Re-visited Gyeongbokgung Palace in Pictures

I've visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace 3 times and this has been the only time I had the oportunity to take my time to explore it, I've posted about this before here and here, so this will only be a re-visit in Pictures!

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.

K-Pop in Mexico and more news/events

Hi everyone!

How've you been?, lots of things are going on over here and the main one is... Arirang and TV Azteca (One of the biggest TV Networks in Mexico) have announced a K-pop concert in Mexico this year, according to their Facebook after some meetings it has been confirmed that this year a Kpop group will come to Mexico, dates, prices and venues are yet to be confirmed but I know for fact that ALL Kpop fans in Mexico are super excited about this, so... we better start saving our $$ if we want to go to the 1st Kpop concert in Mexico, hopefully this will help bringing more Korean Artists to Mexico. IF you want more info about this you can also visit KPOP in Mexico's Facebook here. And you can follow @fer_gay y @el_hub on twitter, they are TV Azteca's main contact regarding this matter.

On another news, this Saturday the Openning of the Kpop Sarangday Mexico will be held in Mexico City, this oppening will mark the start of a series of events regarding SARANGDAY, this event is being organized by the KOREAN POP MEXICO COMPANY , all the information of the event can be found here.
The price of the event is $160 pesos and you'll have to pay this before this Friday  (April 20th).

There's another event called "IDOL FANCLUB ATHLETIC CHAMPIONS", this will be held on May 5th at Parque Bicentenario (Mexico City), this is a Sports event that will gather Kpop Fan clubs, the entrance fee is $20 pesos and you can read more about it here.

If you can not go to these events, every Tuesday the Korean Cultural Center is showing Korean Movies for FREE!!! it is limited to 100people you can catch a movie ar 3pm or 6pm, this Tuesday April 17th they will be showing "Welcome to Dongmakol" (웰컴 투 동막골). The story is set in Korea during the Korean War in 1950. Soldiers from both the North and South, as well as an American pilot, find themselves in a secluded village, its residents largely unaware of the outside world, including the war.
For more information about this you can visit the Korean Embassy in Mexico's Facebook here. If you can not go to see a movie you can just go to the KCC and check the books, movies, dramas or CD's they have in there, they are friendly and be happy to receive you :)

And last but not least... some of you already know about the Global Seoul Mate campaign that the Seoul Metropolitan Goverment released about 2 months a go to help promote Korean Culture around the Glove, I sent my applications and today the "winners" announcement was posted on their website and I made it!! I get to be one of the 110 Global Seoul Mates!!!! I'm extremely excited about this and can't wait to get more information on how is this going to work, if you guys applied as well you can check the results here.

Well, hope you can assist to those events or at least to go check out the KCC.
The address is posted here.

-Gisela V.

*********************************************************

Hola a todos!¿Cómo están?, Muchas cosas están sucediendo aquí y la principal es... Arirang y TV Azteca han anunciado un concierto de K-pop en México este año, de acuerdo a su Facebook después de algunas reuniones se ha confirmado que este año un grupo de Kpop vendrá a México, fechas, los precios y lugares aún por confirmarse, pero sé que todos los fans de Kpop en México están muy emocionados acerca de esto, así que ... es mejor empezar a ahorrar nuestro $ $ si queremos estar en primera fila del primer concierto de Kpop en México, Y esperamos que esto ayude a traer más artistas coreanos a México. Si desean obtener más información acerca de este también se puede visitar en Facebook KPOP de México aquí. Y pueden seguir a @el_hub y @ fer_gay en twitter, que son el contacto principal de TV Azteca en relación con este asunto.

En otras noticias, este sábado es la Inauguración del México Kpop Sarangday y se llevará acabo en la Ciudad de México, esta apertura sera marcar el inicio de una serie de eventos relacionados con SARANGDAY, este evento está siendo organizado por KOREAN POP MEXICO COMPANY, toda la información de el evento se puede encontrar aquí. El precio del evento es de $ 160 pesos y tendrán que pagar esto antes de este viernes (20 de abril).

Hay otro evento llamado "IDOL FANCLUB ATHLETIC CHAMPIONS", esto se llevará a cabo el 5 de mayo en el Parque Bicentenario (México DF), este es un evento deportivo que reunirá a los clubs de Fans del Kpop, el precio de la entrada es de $ 20 y pueden leer más acerca de aquí.

Si no pueden ir a estos eventos, todos los martes en el Centro Cultural Coreano está mostrando películas coreanas GRATIS! Con cupo limitado de 100 Personas por función y hay 2 funciones de 15:00 o 18:00 pm, este martes 17 de abril se muestra "Bienvenido a Dongmakol" (웰컴 투 동막골). La historia se desarrolla en Corea durante la guerra de Corea en 1950. Los soldados, tanto del Norte como del Sur, así como un piloto norteamericano, se encuentran en un tranquilo pueblo, sus habitantes desconocen en gran medida el mundo exterior, incluyendo la guerra. 
Para obtener más información acerca de este se puede visitar la Embajada de Corea en Facebook de México aquí. Si no pueden ir a ver una película pueden ir a la KCC a dar la vuelta, o checar los libros, películas, Series Coreanas o CDs que tienen allí, estoy segura de que estarán encantados de recibirlos.

Y por último pero no menos importante ... algunos de ustedes ya saben acerca de la campaña "Global Seoul Mate" que el Gobierno Metropolitano de Seúl lanzó hace aproximadamente 2 meses, la campaña esta creada para ayudar a promover la cultura coreana en todo el mundo, yo envié mis solicitud y y el dia de hoy anunciaron a los "ganadores"!!.  El anuncio fue publicado en su página web y fui aceptada! asi que ya soy una de los 110 Global Seoul Mate!! Estoy muy emocionada por esto y no puedo esperar a obtener más información sobre cómo se va a trabajar, si ustedes aplicaron pueden consultar los resultados aquí.

Bueno, espero que puedan asistir a esos eventos o al menos ir a visitar el CCC. 
La dirección está publicada aquí.

-Gisela V.

Mexico City Photo Tours: Hidden Treasures

Guest post!!!

This post is courtesy of Diana Verdin

 

I love my Country and I am very proud of our Culture. I strongly believe Mexico, in particular Mexico City, has a lot to offer to the tourists starting -like I mentioned before- with the culture, the food and flavors, the arts, the sights and the experience of meeting Mexican people who is always warm and ready to help out a stranger.

I've always been aware of how beautiful my hometown is, therefore, I've always enjoyed sharing it with people, I love showing them what Mexico is really about. Despite its reputation worldwide, Mexico is a place that makes everyone who visits it fall in love with it, whether it is for its beautiful beaches, historic places, interesting museums, friendly people or amazing food...everyone ends up loving it!

As a Photographer, I am interested in doing Photography Tours, which are a bit more specialized than regular tours. These types of tours are for people who's not only are eager to see new places, but to capture its essence and then, perhaps, be able to share it with others; which I find absolutely amazing as it is another way to get more people to visit Mexico, you know, there's no better publicity than word of mouth.

In my tours, I want people to be able to see more than the great and well known sites of the City, I want them to see the richness of places such as Markets, street/flea markets and many more places that have been long time visited by locals only, places full of incredible colors, amazing flavors and fascinating traditions, places that a tourist would -for sure- treasure and enjoy.

 

Photo Tour Mx City: Markets

Are you visiting Mexico City Anytime soon? This is your chance to do a unique Photo Tour with a local Professional Photographer who knows the City to the core!

If you not only are eager to see new places, but to capture its essence and show it to the World, this Photo Tour is for you.

They say you can get to know a place/culture by its food, well, what better than to go to the place where the authentic food is created: the market, known in Mexico as "El Mercado", a place where you will find fresh food for really good prices; you can buy food to make your own meal or you can eat at the traditional stalls located within the same market.

This will be a tour full of colors, flavors, tradition, food and, of course, fun. Something you definitely have to experience first hand -don't wait for your friends to come home and tell you all about their amazing travels and explorations, be the one to tell them the awesome experience you lived AND photographed!

If you're interested, please leave a comment on this post or you can also find me on Twitter: @diana_verdin for further information and details.

The first Photo Tour weekend will take place on April 28th and 29th. It is important to book your place for the date you wish as the tour is limited to 6 persons maximum.

If you're on CouchSurfing, you can join the Activity here!

Korean Cultural Festival Part II

Hi everyone!

This will cover the last part of the events of the Korean Cultural Festival (and Center). I'm glad I was invited since I had lots of fun and met some really nice people :)

The 2nd part started with Samulnori, for those who don't know what this is I'll explain it briefly, Samulnori is Korean Traditional instrumental music that's based on the "Pungmul" a type of percussion Folklore music that's part of the day to day life of farmers in Korea.
The 4 main instruments of Pungmulnori are:
Buk : Drums
Jang-gu : Sandclock shaped drums    
Jing and Kweng-gari (Hand drum).

With the Samulnori came the Jing Dance, this dance is formed by the wind-like movements that express the sadness of a woman missing her loved one. The Jing is the instrument used when performing this dance.

Jing Dance

After some very good music it was time to see the Taekwondo team, the K-Tigers. I must say I was really surprised by them, I was expecting a regular Taekwondo exhibition but turned out to be very exciting, with their choreographies and the music.
The K-Tigers are pretty good at what they do and even when some of them look very short (haha sorry!) they were able to jump pretty HIGH and it was (for me) the highlight of the night!.





 

Right after the K-Tigers it was the turn of the B-Boys... I don't know if I had high expectations for this show but the K-Tigers amazed me more :/ , then a battle Of Taekwondo vs Bboys came and what better than some pics for you to judge who was better.
 












 And last but not least....
A Pungmulnori presentation and Namsadag (Namsadangnori was name Human cultural patrimony by UNESCO and intangible Cultural Tresure #3 of Korea)


And then it was time for Bridges of Soul to perform again, this time it was with the song "Besame Mucho" a Mexican song written by Consuelo Velazquez, this was where Korea and Mexico met, a Mexican song sang by a Korean Popers trio with music by Korean performers... I have to say... Whoever thought them the song did a great job, their accent was pretty good and ended up with a very nice version of the song.
And to finish a great evening it came the time to perform Arirang, the most representative song of Korea that has been transferred from one generation to another, for this everyone who performed that night came on the stage and went down to get people from the audience to dance. It was a very emotive moment and a perfect way to end it.

I wish Mexico had more events like this and to have more diffusion, hopefully with the KCC in Mexico now the Korean Culture will have more diffusion to remind us that Korea is not only Kpop and Dramas.

-Gisela V.

Korean Cultural Festival in Mexico (Part 1)

Hello everyone!

Master of Ceremony

This past March 10th 2012, the Korean Cultural Festival took place in the City Theater (http://www.cultura.df.gob.mx/index.php/tcm), Luckily for me I got an
Invitiation from a friend (Thank you Younhee!!!), I was supossed to bring someone with me, but the only person interested was my sister but she couldn't make it :( so I decided to go alone (I know... Foreveralone, right??). I usually don't like going places alone, specialy if I know it's going to be crowded, anyway after I decided to go on my own a storm came and I thought it was a sign of god telling me not to go... When it was time to leave the house the rain was almost gone so I took a cab and guess what!, the streets were closed... was that another sign??
I was about to quit when I decided to walk...and I'm glad I did because the Festival was WAY more than what I was exptecting to be and I met Laura, soon we started to talk about Korea and turns out she had an invitation for the openning of the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico, she invited me to go with her and I gladly accepted her invitation.

It was 7 o'clock when the lights went off and we heard music comming from the outside of the Theater... Drums, people yelling, music, samulnori outfits

When everything started I obviously started taking pictures.... turns out... I wasn't allowed to do it so I was asked to stop :( ... I couldn't just NOT take pictures...I hate posting without pictures... so I enjoyed the 1st time of the show but I was sort of nervous because I couldn't take pictures, so when I sawthe "No pictures!!" girl I asked if there was something I could do or someone I could ask for permission to take pictures and she send me to the Press balcony YAY!!! *so much win!*, I waitied until the end of Part II and then I hurried back to the Press balcony the only downside to it was... I had to stand for the rest of the 1 1/2hr show (Remember I was holding a big/heavy camera, my bag, an umbrella, another jacket, etc).

Part I

Sori/Sounds

SKYBULLS, a composition by Shin Chang-Ryul

This openning act was in charge of Kang Eun-il & Haegum Plus

Part II

Harmony between Tradition and modernity

LIBERTANGO
An adapted piece between Argentinian Tango and a russian popular song

NEW AH-MI

This was interpreted by Oh Ah-Mi, an Electric cello  pioneer from a new gendercalled "Electronic Cassic", her performances combine music and a startling performance. I must say, Oh Ah-Mi was incredible, she has so much energy and charisma, she can dance with the cello (An electric cello is supposed to stay still on the ground) and everything is very energetic. You can see a video of that day HERE

Oh Ah-mi - Han's Dancers - Oh Ah-mi

HAEGUM RAPSODY (By Peter Schindler)

It is a musical work that includes classic repetition of phrases. Is influenced by European style chords, jazz and Asian music

THE CHASE

This piece expresses the run of a fugitive and its chaser, this piece was performed by Kang Eun-il & Haegum Plus witch is a group of people making hybrid music, it was created in 1999 and is one of the most representatives of Korea.

WOLFGANG'S TUNE

Interpreted by the Haegum trio, Electric cello and piano.

BELLE AND EMERALD (Notre Dame de Paris)

Interpreted by BOS (Bridge of Soul) Popera male trio, that fuses classical music with popular music. This was accompanied by the Han's Dance Company.

Bridge of Soul

Since I don't want this post to be super long, this will be it for today, but wait for Part 2 of the Korean Cultural Festival with B-boys, Samulnori, the Jing Dance, K-Tigers (Taekwondo), Namsadang, Bésame mucho and ARIRANG!

-Gisela V.

Buzz Korea 

Korean Cultural Center in Mexico

Yesterday March the 13th 2012 the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico held its Grand Openning, I've been waiting for this for over a Month ever since I found out about it.

Last month I went to the KCC to meet the Director Professor Bong Chul Kwan, Mr. Kwan was kind enough to show me the yet unfinished building and answer a few questions, so here's some information about the KCC in Mexico.

Me: How does the idea came up to open a KCC in Mexico?
Mr. Kwan: The idea came because there are a lot of people in Mexico interested in Korea, K-pop, the Language and culture in General

Me: What kind of activities will be held at the KCC?
Mr. Kwan: Cooking Classes (Korean and Mexican Food), Language Classes, Dance, Music and we also want to provide a space for people to show their art, paintings, shows, etc.
We also have a room with a Big TV where people can come and watch Korean News, Dramas or Movies, there's also an auditorium where conferences can be held or used for Meetings.
In addition to this we'll have internet access and Computer with access to Korean Books directly from Korea.

Me: Do you have planned to invite Korean Artists only?
Mr. Kwan: No, the idea is to invite Korean and Mexican artist, we still don't have a convocatory opened yet, but people can show us their work in order to have an exhibit here at the KCC.

As you can see, there will be lots of things to do at the KCC in Mexico, I'm glad it's opened now since all of us Korea-Lovers can enjoy some more of Korea here in Mexico.

Right before the Ribbon cutting ceremony there was a little show outside the KCC of Samulnori (Traditional percussion music from Korea)

The Openning included dignataries from both countries, incluiding Korea's Culture Minister Choe Kwang-Shik and the Korean Embassador in Mexico Sung Hoa Hong a representative of Samsung in Mexico and other personalities.

Ribbon cutting

Outside of the KCC in Mexico

Korean Ambassador in Mexico - Korea's Culture Minister Choe Kwang-Shik

The event included Speaches of the Ambassador, The minister and a member of the SRE.
After the speaches we enjoyed some Traditional Korean Music

 2 Korean songs by the "Niños Cantores de Chalco" sort of like a Chorus of under priviledged girls who take music lessons from nuns, I've never seen this chorus and must say those girls can really play and sing.

Then it was the turn of "Bridges of Soul", a Popera (Pop - Opera) trio who sang a famous Mexican son "Bésame Mucho" with Mariachis, I didn't get to take pics of this since it was really crowded :(

This was the only pic I was able to get... sorry guys!!

Last but not least, all the artist came back on stage to perform "Arirang", everyone sang and it was a very exciting moment.

Just to finish this great event we all went downstairs to have some yummy korean food and drinks, funny thing is... At the buffet line I met the Architects who worked with the building, they were really nice and asked me about Korean food, I promised I would mention them here since no one else did at the ceremony, so Hi!!! Mr. Leonardo Garcia (Lead Architect) and Mr. Isaias Gonzalez!! Thank you for making such a nice building for us :)

All in all, it was a great event and I'm really looking forward to all the activities that will soon start at the KCC in Mexico.

As for the Korean Culture Festival of last weekend... I still owe you that post!! and I promise this weekend you'll have it!!

Hope you like the post and if you have any suggestions for posts, just let me know!!
Here are some pictures of what's currently being shown at the KCCM

-Gisela V.

PS. The KCC is located in Temístocles #122, Polanco. Right next to the Subway station, you can see the map here