Seoul Korea, Day 2

I woke up early on a Sunday morning with still pain in my right foot. Our plan is to hear the 9am mass at Myengdong Cathedral, the main Catholic church in Korea. But as usual we came in late and it's already the homily. It is quite disappointing because it has been a month since I last attended the church service when I was in Riyadh. This day is colder than yesterday, about 19C. Good for walking around the city if only my foot is not aching.
The Gothic church is just astounding!

Even more inside the church.


The pipe organ was actually used by the choir.


After the mass we took a few minutes walk to Myeongdong Market and had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.
Sosyal ang Dunkin dito!

While having breakfast I saw this man with camera man and other staff. He seemed to be a celebrity here.


Next trip is to Namsam Tower or N-Seoul Tower. We took the free shuttle bus to N-Seoul Tower cable car. It is parked across Myeongdong Station.

Weeee!


N-Seoul Tower! Infamous for its couple's lock, captivating view, dancing lights and the Teddy Bear Museum.

We met these beautiful people at the Myeongdong Cathedral Shop and bumped into each other again at the shuttle going here.
The mother visited her daughter who is an exchanged student from University of The Philippines-Diliman.


Pledges of L.O.V.E.
Love tile message.

Our version:

Couple's Lock.
Christmas Tree?

At the upper deck.


Seriously now?

Our lock. Gaahh!


On to the Teddy Bear Museum.

There's a Teddy Bear Museum 1 and 2. It's a room of dioramas showing the culture of South Korea from when it started up to the present.


So huge I want to jump on them.

Princess Hours!


Korea's traditional games are open for you to try.
This is I think like a snake and ladder game. The woods are your dice. Hahaha!

We also have this. We use an old bicycle's rubber tire and hit it with a wooden rod to keep it rolling.


You can go back to the city by walking down the mountain to the bus terminal or via the cable car. We took the cable car again to go back to Myeongdong for lunch.
Han's Deli. Reasonably priced and tastes good.

His lunch.

My lunch.


Myeongdong Market, Seoul's shopping mecca, is now alive!
So many cosmetic shops! Like sprouting mushrooms. The Face Shop. Tony Moly. Nature Republic. Etude. The Skin Food. The prices are almost half in any international store.

Cutesy!

What I bought. *wink*


We ended the night with a 1-hour cruise at the Han River.

And witnessed the dancing light.



Nice way to relax. Next problem is where and what to eat. We decided to eat at Insadong and got there at about 930pm and after some more walk we couldn't find any open restaurant. Geez! So we ended up having dinner at Burger King. Sad.

Some Tips:
1. Check your flight sked first if it's a holiday. Unfortunately, Sept 10-13 was a Mid-Autumn Festival and majority of the shops are closed.
2. This site helped me a lot in planning my itinerary.  VisitKorea.or
3. It is cheaper to take the round trip cable car ticket to N-Seoul tower. 6KWon for one-way versus 7.5KWon for two-way.
4. Some shops offer tax rebate. Although it is just about 5-7% it's still worth taking specially if your going to have big purchases. Check the shop if they have 'TAX FREE' sign on their windows.
5. Also, most shops open at around 11am.
6. If you're planning to do the tile message, bring your own permanent ink pen. For the locks, you can bring your own and customize it if you want. Hahaha!

Yipee!

I got a new booty!

I left my 2G phone in Manila. I had the battery charged in my sister's car while we're on our way to the airport and because I was rushing out when we got to the place I totally forgot about it.

When I came back here hubby said we'll buy a new one. Guess what he bought me?!

Yup, Samsung Galaxy SII. I have been using it for almost a week now and I love it. I get to have most of the apps that IPhone have. It is so slim and sleek. It got 8Mp camera and HD video. You can easily download android apps without the need to create an account with credit card as part of the required field. You just have to have a gmail account. And who doesn't have it nowadays. You'd be surprised with how fast it downloads due to its dual core processor.

The downsides are: 1. the battery drains easily. I seldom use it on calls and even for net but the battery, even after fully charging it, the next day it will be down to 50%. 2. You can't use Viber on it for long hours. The phone stops as if it hanged and you have to reset it, switch it off and on that is, to have it working again.

But, all in all, I just love it!

Touch Down!

Yey! I'm finally here in my new home, blogger.com. There are so many amazing things that I can do here so I decided to move out from LiveJournal. I have no plans of upgrading it into paid account. Although, I'm thinking of buying the wildbutterfly domain. Duh? As if I would be paying that amount.

So I would be sticking to blogger...for now.

Why I Blog?

There was a question in livejournal yesterday, "Do you keep your journal to your self?" It got me thinking. It's both a yes and a no. Yes because I want it to keep somethings to myself just like in the olden days when you have a diary. You try to hide it hoping that nobody would read it. You just write it so that you will not forget both the good and the bad things. You write it because you know that one day when you read it you'll just laugh at your shallowness and then smile for some write ups that saw the depth in you.

Then I also share it with some because I know that to them they'll just read it as it is. Without judgement or prejudice. Just as you are feeling and seeing things the way it is at that time. Knowing that you're a being continually evolving and changing.

But for the most part, I blog because I want to. I blog for myself. Knowing myself as notorious in forgetting things, names, faces and even events, I blog because I don't want to forget. If ever I get dementia or alzheimer's disease when I get old, I have something to look into to remind me of who I am and what made me the person that I am. 

Missoni for Target

This is a very delayed post. Haha! Saw this in one of the blogs I'm following: Jenni Epperson.
So I made my own research and yes the Missoni lines for Target are adorable. Although, I don't think I would rave over their clothing line I would, however, go crazy over the flats, scarves, some kitchen wares and the likes. If I were in the US I would probably be one of the pack who waited in line as early as 6am when the line was launched last September 13.

For fashion:


Adorable!

Great for shopping.


For the techy me


To keep my clutter


For the home

This would make a great contrast to the all white sofa/couch


For the kitchen


Espresso cups!


Prices are all here.

I wonder if Target replenished their stocks after the mob wiped it clean during the launch.

This Midday

I found two amazing things while the husband and I were lazying out like a couch potato in front of the TV set.

One is being able to find a package delivery from the US to the Philippines without having to worry about the outrageous taxes I might pay at the Customs. Johnny Air sends out your online purchases to the Philippines at reasonable costs. You just have to pick it up at their offices in Metro Manila. You can check the website for queries on how to ship a package through them.

Second is this amazing man who auditioned on The X Factor who sang Etta James' At Last. That song was in our wedding playlist so it is close to my heart. Josh Krajcik really surprised me for singing the song uniquely his. If I was her mom I would be more excited than him and would cry endless.

The One That Got Away

my temper. I have been holding it for the longest time and just earlier it snapped. I have resigned from my company since last March 18. HR said that after a month from the time all my accountabilities are cleared I would be able to get my backpay or final pay and the provident fund. 2-3 months have passed and no feedback from the HR coordinator. Even after frequent calls, emails and favors from former colleagues to contact her still no clear indication as to when I'd be able to get my final pay.

August came and she said I'd be able to get it by end of the month in time for our visit to the Philippines. End of August, no check was released. We came to Manila on the 8th of September and called her office, you guessed it right, still no check. She promised that by Friday, Sept 16 I would be able to get them. I agreed since there's nothing I can do and we'd be going to Seoul anyway and would be back by then.

Sept 16: she said I can pick up the checks. The final pay will be until 3pm only since I have to get it from Finance. The provident fund until 4pm which I will get from her. We arrived at the office 45minutes after 3. We are expecting that I won't be able to get my final pay but at least the provident fund will be available. But, lo and behold when we got there she had me waiting for 15minutes only to tell that the provident fund will not be available because there was a problem on the issuing bank. And, she'd be giving me a quitclaim letter instead to get the final pay.

I wanted so much to tell her not to give me that shit! It is so obvious that it was only by that time that I arrived that she took care of it. But, my head is aching so bad that I can't utter any words that could further drain me. My migraine is already sucking me up so I might as well leave the place that's causing me more stress.

So, I left the office with the promise that she'll deposit it on my Metrobank account on the 19th instead. And then two more weeks have gone still no check have been credited to my account. I even asked a favor to a friend the other day to check on her if she have already deposited the amount and she said she did. Now, this is when she blew my patience. After two days of checking my account online no amount have been credited so I called her office. I have to blog this in tagalog otherwise it might get lost in translation:

Me: Hello ma'am. Lynette Franco po ito tanong ko lang kung nadeposit na?
HR: Ma'am wait lang ha?

on hold... for 5 minutes. this pissed me off because I'm doing an international call. When she got back on the call,

Me: Ma'am naka hold ako for 5min. This is an international call.
HR: Ay ma'am sorry po. Hindi pa po nadeposit ma'am. Hindi pa po na-out ng messenger.
Me: Ma'am bakit po ganun? E ipinatanong ko sa kaibigan ko kung nadeposit na sabi nyo oo. Tapos ngayon hindi pa? Ano po ba talaga? (I am not raising my voice here. I am really trying to calm down. I am beginning to be so irritated.)
HR: Hind ko nga po alam ma'am eh. Akala ko po nadeposit na nya.
Me: Ma'am, kelan na po ba talaga yan? Two weeks ago pa nyo sinabi na idedeposit ninyo. Pero until now wala pa rin.
HR: pasensya na po ma'am.
Me: Hindi po kasi ako tulad ng ibang mga kaibigan ko na nagtyatyagang maghintay ng 1 to 3 years bago makuha yung cheke. Kasi yung pera sayang. Nakatenga na walang nangyayari. Sayang ang pera. Pera namin yan eh.

at this point I am aready shaking because I'm trying not to get angry but my system is telling me I am angry.

HR: Oo naman ma'am pera nyo to.
Me: Nakakafrustrate na kasi na paulit-ulit na lang. Sa totoo lang ayoko na kyong istorbohin at ayoko ng makipag coordinate sa inyo eh. Gusto kong matapos na ito.
HR: Naiintindihan ko po kayo.
Me: Sana. Sana naiintindihan mo talaga ako. Pakideposit naman na, please.
HR: Sige ma'am deposit na po namin today.
Me: Sige po. Salamat.

end.