Not so lazy sunday

Heeeeeeeeeello everyone!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Gisela V.

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

I suck

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Gisela V.

Ps. THANK YOU NAOKO for the presents!~

How to move to Korea

Hi everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Gisela V

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

Osaka V2

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

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

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

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

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

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

I should sleep now...  G'night!!!!!

-Gisela V.

6 Months of Korea

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Gisela V.

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.