Missha Mexico

If you read some of my previous posts, you know I love Makeup and my favorite store is Missha....

Missha Store @ Insadong, Seoul

Missha is of course a Korean Brand, I discovered Missha about 4 years ago while watching a Tutorial on Youtube.... There were no stores in Mexico and the only way to get something from Missha was online (or going to Korea.....), I've heard about BB Cream before, but I didn't really know what that was, turns out BB Cream stands for Blemish Balm, this is a moisturizer, foundation and sunblock.... I ordered 2 and to my sorprise I received 2 Missha BB Creams and a bunch of freebies (yay!!!), 2 years later I still had some BB Cream and I had the oportunity to travel to Korea, I knew Missha was a must stop for me and indeed it was, I went to the one in Donghdaemun, Insadong and another one inside a subway station... my love for this Make up brand grow bigger and I bought plenty make up I still have :) 

3 months a go the very 1st Missha store was due to open in Mexico City, I wanted to go to the openning but  turns out I would be in Korea that day... I made up for it by going to Missha in Myeongdong :) and just last month I was able to visit Missha's store in Mexico City....

Photo taken from: http://misshamexico.com/

The store is located in Hamburgo 206, Colonia Juarez. Mexico, D.F., it's located in what it used to be the Seoul Market, the store is big enough and you can find everything from an Eyeliner to Moisturizer and BB Creams, this brand also offers Kpop CD's and Posters and this is the downside of the store.... 

You all know I like Kpop but I don't like going crazy about it and I don't like people doing it either.... the time I visited the store there was a Salesgirl ho approached me, I was just looking to get to know the store, I didn't plan to buy anything there that time because I got way too much while I was in Korea in September, so I just wanted to see if they had the same products and stuff.... The salesgirl wouldn't stop following me and then thought I had grabbed one of the samplers and took it with me.... I of course didn't have it and it turns out it was just missplaced and she found it 1 min later.... I DO NOT like being followed in a store! much less if they think I'm traying to steal take something. I understand its their job to offer Help since it's something "new" in Mexico and if you go to Korea you'll notice how the salesgirls are outside trying to catch everyone's attention into the store and that's OK, it might be because I was a foreigner that I wasn't followed in Korea, it took about 3 minutes for them to decide who was going to be brave enough to come to me and ask me if there was something they could do to help me in English, I asked for a few things and that was it, but she wasn't behind me trying to explain that what I was looking was Nailpolish like they did in Mexico.... excuse me but I do know what Nailpolish look like, plus I can read the signs... ok?

After that experience I just wanted to get out of there as this store is mainly directed to again Kpop fans in Mexico not to Make up lovers/artists.... this is how I got to the conclusion to buy online , I just wish not everything Korean related in Mexico was directed mostly to Kpop fans.... :(

Anyway, despite the bad experience I had at the store I still love their products :D my favorites are: 

Missha BB Cream 

Photo taken from: http://misshamexico.com

Since I don't use much make up, I usually just put on some BB Cream and if I'm going out or it's a special day/event I just add some Missha's Perfect Concealer and MAC powder :) 

Missha The Style Lipgloss Glam 

 This is my favorite gloss, I don't need to add anything else and it usually stays longer than most gloss'.

And last but not least, the Missha M Mascara (water proof), this one is light and gives a natural (yet enhanced) look to my lashes :D 

Those are my favorite products from Missha, you can go to their website here and try their stuff, also I assure you that you'll receive some pretty cool samples!!

-Gisela V. 

Where to Eat in Seoul?

If you are in Seoul there is NO way you are going to be hungry, food can be found everywhere!, from a Fancy Restaurant, to Street stalls to a MiniMarket where you can grab some Kimbap or a canned Coffee...

But there are some places you might don't want to miss!

The 1st one I would like to talk about is "Bulgogi Brothers" 

Pic source: bulgogibros.com

Type: Korean Restaurant
Location: Seoul Finance Center
1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul. Basement
Website: http://bulgogibros.com

I had one of the biggest dinners at Bulgogi Brother's, it was a never ending feast, the staff is very attentive, the meat we ate was top quality (as everything else) and out waiter even cut the meat for us^^

We ate Beef, Ribs, Mandu, Salad, Banchan, Cold noodles, Corn and pretty much whatever they brought to our table, we spent over 2 hours eating, if you visit Seoul you might not want to miss this place to have your share of Bulgogi!


My 2nd recomendation is "The Place Dining"

Pic source: www.nseoultower.co.kr

Type: Italian
Location: N Seoul Tower 2F
Website: http://www.nseoultower.co.kr/eng/visit/restaurant3.asp

Even though this is not a place to go get your Korean Food and most people would recoment HanCook (also located at the Tower) this is restaurant serves excellent food and an AMAZING view, just for the view you'll know this place is worth it, it won't matter if you go by Day or Night, Spring, Autumn or Winter you'll have Seoul as your background, this place is ideal for a romantic date.

Pic source: www.nseoultower.co.kr

And my 3rd recommendation of the day is "Hwanghu Samgyetang-황후삼계탕"

Type: Korean/Samgyetang
Location: Seoul-si Jongno-gu.  Insadong 10-gil 5
Website: N/A

Samgyetang is Chicken Gingseng soup, this soup is cooked slowly with 19 medicinal herbs... You know this is good for you if it has 19 herbs, right?, when I visited this restaurant I had the “Insadong Samgyetang" due to its slow cooking method the soup is cooked for several hours and it makes the chicken very tender so you can just tear it in half and find it to be filled with rice, this food is served in the summer for its nutrients to replace those nutrients lost through sweating during the hot summers in Korea. 

So, there you have it, 3 different options to eat in Korea, you can choose between a MUST bulgogi restaurant, a place with THE view or the Healthy choice, I hope you get to try one of these places and ejoy it as much as I did!



-Gisela V. 

Korean Snacks

My precious!!

Hi everyone!

It's time to talk about 1 of my favorite things about Korea... that's right FOOD...specifically: Snacks!

Almost 3 months ago I traveled to Korea with other bloggers, the trip was awesome but we didn't really have much free time to do some shopping :( , on my last day I woke up really early to pack everything and to go a nearby supermarket to do some snack-shopping!! 

The supermarket was only a few blocks away from our hotel so I had enough time, I took my time there and I chose some stuff I had already tried like Pepperos, Ramen and Chocopies!, I also HAD to buy Doritos for my sister since she asked me for this when I told her about buying snacks. 

So, this is what I got :) 

마이쮸  - 포도 aka Grape Taffy

This like most Taffys is good, I thought it was gum, but it wasn't haha but it was a nice sorprise :) It cost me about ₩600

떡볶이  -  In a bag! 

I am a huuuuge 떡볶이 fan, I've tried it with Ramyeon, with hard boiled egg and I've always loved it, so when I saw this bag of 떡볶이 "chips" I got EX-CI-TED and I was dying to try them, I was waiting for something spicy but it was sweet, like a caramel with an spicy punch at the end, at first I was disapointed but then I got used to the flavor and ended up liking it O_o and at times I crave it :( ..I honestly don't remember the price of this one, but I'm sure if I find it in Mexico it will cost me over ₩8,000... I once saw a bag of Korean Cheetos in Mexico and it was $80.00 MXP... Outrageous! 

찹쌀 가루  -  Glutinous Rice Powder

This one is used to make Rice Cake, I should've made rice cakes to make 떡볶이 but I was too confident on myself and tried to make Mangachi's 무지개떡 aka Rainbow Rice Cake even though it's an easy to follow recipe I had to improvise a steamer since I don't have a real one, and this is where things got messy.... I won't talk about it because it makes me sad :( but I'm sure this is a good product if used correctly kkkk. 

타코스  -  Tacos

I just got this one because it said "MEXICO", so I had to try them, the taste is like a Cheese Dorito, I like the shape of this and the cheesy flavor... but I was hoping the shape was like in the picture where you can add a filling hahaha

맛 김치  -  Flavored Kimchi

This one isn't a snack, but who cares!, I just got it because it was Kimchi and I was totally into buying everything I saw.... It was a small bag, it contaings 300grs of Kimchi and it was enough to make 3 servings of Kimchi Pancakes :) , it wasn't very spicy but it was OK... althoug I think if I was living in Korea I wouldn't buy this one and would try to get one with a more "home-made" taste (???)

도리토스  -  Doritos

We ALL know Doritos, right? ... My sister saw them at a Korean store in Mexico and asked me to get a bag for her since it would be like 4 times cheaper than the Korean Doritos in Mexico, there's something about Hangul writen in products that makes us want to buy them.... I just wish they had a Korean flavor to offer.... maybe there is a Korean flavor but this store only had Cheese... Taste exactly the same as 도리토스 in Mexico.... but look cooler haha.

돌자 반  -  Seasoned/Rosted Seaweed

As you can see in the picture I ate this with steamed rice, it gives a nice sort of sweet flavor to the rice, for those who don't like to eat plain rice this can be a good option... I still have some and I'm just waiting for the oportunity to cook some Korean Food and rice to finish it. This one was about ₩2,000 and if I compare it with the price of the same bag in Mexico I can say it cost less than half of what I'd pay here.

팔도 비빔면  -  Bibimmyeon

I heard of this before, but I had never tried it... I didn't add the veggies or the egg and it was just like eating Ramyeon with Gochujang paste... I liked it and I ate them again in Rome :$  I don't usually buy Ramyeon at the Korean Markets in Mexico because it might be a bit expensive, so I usually buy my Ramyeon at the Supermarket... I should have gotten more of these....

비틀즈  -  Beatles (Yup, like The Beatles)

I wasn't exactly sure what this was, but my mom liked The Beatles so...why not getting it?, it was fruits pretending to be The Beatles...

I'm guessing these are the Korean version of Skittles (Beatles....sound alike), same texture, same flavor, all in all it was good and I'd definitely buy them again!





As you can see, I got a LOT of snacks, I also got BBQ Pringles (we don't have that flavor in Mexico) and my sister and I liked them very much, I got different kinds of Peppero, Ramyeon and
Tea, I got a Green Tea with Brown rice, I didn't realize it had "Brown Rice" and got 2 boxes because my sis loves Green tea, turns out this wasn't the kind of Green tea she likes...so... more tea for me!, I'm currently on my 2nd box of Tea!

Anyway, almost 3 months later I have barely nothing left :( , so if anyone would like to send me some Korean Snacks I would pretty much appreciate it and I can send Mexican Snacks in return haha.

Do you guys have a favorite snack?, What is it?

-Gisela V. 

WKB Tour - Day 5 / Final Day

Biking and our well deserved lunch!

Sunday was the last day of the WKB Tour with Kocis-Korea Net. I can't remember what time did our day started. I can only remember waking up, taking a shower and hurry up because we were leaving, we were schedules to ride a bike through the Island, some decided not to bike and take a "golf" car around the Island, I of course was very excited to ride a bike (HA! I didn't know what I was about to get into...)... I've been riding my bike for a couple of months in Mexico City on sundays...on AVENUES....so riding on an Island was way harder than I thought, 1st it was a HOT day, 2nd there were UPs and downs, you'll think the Up's were the only problem but some downs were scary because the road is uneven, at some point 3 of us had to walk with the bike because it was just too high (hahahaha), we finally reached the beach and it was a smoth ride for a little while :) *Happy times*, we got to the Lighthouse but it wasn't just any lighthouse, this one was on the form of Praying hands and some of us started praying to not ride the bikes anymore hahaha, the sea on that side of the Island was AWESOME! it was this green-blue water!, there was an elder couple there fishing^^ and after a little bit it was time to go back to have some lunch (yay!!), we were really tired and the Camera crew "offered" to take the bikes for us... but we didn't want to trouble them so we took the bikes and this time we won the people in the Golf car...until we reached the 1st (and highes) up... when I realized Grace was getting off her bike and getting on the car so Ema and I followed and the poor Camera Crew had to ride our bikes (Sorry guys!!!!!!), a couple of minutes later we arrived at our acommodation it was time for a well deserved lunch!, we had rice, Kimchi, a Fish soup and some banchan..oh yea and lts of water.

After lunch it was time to pack and go :( , we rode the back of the truck for the last time and talked about how much we were going to miss that truck haha, for some reason we all loved it.... although the 1st time I rode it I felt like an immigrant being taken to the US ilegally lol.

Fun times @ the Ferry

The owner of the houses where we stayed was very nice, he took us to the Ferry station and after we thanked him we were ready for our ride back to Gunsan. We took the "slow" ferry this time so we were up for a 90minutes ride (yay!...not so much), at 1st we were on the outter part of the ferry just having fun, taking pictures, joking around and some were trying to feed the seaguls again, after a little while I felt dizzy and I went back inside, turned on my music and plugged my earphones :D then Ema and Annabel joined me (I was actually on their seat as some guy was sleeping in mine haha), we listened to GD's new CD and then they started to educate me about Kpop :), introduced me to a couple of new bands and explained how they also felt a bit awkward by telling people they liked Kpop....

About 90mins after, we arrived at Gunsan's Ferry Station and it was time to go visit the Dongguk-sa Temple, this temple is the only remaining Japanese temple left in Korea after Japan's ocupation of Korea. The outside of the temple was completely different from Korean Temples, this was White and Brown (or black?..it was a dark colour), there were beautiful gardens surrounding the Temple and once inside you could feel the peacefulness of the place, the main room's ceiling was filled with Lottus lanterns, we had some time to enjoy the Temple and then we were off for an early lunch, this time we had a representative dish from the Jeonbuk area... Gan Jang Gae Jang aka Raw crab marinated in soy sauce, it came with banchan... LOTS and LOTS of Banchan and a Spicy crab soup... to be honest I didn't really like it O_o not because I'm picky with my food... Come on! I tried the alive octopus!, but this one had a slippery texture and not much flavour....as for the Banchand and the spicy soup I loved them, I don't know why didn't we put some of that raw crab on the boiling hot soup hahaha, even though I enjoyed watching everyone eat because for some creepy reason I enjoy watching people eating...

Once done with the crab we went to Gunsan's Modern History Museum and right next to it we saw the old Gunsan's Customs Office. The Modern History Museum holds a big collection you can find information going from Ships to the 3rd floor that resembles a Korean Villa, inside you can try on a Hanbok, take a picture, or do some ink stamps!

Once each of us finished the tour of the Museum we gathered outside and just across the street from the museum you can find the Jinpo Marine Theme Park, the park houses some retired military vehicles used in the past, on the inside of the Ship you can find weapons used during the Jinpodaecheop war and how it is the life inside this kind of ships, fun fact is…. Some parts are kind of Dark and creepy, this was the perfect spot to play some jokes on Ema (She’s easy to scare… Sorry Ema!!!), the Park opened in 2008 to commemorate Jonpodaecheop (Victory of Jinpo over the Japanese forces).

It wasn’t until I started researching for this post that I realized how important Gunsan is :O

After the Park we rushed to see a Japanese style Villa (?) in Gunsan, the place haven’t been completed, so we just looked around and then it was time to take Jessica and Asif to the bus station to return to Busan and Daegu *sad moment*, when we dropped them off at the terminal we took our last group picture and the rest of us went to the Famous Bakery “Lee Sung Dang”, this is the oldest bakery in South Korea and was founded in 1945, there’s a huge variety of Bread, Sweets, Coffees and snacks, I think each of us grabbed like 3-4 to try O_O but we all tried Lee Sung Dang’s most popular item… the Sweet red bean paste filled bread :)

                            
We packed our sweets and went back to the bus that would take us back to Seoul….this was the end of the WKB Tour… we arrived in Seoul around 10pm on a Sunday, I had around 13hours left in the country and I wanted to make the most of it, so when we arrived at the hotel I grabbed my backpack and went to Dongdaemun Night Market in order to find my K-pop souvenirs ha!, I took a taxi and less than 10 mins later I was there, I was told the place was going to be packed but it wasn’t!, I found a store dedicated to Kpop and did a little shopping there... and that’s how I got my BigBang’s Alive Special Edition CD :D , the next day I woke up really early and went out to buy as many snacks as I could :) and by 10:30am I was ready to part…. Maria, Annabel and Ema came to say goodbye L and that was it…I rode a taxi back to the Airport and had a nice talk with the Ajusshi and I couldn’t help it but I shed a tear on my way to Incheon… about 50mins later we arrived and this is where the bad part of the trip started… 

Our last hours together :(

My flight ticket was with Air France but operated by Korean Air…the 1^st part of my flight was Korea-Paris… I won’t deny it… Korean Air is awesome… I loved it and I wish Korean Air had flights from Mexico, the service is Top notch even if you are in Economy, the seats are very spacious and they had BigBang’s new album available to listen haha, 11 hours later I arrived in Paris…. This airport is…well Incheon should show the French how to make a proper Airport, my boarding gate was EMPY…well.. there were like 7 boarding gates and all were empty, the stores were closed and there was nothing to do… I had a 5 hour layover and after a while I got bored and fell asleep…luckily I woke up just in time for my flight… again things were confusing because I thought (once again) I was flying with Air France but my flight was operated by Aeromexico…I don’t know what is it but I just don’t like Aeromexico (Sorry Mexico, but you need better Airlines), the service was OK I guess… I slept most of the flight but I did notice that the flight attendants either don’t speak English or just refuse to do it..I understand this flight is going to Mexico and there are a lot of Mexicans on the flight, but there are also international passengers and not everyone speak Spanish, so even if you yell in Spanish really slowly they won’t understand you…ugh  K… good thing I slept as soon as I boarded the plane, just woke up when they were serving dinner and back to sleep…when I woke up again we were about to land.. YAY!! 33 hours later I was home!!!!

I still miss everyone very much but we Kakao/FB very often and whenever someone posts a new picture or something related to the trip I can’t help but to wish we were all back in Korea together!

Hopefully we’ll all meet soon for a new adventure in Korea…and I hope the Camera crew can Join us because now I’m used to give interviews hahaha.

-Gisela V.