We are leaving Korea in less than five months but we already boxed the things we don’t use so we could send them home, I have already mailed one box few days ago through EMS and I still have three boxes need to be mail.

The first box is souvenirs and travel magazines, second one are my clothes and the third box is mixed of everything from books, shampoo, lotions and etc.,

The other day I decided to call the hotline (1661-5899) of newly open LBC Korea, I have ordered two large boxes. I have decided to use their service rather than EMS, the last three boxes I have sent through EMS except the box I sent few days ago (which is still on delivery) were opened and some items are missing so I have thought to try a new courier and I am going to blog about my experience in LBC once I received the box I have ordered, my items were already shipped to the Philippines and my family received them completely.

Sending items through LBC (Korea Balikbayan Box) is a lot cheaper than sending through EMS where it is measured per kilo. Unlike in LBC it is per box and location, one large box (jumbo) will cost ₩120,000 for Manila and Luzon and ₩140,000 for Visayas and Mindanao no matter how heavy your box is.

LBC Korea branch is located at: 1F, 102-1 Hyehwa-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul Korea.

On Sunday I went to Hyehwa again not to attend the mass but to meet my friends, Cathlaine and her husband is already moving to the United States and it is going to be the last chance to see them before they left on Wednesday.

We are supposed to meet  in the subway but I didn’t see her and when I tried to call my friend in her mobile I can’t contact her, thinking she blocked me for a reason I just went out the subway and walk to the Filipino Market to look around, while walking I heard someone saying that someone is just walking straight without looking around. To my surprise I have found them in the stall on my right, it was Kuya Rodel who mumbles.

It turns out Cathlaine’s phone number is not working anymore, maybe because they are going to leave soon and their ARC is going to expire at the end of the month as all phone numbers here in Korea is registered according to your alien registration card. Anyway to cut the story short we together with Cathlaine’s friend whom I get to know while eating, went for the second time at SELF BAR , it is a chain of Korean buffet restaurant serving meat for barbecue, galbi, sangyeopsal and etc.,

The meat and food is unlimited for ₩9, 900 per head, if you waste some food or left some meat on your table you have to pay a penalty of ₩5, 000.

One of the food I bought in the Filipino supermarket in Hyehwa is  Bopis it  is a spicy Filipino dish of pork or beef lungs and heart sautéed in tomatoes, chilies and onions, but the bopis I bought was not that good nor spicy.  It was quite different from the bopis I have eaten already, this one is more oily and buttery and the taste is not intense or strong.

I have kept the bopis in the freezer as I have no desired of wasting it. I have decided to saute it with onions and garlic and add string beans and ladies finger which are quite old already.

On my over four years of existence in Korea, this is the first time that I attended a mass and go to Hyehwa-dong in Seoul. My friend and I met last Sunday in Hyehwa we attended the afternoon mass in Tagalog (1:30PM) where I am able to see and meet many Filipinos. It was like little community of Filipinos.

After the mass we went to the informal Filipino Market nearby, I am not able to look around when we passed by because we decided to attend the mass first before buying stuff I want.  I bought few native foods and vegetables like string beans (sitaw), bitter melon (amplaya), ladies finger (okra) and kangkong.

The Hyehwa Filipino Market is only around every Sunday from morning ’until night. To get there get off the Hyehwa station (line 4) and go out at exit 4 and just walk straight.

For the first time I went to Hyehwa to attend a mass and shop at the informal Filipino Market. I have been asking my husband to drop by in Hyehwa every time we have something to do in Seoul but he always says that if I want I can go there alone. So last week when my friend told me that she went to Hyehwa to met someone I asked her if I can tag along with her the next time she go to the place,  and right then she asked me if I want to attend the mass the next Sunday.

We attended the mass for about one hour and right after we went to the nearby Filipino market to shop together with her old friends that we met outside the church. I bought vegetables and other Filipino foods I want to eat, it was been a long time since I had these foods.

Other stuff I bought aside from the vegetables are rice cakes (kakanin), spring rolls (lumpia), barbecue and bopis. The rice cake is ₩3,000 each but you can get it for ₩5,000 if you buy two pieces while lumpia and barbecue is ₩1,000 per piece/stick, the bopis is ₩5,000 per order. I bought all the vegetables for ₩10,000 it consists of 2 (tali) spring beans, 2 pieces ampalaya, 1 (tali) okra and with free kangkong.

Aside from native foods, vegetable and cooked food some sellers are selling beauty products, chips and other local items that a Filipino cannot find in a local Korean supermarket.