.s. I would also LOVE to get my hands on a bike, I miss biking and I would even dare to bike all the way from Imungdong to Yeouido park.

My rental bike @ Yeouido last year^^ 

Settling down

I've been meaning to write this for some time...

When people knows we are living in Korea they always asume we have a lot of money, true to be told; we don't. Sometimes I wish we were more carefull with our money when we started our New journey but we decided to go YOLO about it but I don't really regret it.

When mom left us almost 2 years ago I learned how to let go: how to let go emotions and material things, when you decide to leave your country with nothing but a backpack, you have to let go material things and get used to the idea of just having a few pieces of clothing. For me this is easy, I usually worry but then I think "If I throw this away now, in 2-3 months I won't remember it...." and that's how I let material things go.

Emotional things are different, my Mom and my sister have always been the most important thing in my life and when we lost my mom I got a pretty big hock, something I still can't get over and still cry about, I get angry because I can't understand why someone decided it was her time to go, she was the happiest person I've ever met, she wanted to grow old and even if she said she didn't want to; I know she wanted to spoil my babies (when I had them)... but loosing my mom like that made me realize that time is precious and the most important thing is to enjoy it with those you love.

Of course I'd love to be on a better situation (economically), buy new shoes or clothes, but winter clothes will have to do for this spring (hehe), I don't want to be rich, that has never been my goal, I just wish I had a bit more because I love going out with friends and being able to treat them a meal or coffee...

Sometines I freak out because I'm close to being 30, I feel like I should settle down, meet someone, get married, have kids and move on but that's something I don't see happening anytime soon... maybe there's a tiny hippie inside me telling me I still need to travel more, see more things by myself...but there's also a tiny old lady telling me I can be a good wife and mom. Now that I get to be with a baby everyday I can't help but wonder how will it be when I have my own...

I usually don't tell this to a lot of people because most tend to freak out, but I don't like thinking about my future anymore, I'm very aware I can die anytime and somehow that doesn't scare me anymore like it did 4 years ago, I'm doing what I want to and I've accomplished more things than I ever thought I would ever do, for now I'm living 1 day at a time and I'm having a great time, specially because I still have 1 of the most important person next to me^^

-Gisela V.

B as in Busy

Hi everyone!!!

I'm back~~

I don't know what's going on lately but we've been pretty busy, and whenever I'm home, I'm too tired to even move -lol-, we need to do some serious House cleaning now that spring is here and we can finally enjoy our rooftop properly.

Things are constantly changing and in less than a month another BIG change might happen, althoug, we are not sure about this, I'm confident whatever happens we'll work it out, because that's how my mom taught us^^

On a previous post I talked about the 2 meet ups my friend set up for me, the 1st one was a Fail because her bro-in law is way tooo shy to be true, he saw me for a second and ran to his room, I thought I had scared him away lol, but 2 days later we met again, this time he did say Hello but that was basically it, I can tell he is nice but too shy for me, it's enough with me being very shy already.

The 2nd one was yesterday, this was... BAD, not because they guy isn't attractive but because he doesn't speak ANY english, I know that's not his fault, and I also know that I should be speaking Korean by now BUUUUT, if someone is setting you up, they should at least make sure you both can communicate. The guy would send me messages everyday, I thought it was cute of him but that's just how I am hehe, he said he would pick me up and so I assumed he already had something planned since the day before he asked me what I wanted to do, but then, he asked Where I wanted to go have lunch and we ended up walking and going to a random place close to my house, we had to communicate with Google Translate, I'm not even joking, the restaurant was empty -it's a VERY new restaurant- the owner and the waiter were looking at us strangely because we weren't talking and just shoving our phones to each other... it was AWKWARD to say the least. He then asked me for a picture right there and then when we were still eating and so we did, shortly after that he said All of his friends where asking him How was the meeting going on 0_0

We went for a coffee and my phone decided to be stupid and not work anymore so we couldn't talk, he called our friend and she said he felt bad because it was a boring date and wanted to go to a DVD Room -a place to watch movies- but why prolong a boring and awkward date?, and when he asked me what my ideal guy is like and I said: Funny, he said that's what he lacks the most.

Now, don't get me wrong, he is a nice guy, he seems to be sweet but we have NOTHING in comming, except that we like Iced Americano,but, who doesn't?, we can be friends but I don't see anything else happening in the future...

We finally went to one of those Hip Hop parties in Itaewon and I loved it, I was having a great time until our friend decided she wanted to leave early, but it was too lste to catch the last train and we ended up at a 24 hour Coffee shop bored as hell... I was in a bad mood because if I wasn't partying I wanted to be home sleeping but we couldn't afford the taxi fee.. at 3am I messaged a friend and he was around so we went to meet him but for no apparent reason, my (girl) friend was being very bitchy with muy guy-friend, we left the bar because she said we could take the 4am bus but there was no such thing, we walked and then took a short ride taxi to wait for another bus but the 2nd bus was late and that's why we decided to take another bus and get off to take the recently open subway at 5:30.... I was tired and in a bad mood when we finally reached home at 6am....

I trully hate girls being bitchy and I guess that's why most of my closest friends are guys, some girls just need to understand not every guy that approaches them is trying to flirt....

It was a very busy weekend and this sunday I went out to meet my Playplanet date but that will have to be another post^^

-Gisela V.

Nervous wreck

That's what I am at the moment.....

Perhaps you all can send me good vibes? ^^

I promise i'll post a real update soon!

-Gisela V.

Not so lazy sunday

Heeeeeeeeeello everyone!!

Today I'm blogging from a coffee shop in Gayang while sipping on a Coffee~coke (most amazing drink ever!).

I'm with my GZBz (lol) just waiting because we are due to go into Inkigayo's pre-recording for 2NE1 at 5pm...

I actually dont have much to say but I just wanted to drop by and say hello (lol ~ laaaame), yesterday we had a pretty busy day starting at 9am and finishing by midnight only to wake up at 4:30am to go for 2NE1's first recording at 6:30am... Oh, I wish I was home being lazy....

Yesterday we also kinda went to 2NE1's fansign lol...

Aaaaand we've signed up for a very cool "Traveling with locals" project with Playplanet (In case we didn't have enough on our hands already)

Oh!, on a different note, I've been set up for a "blind" date next weekend and another meet up on tuesday lol... I guess when you are almost 30 that's what you get in Korea, people worried about you for not being married...

The meet up on tuesday is a funny story cuz apparently even the guy's mom (whom I've met once) is excited about me visiting and wants me to cook Mexican food, she is also excited because her son barely shows interest in anything in life. This meet ups have been set up by my friend Kiki, she actually wants me to marry her brother in law (the tuesday guy) so that we can become family (LMAO). She is the coolest girl and we get along pretty well plus I ♥ her baby Julian.

Anyway, we'll see how things go next week^^

-Gisela V.

Ps. Just wanted to throw here one of my sis' quotes: "Mr. Officer, are there any Visas for LOVE?" Lololololol

I suck

I suck at keeping up with challenges lol, I wasn't even able to complete a whole month of my Daily blogging challenge...

Things got crazy for a bit and I just had so much going on that I didn't know what to blog about, the good thing is; I'm blogging WAY more often than what I used to blog a couple of months ago!~ yay me!

Our week in Osaka came and went.... I really like Japan although I can't say I love it, I usually have enough of it in 3-4 days, and I think 2-3 days in Osaka are more than enough. This time we didnt have lots of plans because we've been to Osaka before and we had already done all those touristy things, we mostly walked around the city until we were hungry and then we woud have another hour or 2 to find something we both (me and my sis) wanted to eat. It was mostly becsuse we would walk for 6-8 hours that when we got back to our hostal I was already exausted and didn't feel like blogging..... sorry!

On our last day we decided not to do anything, our flight was at 6pm and we decided to go to the airport after checking out of the hostel (10am), we finally left around 11 hopping to he in Kansai around 12pm and that would give us plenty of time to eat, record our 3rd Vlog, do our nails and blog.... but as it is now a classic Diana&Gisela; we took the wrong train, we ended up in Nara instead of Kansai airport so, we had to take the train back... back in Tenoji we waited for the Airport Express train that was anounced to depart from track #18 but neither of us heard the time and jumped on the next train on track #18, we were sure it was the right one because that one was fancier, had english information and at some point we both heard "something something Airport something".... since I usually can't sleep on public transportation I was just looking out the window until I notice certain building (the tallest building in Japan located in.... Tenoji...) and BAM! I woke up my sister and turns out we took the Osaka Loop train... FML! It was already 1pm by the time we got back to Tenoji Station, another anounce was made and this time we payed attention, a train scheduled for Kansai Airpirt would depart at 1:15 from track 10... abd so we went there and waited for the right train... wheb we got on the train I still felt uneasy about it, the announced something about the airport and as soon as they said Kansai, my sister unplugged her attention from the train but I didn't... thank god! Cuz turns out out of the 8 cars on the train only 1 to 4 would continue to the airport and the rest were going somewhere else, we were on the Car #6, easy, we just have to walk to Car #4... but then the when we got to car 5 that was it, we had to wait until it stop to get off and go to car #4.... at this point it was like a joke, we were worried about cars 1 to 4 getting separated from 5 and we would be left there.... lol, it took about 10 minutes to get to the next station where we had to run to change cars... we finally had made it into the right train and Car!.... I felt like we were on an episode of The twilight zone where people live on a loop, I could see myself ridding trains in Osaka for ever lol. 

At some point on the trains, my sister asked me if I could live in Japan... honestly? No, I don't think so, I usually feel like getting out of there by day 5, I mean, Japan is pretty, clean, people is polite and I love the food but it doesn't feel like home... and that's why I love Seoul so much, I feel at home here, I misses our house, the weather, the food, the people.... I'm still not tired of it....

We finally made it to the airport by 2:15... we only had tike to have lunch and look around for a bit before taking the shuttle to Terminal 2 for our flight Check in.... at 4pm we made it to the whearhouse, I mean, terminal 2, got ourselves some 7/11 ice cream to spend those last Yenes we had and checked it, the boarding gate was really nice, the only airline servicing terminal 2 is Peach so it was quite empty, they have tables with computers, big couches and nice facilities, around 6 we headed to our gate to board and luckily caught the coolest sunset :), finally by 8pm we made it to Incheon airport and made it home at 11pm... I still can't believe it takes more time to get home from the airport than from Japan to Korea... lol 

Abd that was Osaka v2... it was nice but I've had ebough of it ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Gisela V.

Ps. THANK YOU NAOKO for the presents!~

How to move to Korea

Hi everyone!

I've been receiving this question quite often now, What do I need to move to Korea?

Hmm... I've been thinking about it and well... 2 things come to my mind, 1st Courage and 2nd A job or lots of $$$.

1st things 1st, WHY do you want to move to Korea?

If you love K-pop and Dramas, well, I would recommend to just Travel to Korea for a couple of weeks...

If you want to Learn Korean, experience a new culture, and just feel like your life has changed 180° well.. this one is a bit harder, I wouldn't recommend to MOVE to Korea if you don't have a Job or a Job offer here.

If you have a job or a job offer, then things will be easier, your company will sponsor your visa and most likely will end up just gathering the documents for said visa, as for WHERE to get the jobs, sorry, I can't help, perhaps our friend GOOGLE has the answer, there are plenty of websites with job offers, you just need to know how to look for them. 

If you don't have a job offer but still want to move to Korea; I recommend you to Learn Korean, Have a Masters degree, Speak English and just to be GREAT at what you do because in order to get a Working Visa you and/or your company will have to proof that YOU are whats needed for the job and a Korean is not capable to do it, here's some basic information about VISAS in Korea.

Us -Mexican passport holders- can stay in Korea for 90 days without a Visa, if you just want to experience what's like to live in here but don't want to get a Job, you just need lots of money and the rest is easy, you can study Korean without a visa, you can travel and just enjoy what this land has to offer^^ 

Now... abut me, I moved here because I was tired of Mexico city, I've wanted to experience living in Korea since the 1st time I visited back in 2010, I didn't have any attachments to Mexico -except for awesome Mexican food-, basically I just said YOLO, I know how stupid YOLO sounds but sometimes it makes perfect sense and for the past 7 months I've been following the YOLO method anytime a new challenge comes, that and saying YES to things because you are not going to make friends saying NO. 

I was lucky, I had a job offer when I was in Mexico, the company sponsored my Visa, it was a LONG process and not as complicated as I thought it was going to be, but I'm not working with that company anymore so, that adds some Drama to my life -lol- and well... that's just too personal to blog haha. 

Anyway, here's some basic information if you want to travel to Korea, either for some days, weeks or permanently move in...

This is based on my experience -Remember I'm Mexican, so, I'm not sure about what are the requirements for other countries- 

Flight: If you don't have a valid US Visa don't worry, there are other ways to come here, you can fly from Mexico-Amsterdam (or any other European county)-Korea, I've done that twice and it can be tiring, if you are only coming for a few day I wouldn't recommend this, last time I did that; I was in Korea only for 5 days on a pretty tight schedule and the jetlag was awful, I slept like 50 hours -2 long 13 hours flights, a layover in Paris and when I got home... it was a nightmare... and also, more expensive... (I recommend KLM....I loved them!!)

The other way is easier and cheaper, there's a flight from Mexico to Narita (Tokyo), the flight makes a quick stop in Tijuana, total flying time is about 16-17 hours?, the stop in Tijuana is about 2-3 hours and from Japan there are a billion of flights to Seoul -and you don't need a Visa for Japan!-, this is way cheaper than flying trough Europe but also less comfortable because you'll be flying to Aeromexico and for me it has one of the worst customer services but hey!, it's cheap and faster!

Like I said, you can stay in Korea for 3 months without a visa, if you don't speak Korean don't worry, the country is pretty English friendly -transportation and information wise, people here don't speak a lot of English-

Things are expensive compared to Mexico, just take a look:

Subway ride: Starts in about 1USD and can be more depending on the distance 

Rent: I would say that an average in Seoul for a -cheap- place is about 600 USD (not downtown Seoul, that would cost me an arm and a leg...)

Food: If you go to a restaurant is not AS expensive as you would think, an average meal can go from 3USD to 7USD, there are some Korean BBQ buffets for 8-9USD (all you can eat and sometimes drinks!!). 

Fruits & Veggies: These things are EXPENSIVE...you can pay 1USD for 1 orange, now that srping is coming, things are getting better but paying 7USD for an avocado kills me...  

Milk and Dairy products: 1 Lt. of Milk is about 2-3USD, Cheese is VERY expensive -unless you buy Korean cheese that will be bad most of the times lol~ sorry KR!-, you can't find edible cream on your average supermarket or local store. 

Drinks: Korea has smaller cans than Mexico (or the rest of the world?), this is good because, well, less soda is better for your health but paying 1USD for a tiny can of a soft drink is... well, some people feel upset about it, I barely drink any soda now. 

Alcohol: CHEAP!!!!!!!! A bottle of Soju is 2-3 USD and it can get you pretty drunk, Local beer is cheap but also very bad but bleh, sometimes we just need something to drink, Makgeolli is also pretty cheap and can go from 1-5USD, Wine is about 11-20USD (of course, depends on the quality!) 

Snacks: If you go to your local DAISO (like those Dollar stores) you can get snacks starting at 1USD, most of the chips are bad and somehow sweet so, if you like spicy things, make sure you bring your snacks, mail them, or bring sauce!! -If any of my good readers in Mexico wants to send me Snacks or sauces,,,, do let me know!!!- 

I'm running out of ideas here, if you have any questions about something I didn't cover or wasn't clear, leave me a comment and I'll try to update the post as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, our -me and my sis'- VLOG is out!!, I won't post the link because I'm embarassed -lol- but if you look carefully on Youtube or my other blog you'll find it.... 

-Gisela V

Sorry if I'm lacking on some information, I tend to lose the ideas for my posts as soon as my fingers touch the keyboard. 

Osaka V2

Over 6 months ago we visited Osaka for 3 days, for me, that was more than enough.

We visited all the tourist spots in 1 day on a 38 degree weather, it was HORRIBLE, lots of humidity, sweating like pigs and lots of walking, I honestly wasn't very excited about us coming back, but since its the end of winter I figured it wouldn't be that bad...

And it wasn't!, we spent our day walking around Osaka, started at a temple followed by a quiet walk under a light rain and then a long walk to a park. Since we still have plenty of time and the day was pretty cold we took the subway to Namba, went to have Convenience store snacks and took pictures -lots of them-, we also visited Don Quijote, the coolest store in Japan, you can get anything, from Make up, to snacks, drinks, shoes, lolita outfits, maid customes and the cooles Onesies for adults, I love it, I wanna buy everything there^^

We basically walked around until it was time to meet a friend's friend... a very nice Japanese lady called Ms. Fujita -pronounced FuYita hehe-, she traveled to México 15 years ago!!! so, she was very excited to meet Mexicans in Japan, we went to have dinner at what she claims to be a Popular place, we had Yakisoba and Okonomiyaki at a One Piece decorated place, we had a nice chilled dinner with great conversation, she brought gifts for us -I felt so bad we didnt have anything for her-, we got Tea and Chocolate <3.

The ride back to our hostal was just 2 Subway stations, I had no idea we were so close to one of the coolest places in Osaka -lol-, tomorrow we'll bike around the area and explore some more of what will be our Hood for the next few days.

I'll try to make that post about living in Korea later on the weekend, I just wanted to post today -it's actually 1am here, so, I'm already late- since I  havent been blogging everyday cuz my lame challenge didn't last long -lol-

I should sleep now...  G'night!!!!!

-Gisela V.

6 Months of Korea

Two days ago marked our 6th month-versary (??) in Korea, on September 4th we arrived at Incheon from Japan, funny thing?, I'm writting this post from a random Hostal in Osaka, Japan....

I would like to thank my sister for being with me these 6 months (wel... these almost 29 years), for making my dream come true, for loving me as much as she does and for going crazy with me all this time. It was actually her who reminded me of our month-versary, over 3 years ago I told myself I would live in Korea someday, my mom and my sis were always very supportive and now we are here, I know my mom is proud of us for taking such a crazy path and not living a conventional life.

Despite the rough way it took us to get here, the downs and the lack of many things we were used to have, I can say I'm having the time of my life, I enjoy the little things of life, things I didn't even notice before, I'm making new friends in the oddest ways, I miss when I don't eat rice for a couple of days but I still miss Mexican food very much.

I feel some of my friends misunderstand our life because we tend to party quite often (for very cheap of FREE!) but we also complain about the lack of money...aaaaaaaaaaanyway, that's way to deep for this post -or any post-.

Since we will be in Osaka for 5 days and I've already seen what I needed to see here, I guess I will be doing some blogging and some Vlogging...

Soon I will be posting about the most frequent question I receive on the blog's FB page... "What do you need to live in Korea", honestly you just need the courage, but I guess I'll let you a bit more about what we have been doing here and how it is to be a Mexican in Korean and of course, you can also go to my sis' blog and read how she sees being a Mexican over here^^

-Gisela V.