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.

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^^ 

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.

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. 

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.

Hungover with 2NE1

Hello everyone!

I'm finally back, apparently I had a 24 hour hungover, weird thing is, I didn't drink ANY alcohol over the weekend, it might have been because on sunday we partied too hard and went to bed after 5am and at my age that's dangerous lol.

On sunday, we went to 2NE1's afterparty, Sally and I went earlier since Diana was at the real 2NE1 concert that night, we invited Oppa to come along and somehow more people tagged along with us, some cool, some not and another guy who seemed to be nice but wouldnt say a word or dance...lol

When we got in, there was a DJ playing, I was expecting bad music, cigarette smoke and dry ice like the last time we went to The A, to my surprise, this DJ was better and being with a group of crazy girls -ok, it was just Sally.... lol- made it even more fun, we danced and singed, the rest of the people was too worried waiting for 2NE1 to actually do anything...

Around 1am, Choice37 came up and the YG family was there, Choice37 set was better than I thought, he of course included 2NE1 songs, G-dragon, GD&TOP, mastawu, A$$AP Rocky, etc, by then, the audience was going nuts and everyone was pushing, people were on the floor and we ended up getting out of there and going to the back to enjoy the party, we were dancinc and singing even louder -lol- and then this pettite guy came and joined us, he was doing the coolest dances... I want to be friends with more people like him hahahaha, DUDE, if you are reading me,,,, call me! hehe

Oppa spent the whole night texting, I don't even think he notices when the crowd dragged him to the middle of the floor, he was too inmerced on his texting, when he finally came to the back, he went out and we didn't see him until like an hour later when I asked him where he was, he just casually said "behind you guys...." meaning, he was watching when we were going crazy LOL, well, he better know the real us now.

Around 2:30 we decided to call it a night, we were leaving the club and I saw Jay Park^^, too bad I didn't get a pic with him, I'm a fan :), Oppa drove us and since we hadn't had dinner, he took us to Tteokpokki Town and then he took us home, I went to bed after 5am and woke up at noon to ask my boss what time I had to meet her...I finally got up at 2, ate with my sister, took a shower and went out, I felt sleepy and had a headache the whole day...but I'm ready to hit the Hip Hop club next time!!

Oppa, sorry if we were being annoying when we were singing in your car~~ hehe

Half of my tuesday is gone and tomorrow I have to pack for Osaka...since we are on a tight budget, I'm guessing we'll do lots of editing for our next vlog while being there....Yesterday I got great news but that's not for me to tell right now, just be happy for me^^

Ah..and if you are wondering about 2NE1 at their party, well, they came out and sang 4 songs, GD, Taeyang and Jay Park were there and were invited to the stage, CL came up with Choice37 for his DJ set, Minzy and Lidia Paek came to the stage to do some dancing as well as the YG dancers and the musicians.

So, Sally, Christina (sp?) and Diana... thank you for such a great night, it was THA BOMB!, hope we can do it again soon~

-Gisea V,

Interviews in Korea

Hi everyone!!!

I'm posting saturday's post late because I was out having fun lol....

It was quite a long saturday, it started with a mid afternoon interview for a Job, I was supposed to prepare a 10 minute English class for kindergarteners, I got there at 2pm and it was like a massive event, there were 8 Korean teachers and we were 2 Foreign teachers, the Interviewer went on for about an hour explain god knows who in Korean, making jokes, asking questions and jus explaining things... then he just pointed at me and told me I would start with my presentation, by now I was shaking because the other teachers had Way too many cool materials, I had 2 lousy songs, cards and colorful tiny letters for some games, so, I had to win them over with my charm and brain -ha!!!!- instead of start a Fake class, I explained how will I do the class, how I was going to interact with the kids and win them over, I sang a little bit of my 2 songs and when I was done, the 2nd teacher -korean- took over, she got up, removed her jacket and was wearing a bright yellow dress with a speaker and her cute nametag, she was bright, loud, could dance and sing...god, by now I realized how bad I did it... then the other foreigner took her turn and it was as bad as mine lol, we listened to the rest of the Korean teachers who by the way, were equaly nervous, shaking and forgetting things but always being bright and positive...

The interviewer said I did good and had a good kindy teacher face -LOL- but I needed to learn songs and dances and make more face-hand gestures, I agree 100% and by watching the rest of the teachers I got a better Idea of what to do next week when I go back.

We then ate Ice cream and waited some more, it was almost 4 hours after that I was sent home and I was told I would have to go back next week... It's pretty scary, I mean, I know the English is on a very Basic level but entretaining 4-7 year olds is not an easy job... Much less if you are not easy to be all loud and cute all the time, I guess I need to study some Aegyo hahaha.

Finally at 6pm I was ready to go and meet Sally and my sister for dinner, we are a Trio of BBQ lovers, we go to BBQ Buffets and now we know not to eat rice or Jjeon or lots of water because we'll get full faster, we just grill and eat meat with some veggies lol, we were there for a bit over 2 hours...Ahn -Sally's friend- joined us and we had a great time pigging out on meat, we even finished the lil gas tank on the portable stove -we are not even sorry-, we then were going to get Ice cream cuz Ahn wanted to go see the Ice cream boy who according to him is supper hot, except he is like 19 and not Hot but just Cute in a "he is my lil bro" kind of way, by then we had decided to hit the Karaoke close to home because it was only 10,000Won an hour, we bid goodbye to Ahn and took the subway to Hoegi station, right in front there's an Avenue L mall, 2nd floor and you'll find the classiest Karaoke ever, the price is now 12,000 but still is super cheap -most places go from 20-30,000- we only payed for an hour but depending on your score you can get extra time, we got 10 more minutes, we rocked 2NE1, Bigbang, Snoop Dog, Limp Bizkit, M2M, Spice Girls and some Pitbull lol, we then walked home but kept signing on the way. I bet people thought we were drunk but NO, we didn't drink ANY alcohol tonight, I had a great time with those 2, I just with Sally was a bit older and knew older songs because we finished our Karaoke session with Justin Bieber's BABY..... OMG ~~ LOL.

Thank you girls for such an amazing night, and well...see you tomorrow for 2NE1's afterparty!!!!!

-Gisea V.

Friday at last!

I didn't blog yesterday because I stayed home ALL day u_u, I know I'm lame but bleh....

This week was full of weird things, interviews, work, babies, rice, more rice, unexpected calls, spring!, emails, more work and finally more interviews lol.

And its because of an interview that I wont be able to go volunteering tomorrow  :(, so, I guess next month will have to be.

Sunday will be a 2NE1 day, hopefully Oppa will come with us to the party^^, monday we are going to Lotte World with Baby Bro!!!!! and thursday we are flying to Osaka!

So, hopefully I'll bring you better posts soon!,forgive my lame posts but I'm not used to blogging everyday.

-Gisela V.

Goodbye Winter

This afternoon I left home wearing my only winter jacket, soon I realized it wasn't even cold, there was a nice breeze and it was sunny, when I reached the subway it was too hot siñoooor, I ended up taking off my jacket and that got me some stares lol, when I was walking towards Kiki's place I realized I had never experienced such marked season changes, if you have ever been in Korea, you know there's always SOMEONE asking "Do you have 4 seasons in your country?" and well, in Mexico we do have 4 seasons but the changes are not so drastic.

I've spend Autum and Winter in Korea and a tiny bit of Summer, everytime I was amazed by the changed, the most amazing -to me- was from Summer to Autum, the city changed from green to Yellow in the blink of an eye but then Winter came to fast, from Yellowish-reddish to Dead and brown, we had very little snow in Seoul, I was expecting lots of snow but that never happened, it might be a good thing because I don't think I was ready for huge amounts of snow.

And today, I realized Spring was just around the corner, flowers are blooming, fruits are getting a bit cheaper, not everyone is wearing 20 layers of clothes and Hot Americanos are being changed for ICED Americanos. 

I know most people who have been in Korea for a long time feel annoyed by that Seasons question, but I'm new here and I'm enjoying the changes way too much^^, those are the kind of things we should enjoy, hopefully you are doing it too and you are not waiting until a Viral video with a baby girl enjoying it tells you to do it....

I guess today was a good day, I came back from Kiki's with a box full of Seaweed lol.

-Gisela V.

K Jin!

If you don't know who K Jin is, you've clearly not followed ny blog sincd 2010 lol, I met K Jin on my 1st trip to Korea back in december '10; she was one of the blovgers invited on that trip, she is Korean but she was living in Ireland, in fact, she hasn't been living in Korea since 2008-2009 (sorry inside joke), she has lived in several countries and moved to Japan over a year ago with her boyfriend, last year we met again in Tokyo before our workcamp aaaand before leaving for Korea, ever since we've been in a bit more contact with each other (she isnt very good with technology).

We then met her again in Tokyo in December^^ and told us she might come to Korea later that month, and she didnt but she couldnt meet us  :(

Just a week ago she said she was coming to Korea and we met tonight for dinner and KARAOKE!!!!, we'e done karaoke together before (in japan) but we all sucked BIG time.  Tonight we went for some Chicken and Beer (minus the beer because she had a tooth removed on saturday lol), somehow we always end up having the most random conversations like: If GDragon ask you to marry him and have a 4some with Youngbae and Seungri, will you do it? LOL!

After dinner we went to a 노래방 to do some singing, we sucked a little bit less but I had LOTS of fun and then we did the usual "Goodbye ritual" meaning: we went to the closest avenue and stood at the corner to talk for another hour.

It was very nice seeing her again, this time in her country (finally!)

So K Jin, if you are reading this, I hope you go back go blogging!!

-Gisela V.

Wedding weekend

Lousy me was unable to blog last night after getting home from Sokcho but I'm here now!

I met DaeJun and his wife almost a year ago in Mexico city, I met them when they were still daiting^^, we only met once but kept in contact on Facebook, we've been meaning to meet since we arrived in Korea but for some reason it didn't happen and a couple of months ago I was invited to their wedding(btw, they got married in Mexico about a month after I met them).

The wedding was held in Sokcho, about 3 hours away from Seoul and we were actually invited to spend the weekend there, I was looking for to spend a couple of days there but due to Oppa's sis' wedding and compromises on monday we had decided not to go  :( but Daejun messaged me and insisted me to go, he said a free bus would pick us up in Seoul and the same bus would take us back on sunday, he said we should go because there would be Free drinks and FREE food!!!(his words!), I was going to go with my sister and after getting Daejun's approval we decided to invite our frien Sally.

Sally is the coolest  vietnamese18 y/o that I know (also the only one lol), this was her 1st wedding in Korea and even asked us what to wear, we told her weddings here are not as Fancy and you are not required to dress up but she didnt listen, she askes her teacher what to wear and ended up being the only one with Formal wear and heels (lol),I guess she also didnt check the weather in Sokcho and had no idea about the snow there... Oh Sally!, next time you should listen to your Unnies hehe.

Early morning on sunday we went to Konkuk Univ. station to catch the bus, when we got on the bus we were the only foreigners there so that got us getting stared at but still people was very nice, each one got a Kimbab roll, Rice cake, a bottle of watter, tangerines and coffee, there was also a mini fridge with Beer and Soju (the wedding could've been right there!), on the seat in front of us the sweatest lady was wondering what planet we came from; luckily for us, Sally was there to explain we met the couple in Mexico and thats how we were invited to the wedding.

It took a bit more than 3 hours and 2 bathroom stops to get there and when we finally did, we stood in the middle of the crowd looking awkward and wondering what was going on until the groom arrivednd came to say Hi (ㅎㅎㅎ), I had been told another Mexican friend (Adrian) of a friend (Pedro) was coming and he indeed came. Adrian arrived with
Yuki and Kizu (both koreans) and were soon refered to the spot we were at (lol), soon after the introductions the wedding ceremony started, the Hall was a mix of Fancyness with lots of cheesynes (???), the groom was wearing a suit and the bride a white princess~like dress. The parents were wearig Hanboks (love them!) and the most of the invitees (lol ~ FRIENDS reference) were sporting snickers^^

It was a short ceremony, with bows, vows and a song written by the bride (awww cuties!) and then it was Picture time but we didnt wait for it because well... we didnt want them looking at their pics wondering who were we (lol 4realz), instead we ran to the buffet (shame on us!). I would like to tell ya what we ate but Sally and I had no shame and had a bite of almost EVERYTHING plus ice cream, fruits, cake and sweet tteok.

When we were getting the ice cream i had the scope and a lil girl got shocked and turned to me to tell me the Ice cream I was getting was SOJU! ~ I guess I DO look young after all hahahaha, I had to let her know I was old enough to have an alcoholic ice cream (*^▽^*)

We ate in a hurry because the bus back to Seoul was scheduled at 3:30 (we had about 1 hour to eat), at 3:30 we were hurrying to the exit and we met the couple just in time to thank them for the amazing experience lol, there were people at the buffet asking us if we had eaten well^^

We rode the bus and a bit after 3:30 we were on our way to Seoul or so we thought, until the bus stopped close to the beach and we were told we had 30mins to do whatever we wanted (yaaaaay!), we got off and took pics by the snow mountains, sally and I had a tiny snow fight and then we all went to the beach to take more selcas (We are the SELCAS Pros), sally had to take off her heels and froze at the beach.

At 4:30 we finally were on our way to Seoul, people were still drinking on the bus and having snacks, after the restroom stop (around 6pm) the lady in front took the beers and got us all drinks and snacks ~the Party isnt over until its over~ and finally after LOTS of traffic and tunnels we made it to Seoul around 8pm but before that Lady snacks (lets call her that ok?) gave us more bottled water to take home and picked up everyones garbage, she was what I call THE PERFECT AUNTIE ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.

We still had about an hour long subway ride and by 9 we nade it home, I shared a ramen with my sis (dont judge me!) and went to bed with my friend Chocopie (shhhhhhh) but ended up falling asleep without eating it because of the headache.

At 2am I woke up feeling refreshed and rested lol it was awesome realizing I stilk had 5 more hours to sleep, thwn I woke up at 4am, 4:30, 6:00 and 6:55. When my alarm went off at 7 I felt I needed more sleep lol u_u.

Have you guys been to a lot weddings?, In Mexico my family used to go to a lot of weddings when I was little but as an adult I never went to onev funny how I get more wedding invitations in Korea.

-Gisela V.

Gotta get down on Friday

I'm being a good blogger and I'm posting this at 1am with a headache...

I owe you the story of yesterday's dinner, we went out to have dinner with my sis' boss and his guest; a German girl who thought Korean things in German where better than in Korea, we went to have Vietnamese Shabu shabu, for me, it was my 1st Vietnamese style shabu shabu, luckily for us, they were playing a video with the instructions on how to eat it -lol-, the food was good, I liked Vietnamese style, they had 3 kinds on sauces and they were all spicy, my sis' boss was only focused on eating while the German girl was focused on how bad was I doing my summer rolls....I swear, she was also focused on how in Germany things are different, the kimchi is better, the korean everything is better.... to be honest, I can't deal with that kind of people, they annoy the F-out of me, you can't go to another country to learn about their culture and critize everything because in your town's K-town things are different, plus, she kept telling me "I know what you are doing wrong with your roll...want me to tell you?"....hmm... excuse me, DID I ask you??, ugh, I love food and I know sometims there's a way to eat it, but well.. as long as you enjoy it,,,, fuck everything else.... lol ---sorry!!!, just thinking about her upset me again-.

Today (or yesterday?...friday!), was a good day, I got to teach some classes, talk to my boss, sign up to Volunteer next week and then we (me and my sis) were supossed to meet some girl-friends for a night out, we wanted to go to a bar and just meet new people, our friend ditched us, but we decided to stick to the plan, we had a kebab in Itaewon and then moved to a bar, we decided to go to Seoul Pub because my sister wanted to mingle with other foreigners (that's a first), she thought it would be better to find another place but we've been to that bad before and we knew there were foreigner, plus, it's not very expensive and it's close to the subway lol... 3 minutes after walking to the bar and talking to the owner who wouldn't sell us some beer because my sis' didn't have an ID, she found a pic of her passport and we were allowed to drink, as soon as they brought the 1st pitcher, a guy came to us, he seemed nice and spoke spanish, then his 2 other friends came and we ended up having a nice chat and meeting new people, I like meeting new people because is always nice to make new friends, but I hate it when they tell you "I'm not trying to pick you up" when they clearly are doing so....

Aaaaaaaanyway, it was a crazy week, this weekend we have 2 weddings to attend, 1 of them is outside of Seoul so, we will be doing some traveling, next week we are volunteering and i'll try to sneak into 2NE1's afterpary -lol- and the 2nd week of march we are going back to Osaka, so, looks like we are having some crazy weeks ahead and I'll be blogging about it...

For now, I think that's it....

Did I mention last night I dreamed about G-dragon being my best friend???, I should stop listening to his music lmao.

-Gisela

I have a Bed!!!

Remember how yesterday's post was about me meeting Oppa?

Well, the reason for us to meet was because he was kind enough to come with me to pick up what would be my new bed, some of you don't know but we only had 1 bed and it was in my sis' room, I was used to sleeping on the floor (I had enough blankets don't worry^^), ever since we flew to Japan, I've been sleeping on the floor (or tatami!) and it was kinda nice since winter is really cold over here, so, sleeping on a toasty floor was nicer that sleeping on a bed.

Anyway, we went to pick the sofa-bed all the way to Sindorim, I was actually worried because we live on the 4th floor and having to bring it upstairs (we have no elevator) seemed complicated, specially because it's been proven that Oppa isn't very...handy -lol-, when we got home we had a bit of a trouble to get it out of the van and Oppa hurt his finger, it was bleeding but him being very Macho wouldn't let me take a look at it, we brought it to the 4th floor very fast, I was amazed it only took like 5 minutes, poor oppa was breathless and I thought he was gonna pass out -again lol-, since he was busy he had to leave right away and I was still deciding if the sofa bed would go to my room, I left it in the living room and later when I came back home that night, I had a nice bed set up in my room (Thanks to my sis!!), I felt awkward and uncomfortable sleeping on my new bed and it was COLDER than sleeping on the floor, the moment I uncovered my arm I got super cold and I woke up a million times u_u

Hopefully tonight I will sleep better, although, I don't know why, tonight is SUPER cold....funny thing is, yesterday my boss offered me another Sofa-bed, should we take it?, in case we have company?? haha.

Today we had dinner with my sis' boss, but, it's late now and I'll leave that story for tomorrow...

This weekend we have 2 weddings and 1 of them is in Sokcho, so, we'll be traveling with Sally and Unnie to my friend's wedding^^

-Gisela

Do you see that in the corner? those are all the clothes I have left... that's what happens when you travel with 1 backpack ~and yes, my room is tiny~

Oppa

Hey everyone!

After the events from yesterday, I realized some people will think I have sonething against (Korean) Men but I don't and I refuse to believe guys are only nice because they want something jn exchange...

Today I met up with Oppa, he is the only friend I dare to call Oppa, he has been a true Oppa (big bro) to us, for a second ~when we met him~ I thought he might wanted to get something in exchange for being so awesome to us but with the time, I've realized he really does care about is in a brotherly way.

He can be a little weird sometimes but he compensates his weirdness with his care towards us (lol), he is the cool Oppa that got us Ice cream as a Housewarming gift, he constantly check on us and is always amazed with how we live our life.

Today I met him by myself for the 1st time (ever!), one of his first questions was "Did you try the kimchi I gave you?" lol, I thought it was gonna be awkward and I kept playing the scenes of what happened yesterday in my mind but soon I realized he wasn't like that, we got to talk more about what was going on these days and somehow we started talking about guys and I ended up telling him what happened yesterday, he was a good bro and told me the guy was a "bastard" hahaha, I asked him if he had any cute/hot guys and he said (and I quote) "I'm the hottest among my friends" I had to really laugh out loud, not because he is ugly but because of his sudden confidence.

I'm glad we found such a nice friend/big bro  even if at times we stil feel weird when he worries so much about us. 

I'm sorry guys, I lost the idea of my post, but I guess that happens when you stop typing to have a long dinner~~~

-Gisela V.

My 1st date in Korea

Hello everyone! and welcome to Blog day #13

Today has been quite a day, I still don't know how I feel about it...

Remember how yesterday I said I had a lunch with my dealer?, well, I thought we were just meeting for lunch, as...friends if you will, turns out this WAS supposed to be a REAL DATE... I don't even know how to explain it -lol-

We met close do Dongdaemun to have lunch in Tteokpokki Town, while he was driving he asked me if I was in school... huh?, when I said no, he said "how old are you?, I thought you were 20", weird, right?, I obviously told him I am 28 and then he said something like "How come you look so young?", up to this point it was really weird, I don't see why age was so important (he is 33 by the way), anyway, then he was like "Your english doesn't sound like the average English spoken by Mexicans, why?"...another RED LIGHT was turned in my head, when I asked him about his English skills he went all Korean and said he didn't like speaking foreign languages and he didn't understand why Koreans like to use non-korean letters, like on cars, signs, etc. At this point I thought he was going to say something like "You should speak korean, you are in Korea" or something like that....

By now I was feeling awkward and didn't know what to talk about and suddenly he said "You know, I actually invited you because I thought you were 20, I like 20 years old..." ~ EXCUSE ME for being a SUPER OLD 28 year old.... it was clear at this point that he thought he was on an ACTUAL date, I didn't know what to say to that statement, so, I tried to change the topic but he is only interested in Working, eating and sleeping... he thinks he is living the good life, and I don't think he appreciated the fact that I can't live like that, what's the point of life if you are not enjoying it?...

Long story short, I had to ask my sister to call me to get out of that AWKWARD situation, after lunch I thanked him for helping us with our phones and advise him to enjoy his life a little bit more, I said goodbye and ran back home... the whole walk I kept thinking how things turned so weird, even if I was 20, what makes him think I would jump into a relationship with him?, just because you helped me getting a SIM card doesn't mean I'll love you forever... I hate when people only do something for you expecting to receive something in exchange...

Now, I don't know if I should feel good because I look like a 20 year old or feel bad because I look like it but I'm not.

Some Koreans have this weird way to "compliment" people... but I just don't get it.

Anyway.... awkwardness aside, I'm off to see BIGBANG's Hologram concert -again!!-

Hopefully, for my next date, I will be aware I'm on a date and will not go as bad as this one -lol-

-Gisela V.

PS. I wrote this post and felt like those teen girls writing their stories on a magazine lol