Seoul Comic Con 2017

October 18, 2017October 12, 2017Leave a comment

Hey guys as you know the first ever Korea Comic Con was held in Seoul in August. Since I love movies and games my husband and I along with my brother and our dear friend Jason set off on the weekend of 4 August to visit Comic Con.

Since it was the first one in Korea we didn’t really know what to expect. The turnout however was huge.

We also saw a few cos-players lining up before the event

It was only held in one hall in the Coex Expo centre but I believe that it was a great location as it was easy to go into the mall for coffee and food whenever we felt like it. We did however have lunch at the Marvelous Grill & Steak house inspired by the Avengers Movie

On the first day there were quite a lot of cos-players including me with Wolverine here 😀

On day 2 there were even more….

Out of the 3 day of comic con we only went for 2 days. It was a long and exhausting weekend but well worth the money and the time. Now I regret not going on the last day because I saw some pretty amazing costumes on instagram and I wish I saw them in person. Furthermore seeing as it was the first Comic Con it did pretty well although I hope that it will be much bigger next year.

Finally here are some pictures of us at Comic Con Seoul 2017 😛

My Brother and I

Jason and I

Just me 🙂

My husband and I with Bleach 😉

Getting our Korean Drivers Licenses

October 17, 2017October 12, 2017Leave a comment

We’ve been in Korea for a little over 2 years, and we’re not sure how long we’ll still be here. Since we’ve bought our motorcycles we decided that we should probably make the effort to get our Korean Drivers licenses. Getting the normal license was pretty easy. All we had to do was go to our embassy with our drivers licenses from our country of origin. The Embassy made a copy and gave it a stamp to authenticate it. Then we took our original license, the copy from the Embassy and our Alien registration Cards and 4 photo’s to our local licensing office. Our local office wasn’t as local though, since we live in a really small ‘rural’ city, we had to travel an hour and a half to Yesan where we exchanged our original driver’s licenses for a Korean license. Luckily the Koreans do everything ‘bali-bali’, which means fast-fast…. While we were applying for our license cards we quickly wrote a theory test… got our results immediately, then we waited 10 minutes for our drivers licenses to be printed. We didn’t even have to do a practical test.

The motorcycle license is another story all together. For this we had to do a practical test. They scheduled our test for the next Wednesday at 3 o’clock, but since we work during the week we had to change our date and went for the test in Seoul ( they do tests on Saturdays). Unfortunately the test is much harder than first anticipated. We watched a lot of Youtube videos on the test, since its said to be quite hard. We even painted some lines in a vacant parking lot and practised for 2 weeks before doing the practical test and we still failed. I don’t have a lot of motorcycle experience so its no wonder that I failed but my husband has been driving a motorcycle for more than 20 years and he also failed the test. 🙁 They do however give you a big cruiser bike that you can’t even take for a test drive before the test.

Therefore we decided to go through a Driving Academy in Seoul. They show you how to do the test and then you practice on the test course for 10 hours with the bike you’ll be using for the test.. you also get to do 3 hours theory to prepare you for driving in Korea. We’ve finished most of our hours and will be doing our licenses in the next 2 weeks… Wish us luck!!

Holiday insigts

February 3, 2017February 1, 2017Leave a comment

For the past 2 weeks we’ve been back in South Africa. We’ve been soaking up the sun and visiting our families. It feels like the time have been flying at lightning speed.

At least we got to spend some quality time with our families. I feel sad because I miss them, but they all seem to be doing fine.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with my stepmom. It took me some time to get use to her as my dad married her barely 6 months after my mother’s passing. After my mom died I didn’t really want to form any new connections in my life. It was so painful losing someone so close to me, and I had a lot of regrets. I remember telling my husband that I wanted to visit my mom on the weekend because I’m worried about her, by then she was already bedridden and didn’t really open her eyes or speak, but I use to talk to her in any case and sometimes, just sometimes she would open her eyes and faintly smile at me. But that Thursday, my dad phoned me and told me that she had passed away.

Since then I stayed away from new people and new relationships, but after this weekend I feel that I can start allowing people back into my life.

My outfit this week is my little Korean style dress. I like wearing it because it reminds me of Korea. It also has a loose fit and allows you to move around in it. I got it form Teeny Weeny in Seoul, Korea.

signature_k22a8w5v6d6jv2mpnr

Korean Souvenirs

January 9, 2017January 9, 2017Leave a comment

We have officially started our holiday countdown. For those of you who don’t know this yet, we’re going back home to South Africa for a month to take a little break. We’re leaving on Thursday and we’re just about ready to go. We haven’t packed yet but we have already bought some souvenirs to take back home.

Its not very easy to choose what to take, because you want to take something that’s Korean but also not so much Korean that you’re family can’t use it, for example chopsticks aren’t very useful in western countries unless you like a lot of Chinese, Japanese and Korean dishes. You also want to take something home that’s special.

This is what we’ve decided to take. Honey flower cakes and Honey Butter Walnuts. Honey and Butter is something that is truly very Korean. We get all kinds of Honey infused foods here, from bread and pizza to potato chips and even nuts so I thought that would be a nice treat for our parents. I’ve also gotten some Green Tea Kit Kats.( I see they’re actually from Japan…. but I’m taking them home in anyway 🙂 ) In addition to honey butter, Koreans love Green Tea in their cakes and sweets and I thought that would be really nice for the people back home to try.

As mentioned previously chopsticks might not be the best gift but I got some in anyway.

I also bought a french brandy

and some cute traditional Korean key-chains.

Korea is also known for it’s amazing beauty products so I’m also taking some of the Tony Moly Pokemon cosmetics home.

Now all that’s left is packing 🙂

The lonely Expat Christmas

December 16, 2016December 22, 20161 Comment

When choosing to leave your home country to live in another country, it all sounds really exiting and cool. Truth be told, it is mostly cool and exiting. But then sometimes, its not…

When you leave your home for whatever reason, there will be some unforeseen troubles along the way. Things that will make you miss home. Or sometimes you’ll just need a hug, but there will be no-one to hug you.

One of the things that you need to consider is whether or not you’re willing to give up the precious time that you have with loved ones. One of life’s infinite truths are that we will all die. Its inevitable that someone you know will leave this world, and depending on how long you’re away from home, you might not be there in their final hours of need.

It is a choice that you will have to make before you leave home. You could have spend a few precious moments with that person and you didn’t. But just because you can’t be there in person, make sure that you are there for them in different ways. Remember to call home ever so often. Send Christmas and Birthday gifts. Show them that you care for them even though you’re not there.

One of the things that we have to live with is having no one for Christmas. This year Christmas falls on a Sunday meaning that our Christmas holiday isn’t long enough for us to visit our families. They might put a few minutes aside for us during a Skype call but after that, we’re all alone again, and if they forget to call then you’re whole Christmas is ruined.

This Christmas, remember your loved one in far off distant lands, whether you’re the one away from home, or them. Give them a call or send them a little card just to say I LOVE & MISS YOU!!!!