Christmas Spirit and Lots of Fun at Lotte World Korea

Lotte World Adventure Korea
(c) Anny Martinez

If you are looking for a theme park in Korea that offers entertainment as well as adventure, I recommend the Lotte World. I must say it’s an awesome venue to bring your family and friends because this is a perfect spot for sightseeing and to enjoy thrilling rides. Although Korea has a lot of theme parks, Lotte World is one of a kind because aside from the rides, parade and other entertaining activities, you can just go there to enjoy the view because it is located right next to Seokchon Lake, hence making it appear even more magical and interesting. I can’t say it’s the best theme park in Korea, but generally, I like the ambiance of Lotte World. 

The Indoor Adventure of Lotte World Korea

What I like most about Lotte World is the different kind of parades they exhibit inside the park. Me and my friends were lucky enough to visit this theme park in December, this is of course courtesy of KEB-Hana Bank of Korea who gave us free tickets to enjoy Lotte World. We enjoyed the Christmas parade so much because it reminds us of the most celebrated holiday of the year which is Christmas. In Korea, you can only see and experience Christmas when you go out to major cities and markets and malls. Seldom can you see people decorate their houses with Christmas ornaments. But at Lotte World, we have witnessed how they spread the Christmas spirit to all the people inside the theme park. The Christmas parade was so colorful and entertaining, plus the Christmas music and characters were all jovial enough to make the ambiance festive and jolly inside the biggest indoor theme park in the world. 

Christmas parade at Lotte World Korea

So why is it considered the world’s biggest indoor theme park?

Well, aside from the fact that it can accommodate different parades in every season like the Christmas Parade in December, it has also a concert stage. Yes, a concert stage inside a theme park. In fact, we went to watch the concert first before doing anything. 

Korean kids performing at the concert stage of Lotte World Korea

The Indoor adventure also includes 22 different rides like the World Monorail, Camelot Carousel, French Revolution and a lot more.

Not only that, there’s a connecting passageway to the second floor that will lead you to the Outdoor adventure where you can see the Magic island, an artificial island that is situated in the middle of the Seokchon Lake. Imagine this: A Magic castle in the center surrounded by the beautiful natural lake with different choices of rides all over the place. I don’t know about you, but I found it so overwhelming. 

The magic castle at Lotte World

There are about 17 thrill rides at the Magic Island of Lotte World. We actually tried the Bungee Drop, it’s a smaller version of Gyro drop. We saw how people were thrilled at the high-altitude-free-fall Gyro Drop, so we just decided to try the smaller version of it, at least we were confident we can handle the Bungee Drop. 

One of the many thrill rides at the Outdoor adventure of Lotte World
(c) Anny Martinez

Since some of us were not really into thrill rides, we just enjoyed the Christmas ambiance of Lotte World. When it started to dark, the magic castle lit up. Oh no, actually, Christmas lights started to appear everywhere in the Magic Island. It was such a magical night for us indeed.

The magic castleof Lotte World at night
(c) Anny Martinez

It’s all good at Lotte World except that we found it difficult to buy food. While there are a lot of food stalls and restaurants inside the park, we found it hard to find a good one because they’re all scattered in the area. It would be pretty easier for people to choose and find something to eat if there’s an area where you can buy food, it’s just my two cents though. But from our experience, we wasted some time to go from one area to another just to find something to eat.

Lotte World Fantasy Gift shop
(c) Anny Martinez

Generally, the combination of the fun rides, the entertaining Christmas parade and the magical view of castles and lake made our visit at Lotte World memorable and fun.

Cute Products You Can Buy in South Korea

I love cute!

I don’t care if it’s a person, a thing or an animal, as long as it is cute, I definitely love it. I mean, who does not love it, right?

If you are into this kind of stuff, shopping in Korea is made easy for you because this country has a lot of cute products that you can buy and bring home. Most of these items are available in the street of major markets in South Korea like the Nampodong Market in Busan, Myeongdong in Seoul, Namdaemun and Dongdaemun. When you go to Korea and you set your foot in one of these markets, you will surely see these cute things all over the place. Here are some examples of adorable products that you can buy in South in Korea.

1. Cellphone Cases

The cute cellphone cases in Korea

 People here in Korea are into personalizing their mobile phones. From the apps, to the wallpapers, you can almost tell the personality of the person by just looking at their phones. These cute cellphone cases can transform your phone into extra ordinary looking gadget. Cellphone cases are no longer the boring black or white rectangular shaped ones. You can have a cellphone case in the form of your favorite cartoon character. Isn’t that awesome?

2. 3D Greeting Cards

3D greeting cards in Korea

In this digital age, greeting cards are in the verge of ending its era. But some people still choose to still send greeting cards than a text message or an online generated greetings because it is more personalized. Korea has found a way to make greeting cards more interactive and interesting. They call this 3D Greeting Cards! When you open the card, something will form in a 3D to surprise you. I really find this cute.

3. Hats

Hats with design in Korea

Whether it’s a winter hat or a summer hat, you will never get bored with the design of hats in Korea. It always comes with something attractive and nice to look at.

4. Kids’ Fashion

Korean Kids apparel

Ever wonder why Koreans are into fashion?
Because they are already fashionable since birth.
 I like how clothing for kids in Korea have own fashion statement. When Korean kids wear these fashionable clothes, they even look more adorable.

5. K-pop items

kpop items for sale in Korea

Pillows, pins, posters, calendars…… name it and you can find any item possible with the face of your favorite kpop star printed on it. I am sure that fanatics of Korean Drama and Korean songs will truly appreciate this. I guess if you are to bring these people something from Korea, you will never find it hard because these cute Kpop items are almost everywhere in South Korea.

6. Socks

Socks with cute designs in Korea

If there’s one thing I can assure about South Korea, their socks will surely never suck! While you can buy some plain boring black, white and gray socks, these cute and colorful and attractive socks designed with different cartoon characters, combination of colors and weird form of art are almost everywhere in the market of South Korea. This is fun Korean item you can give as a gift to someone. And the quality? Definitely the best! Socks here are cheap but the quality is good. Just make sure you are buying something that is made in Korea.

7. Souvenir items

Souvenir items in Korea

The souvenir items perfect to bring home or as a gift to somebody who loves Korea are not just like any other souvenir items in the world. There are key chains, pins and even nail cutters. But what makes these souvenirs different from others is that it is customized to show the culture of Korea. You can see the Korean flag, hanbok, significant landmarks and any other symbols that will tell you that the item has been made and bought in South Korea.

8. Stuff toys

Korean stuff toys

When we talk about cuteness, of course we can’t eliminate stuff toys. But what makes stuff toys in Korea unique is that you can always find a Korean trademark in the items. Whether it’s a character from a Korean cartoon series, a cute teddy bear wearing the Korean traditional clothing, or a famous kpop star, Korea will always find a way to make it appear obvious that a stuff toy is made in Korea.

These are just some of the cute items you can buy in South Korea. If you have time to walk around one of the markets like maybe Myeongdong, you can see these adorable products for sale along the street of the market. If you are thinking of something that you must buy in Korea, in the cuteness level, I will gladly suggest you buy one of the above items I shared and keep as your cute remembrance of this country.

CFO Conducted Peso Sense Financial Literacy Workshop to Filipino Migrant Workers in South Korea

The CFO or Commission on Filipino Overseas came to South Korea to conduct a free financial literacy workshop to the Filipino workers. This is part of their Financial Education campaign program called PESO SENSE. This Financial education campaign is part of CFO’s “Ugnayan sa South Korea” program which was held last November 27 to December 4 2015. The objectives of this program are encapsulated in three major components which are to ENGAGE which aims to address the challenges faced by the Filipino communities, EMPOWER which aims to provide Financial education to the OFWs in South Korea through PESO SENSE program, and to ENTERPRISE which aims to provide information on business and investments available for us.

Last November 29, 2015, I was able to attend the financial education campaign of their PESO SENSE program at the Philippine embassy in Seoul, this is in connection to their aim to provide EMPOWERMENT through the “Ugnayan sa Korea” event. It was attended by several other Filipino migrant workers here in South Korea. Together, we embarked into a fun and educational workshop.
In the first workshop, we were able to identify our financial status based on the lifestyle, spending, work attitude, luxuries and mindset towards success. Through the workshop, we realized how we are when it comes to financial status and we were grouped according to the result. As a group, we discussed ideas, opinions and other matters relating to our choice of lifestyle and how it affects our financial well being.

After that, we went through several other activities like taking the Financial Fitness Quiz where we assessed our personal financial health based on our lifestyle, insurances and level of literacy. We also formulated our Personal Income and Expense Tracker or PIET where we breakdown all our income and the corresponding expenses. We also went through prioritizing our expenses and we found out that when it comes to expenses, everything is relative. Your priorities are based on your status in life and your mindset too.

I guess my favorite part of the program was the Dream Matrix part. I always love it when we get to write down what we want to achieve in life. We were able to identify our top 10 goals in life, chose the top 4 and let go of the others based on the concept of S.M.A.R.T which means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. We created a dream matrix where we set a timetable to achieve our dreams and how much money we need to get it.

In the end, we realized that your attitude towards spending, saving and budgeting has an effect towards achieving your goals. Let’s face it, our dreams have corresponding cost and you can only achieve it if you have enough discipline when it comes to money. At the end of the program, we settled how much money we should allocate for savings, expenses and how much money we should save every month to achieve our ultimate dreams in life.

Before we closed the program, we made a vow to apply what we learned from the workshop and to constantly remind ourselves of our goals in life. It was such a productive day for everybody who attended the event and we went home feeling inspired. I personally felt like I stepped a notch higher when it comes to financial literacy. To the people behind CFO and this program, thank you for bringing us PESO SENSE, this will surely help OFWs not only in South Korea but around the globe.