Living in Korea (for ladies who got married with Korean men) - 1

After these few months I joined program in the multicultural family support center of Gwangjin-gu (the area where I live), I found the information they provide is very useful for us, the immigrant ladies. Also, I hope this information will help those who are coming over here to stay.

The case of the Vietnamese girl, (naver search 베트남신부살해사건 to get more information) who was only 20 years old, was killed by the husband who is almost double of her age, in only less than 10 days she entered the country. The husband is diagnosed with mental problem. What a sad news... so the awareness of the government and the married ladies are both important. This type of case is not the first time, so we ladies should know our rights and get the useful living tips to live happily in this foreign country.

This booklet was given by the multicultural family support center. It is provided in different languages, while I got the English version. My Vietnamese friends got the Vietnamese version, Chinese got Chinese version and others.

Publisher: Korean Government
Planning: The Cenral Office for Multicultural Family Support Centers
This book was publised under the sponsorship of Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs 보건복지가족부,  Ministry of Public Administration and Security 행정안전부 and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism문화체육관광부.
However, the contents of thi book are also available through the multicultural famil support portal site (http://www.liveinkorea.go.kr/)

Contents:

1. Introduction to the Republic of Korea
2. Foreign Resident Support Services
3. Residence and Naturalization
4. Korean Culture and Life
5. Pregnancy and Childcare
6. Education of Children
7. Health and Healthcare
8. Social Security System
9. Employment and Labor
10. Enjoy Korea!
11. Reference

Get one copy for yourself is not a bad idea - as you can get a lot of information to ask in daily life (with useful website references and telephone numbers provided)

This mini booklet was also given by the center for married couples (printed by Seoul Family Support Center http://family.seoul.go.kr/ ). It was printed in Dec 2009, so there are lots of latest useful information (we're expecting our first baby in this coming Nov), especially there is the support from the government from pregnancy to the children education, health and others.
There is also a table listed out the congratulation-rewards for those who give birth of babies - from 1 baby to more than 5 babies. (Seoul governmnt encourages the residents to have babies)

More to come...

Straight road with zig-zag line

When I go to teach at a study center every Thursday, I walk by this road
and... I found  out it's an unique road.
What does it mean actually?

Baseball game

View from Jamsil Baseball Sports Complex to Sports Complex

Korea is famous of its baseball team, especially in the Olympic Games 2008. They won the gold medal. However, they were crazy for the sports, even before that. In Malaysia, we do not play this sports, thus actually I don't have much idea how to play the sports.

We have a friend who works at LG company and his company provided some free tickets when LG play in the tournament. On 25th May, we got the chance to watch the game LG vs KIA. It's very lucky for us that LG won that game. The result was 5:4. But actually LG lose in the early stage, but because of homerun, and later they worked hard and they won the game.

Oh ya! I finally got the chance to see Home Run! But the ball didn't come to our side.

My ticket!

I don't know about the guy in the ticket but my friend told me he is a good player (though that night he was not the star).

The game started 6.30pm and the sun still brightly shining. I like summer.

There were already thousand over people there in the sports complex. We missed the chance to see the celebrity who started the game with either throwing or hitting a ball. We were looking for the ticket booth because we got free tickets and so we were late to enter the stadium. :(

This picture just to show you that... we sit far away from the field.

The players are so tiny, right? See from TV is clearer.

Another one is, the seats opposite of us is KIA supporters.

Our side is LG supporters.

When any of the team hit the ball, the cheerleader led the supporters to sing, to shout and the cheerleading team danced. Wow! I like the Korean supporters!

But... since I'm pregnant, I felt so exhausted easily and left earlier.

This photo was taken at 7:52pm

Round 6 (if I'm not mistaken)

It's getting dark but ... the cheering sound didn't stop.

They used these balloons to make sound.

Let's see some videos, not very clear, but hope you can enjoy the live performance as we were.

There were also free stuff to give away in the middle of the show, like kissing couple, lucky number, etc. The big screen showed the audience in the supporter zone randomly then they can get free gifts. It is such a good marketing way.

Dallae's Story

Doll Performance

I got the free tickets from Korea4expats.com to have a chance to watch the doll performance - Dallae's Story. My friend and I watched it on 19th May, Wednesday.
Because of the remembrance of war, for the education purpose, this performace was held in the National Theatre of Korea from 14th May to 22th May 2010.

I like it very much because the dolls are really well made, it is sweet though the storyline is quite sad. The story was started with a happy family, performing in 4 seasons, but later on war came and everything changed. The dad died and left the mum and the child toy.

It is a non-verbal performance, and thus with the music background and puppets, toys, and the light effect, it became an amazing show. It can even help the children to know the actions  of  dolls - just like the animation on TV, it was originally moved by human action by action. It's not easy to move the doll by hand.

I think my baby inside of me enjoyed the show too. :)

I found a website which have the short movie of the performance. Click here.

After we watched the show, we found this mini house was shown outside the hall.

Beautiful flowers

Flowers are all around you this summer, stop for a while if you see some! You will certainly can't resist its prettiness. Especially try to smell the wild roses.

Share with you some taken by my hp.

Sun is bright...

The redness of rose is shining

This pink flower is shining under the sun too...

White is also as shining as other colors...

Do you also find the color of flowers you like this season?

Summer is here!

I didn't write anything in my blog since I am concentrating on... my pregnancy. I didn't take much photos like last time, but still thanks to the good handphone which I have now that I can take down some memorable photos.

The weather now is so hot... but the sky is blue and the trees are green. I like it very  much.

Share with you some photos

and hope you enjoy the weather change too...

Let's go out to enjoy the sunshine (not sun burnt instead).

27th Apr 2010

Look up to the sky and I saw this wonderful tree!

27th May 2010

The clearest sky we had in May after cloudy days

1st June 2010

Hot summer arrives on the first day of June

Summer = sun!

sun = shadow!

Look down on the floor also brings amazing view!

The shadows of the trees and leaves

I even found one love-shaped shadow when I walked from my house to welfare center.

Last but not the least, green is the main color of summer!

I like green!

Cherry Flower blossom

This year it comes late, but still as beautiful as before. I planned to go other places to have different scenery but the weather stopped me. So, I just go to the place where I always go - and the one I like the most - Children Grand Park.

Guui entrance
on Wednesday

twinkle twinkle little star

close up

soon to blossom

too beautiful to shine

Did you get to see some around you? The cherry flowers bloom out earlier in our housing area, but the park later, and even Walker Hill area does not yet bloom out yet! Weather is strange and the flowers come out late too.

Enjoy the spring!