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Voila! Some new editorial has came out from here in Seoul.

Muine September 2012

Neighbor September 2012

Typhoon Tuesday

Everyone was anxious to see what would happen with the approach of Typhoon Bolaven towards South Korea. We had our managers message us and told to be sure to shut all the windows and not to go out until Tuesday evening. Tuesday at 2pm was expected to be the worse.

We decided to sort of ignore said warnings Monday night when some of us decided to go to Dongdaemun Market, which is a market for buying cheap clothes for young people, a very crazy place indeed. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't stay too long.

I was hoping to wake up Tuesday morning to some typhoon action, but i was rather disappointed as it was just raining a little bit and the wind wasn't so fierce. So, I waited and waited and waited. Then, I waited some more, and around 4pm we decided that it wasn't going to affect Seoul as much as people had prepared for.

With that being said, Morwenna and I hit the gym, had coffee then decided to go to a local bar to play some cards.

I guess it's good news that the Typhoon didn't affect us, but being the weirdo I am, I wanted a bit of stormy action! Sadly, I was very underwhelmed.

Going to the Country

After looking forward to this weekend for about a month, it finally came. Sunny, one of DCM's managers invited us all to her house in the country!

So friday afternoon finally came and me and 3 other models piled into the van along with Ed (the agency director and who I like to call my older brother), Sunny (who i call my older sister), Emilie (another manager), and Jinny (our manager and driver).

We lucked out by not having to face any traffic and in less than an hour and a half, we were there!

the walk up to the house

After settling in a bit, we began to prepare some of the food that Ed and Sunny so nicely bought for the trip, there was a bit of everything for everyone! But tonight we were going to have bbq and it was divine!

Ed and Jinny on the grill

you can take a model to the country...

It was such a great night filled with food, drink, many stories and of course lots of laughter. It was great getting to know everyone better and sharing this experience together.

After a good night's rest, Morwenna, Ed, and I decided to go on a bit of a hike along with Sunny's dog Joy. We had such an amazing time exploring the area, I even saw a snake! We ended our hike by playing in the river with Joy.

After spending a relaxing saturday and Morwenna having a chance to take some portraits with her film camera, the trip was coming to an end and Morwenna graciously prepared us all a spaghetti dinner! It was tasty and just the right amount of carbs to send me into a slight coma for the journey home.

We were all so grateful to have had the chance to see another part of Korea, not just the bustling city.

The weekend didn't end there however as Morwenna and I spent another day at the outdoor pool down by the river, we were prepared with our swim caps this time and our swim went off without a hitch!

This weekend felt like a vacation but now it's back to work for the next 2 weeks before I finally return "home" to London!

Friday is For...

French Toast!

I have been telling Morwenna for about two weeks now that I would teach her how to make french toast. So after feeling like this morning was the perfect day after an adventurous night out, as mentioned in the last post, we finally did it.

If you don't already know how to make this delicious breakfast, brunch, or basically anytime meal. Let me tell you how! It's really simple, so if you're not a cook, don't worry!

Ingredients: (makes approximately 4 slices)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
a few drops of Vanilla Extract
butter or olive oil spray to grease the pan
bread

To begin you want to break the eggs into a shallow dish, then add the milk and vanilla extract. Whisk the three ingredients together.

Take a frying pan and put on medium heat and melt the butter or spray the pan.

Take one slice of bread an dip each side in the egg mixture (be sure not to soak the bread too much, as then it won't cook as nice) and place in the frying pan. After a few minutes check to see if the side has browned, and if so flip over until the other side is browned.

Then, voila! You are ready to enjoy! My favorite topping is maple syrup. Morwenna and I used our "borrowed" syrup from Butterfinger Pancakes. But fruit is a nice addition as well as icing sugar if you're feeling fancy.

Let's Do Something!

The past few days have deffinetly been activity filled, and it's not even over!

The week began rather unfortunately however as this head cold that doesn't seem to want to leave me took a fierce grip on monday and tuesday leaving me with what felt like a vice grip around my head so the better part of the days were spent in bed. But, things could not remain this way as tuesday eve I had a half day editorial shoot for Secreto magazine.

I had worked with the photographer previously as he was the one who shot the Colombo campaign a few weeks ago featuring Morwenna and I. I was very excited to be working with him again as the first experience was nothing but wonderful.

Alas, I fought off my dreadful feeling head and had a great shoot! The theme was a bit avant garde portrait style and we quickly and easily achieved the eight shots we needed.

Goofing off with the photographer

Wednesday Morwenna and I headed to the City Hall area to check out something new, apparently no Koreans think City Hill is nothing special to go see, but we did stumble upon some interesting things!

We went to Seoul Plaza, basically an open square that was apparently an area of celebration for football fans when Seoul hosted the World Cup but is now used for various events. Well, the event that we stumbled upon was some sort of Energy Conference thing. There were all sorts of activities promoting saving energy. We even did one where we rode stationary bikes in order to power a candy floss machine and make our own candy floss. We were finally able to achieve our goal once we were told that we would get to eat the candy floss.

sound equipment being powered by stationary bikes

Since we were in the area Morwenna and I also decided to check out a nearby Palace, it was gorgeous and a nice break from the downtown core of Seoul. On our way in though all of a sudden Morwenna turns around and there was a traditional parade going past us that seemed to have come out of nowhere!

Yesterday I wanted to make sure I got souvenirs to bring back to London and to send to Canada as time has flown here in Seoul and I only have a few weeks left. In order to achieve this goal my partner in crime, yes, Morwenna and I returned to Insa-dong, the traditional tourist area. Not only were souvenir purchases the purpose of our visit to Insa-dong, but Morwenna wanted to check out a vegetarian restaurant she had seen on a blog (aliensdayout.com) and after finally walking around and getting confused we located it.

It was a beautiful restaurant with an excellent atmosphere, we even got to sit on cushions on the floor! I had a lovely Soy Protein stew and Morwenna had an interesting take on bimibap.

With full bellies we were able to get our souvenirs and begin our walk back to the station to return home. But nope, apparently our excitement wasn't yet over, on our walk we ran into a few interesting things. First of all, we saw a traditional dance and music celebration taking place, filled with older men and women dancing with free spirits and full of life. This was such an unexpected and fantastic thing to witness.

We also soon realised that our path to the subway station had brought us thru old man's land it seemed! There were old men playing games, eating food, drinking, having a laugh and just talking about what were probably "the good 'ol days".

The day wasn't over yet as later that night after taking a rest at home Morwenna and I decided to meet up with one of our managers Emilie in Hongdae, the university area which is known for bars, clubs and an indie scene. After checking out a few places (and being turned down by one bar as apparently it was a no-foreigners allowed spot) and sitting in a square with beers watching some live music, we ended up at a "Ho-Bar" and had a dance before heading home.

Be sure to check back in a few days as in an hour we are heading to the country with the agency for the night and I'm sure I will come back with some stories and photos to share!

All Work and No Play...

Let me tell you, I hadn't been so happy for a friday to come and be gone in a long time. It was a busy thursday and friday working and trying to get over my head cold that doesn't seem to be quite finished with bringing me down yet.

My job for Thursday was an editorial. For a half day job I was rather shocked on arrival when I was told there was going to be 11 looks. The reason for having 11 was that there was that many chairs that were going to be a focal point in the story. To my dismay, I wasn't going to be sat down in these chairs, rather posing with them in different ways. After the first few shots being shown a picture of what they wanted me to do and realised it wasn't working and they were not going to achieve the exact same thing from a previous photo, they allowed me to do my own thing. As a model who has been working for about 4 years now, I know what to do and can get it done! However, in foreign countries such as South Korea, photographers don't necessarily have full confidence until later one.

But, to my luck, things were much better upon being able to make my own choices and they shoot turned out lovely!

Although, something more exciting did happen this past thursday..it was Morwenna's birthday! I was so gutted when I found out I couldn't spend the whole day celebrating with her due to my job, but I did the best I could. While I was at work her and our flatmate Marina checked out the aquarium and from the photos it looked like they had a really great time! After I finished work and we all had a casting, we all went to our favorite Korean restaurant, just a little place where they do bbq and traditional food. We had a really great time.

One thing was missing though, we hadn't had a chance to do brunch at Butterfinger Pancake like we had done for my birthday the previous week. With that being said, Saturday was Morwenna's Belated Birthday Brunch.

So, after the gym and having worked up quite the appetites we gorged ourselves on a plate of all the different pancakes that Butterfinger makes. They were scrumptious but we were slightly overzealous on the amount we could eat and needed a good twenty minutes to recuperate before being able to leave the restaurant.

To back track now to my job Friday, I was shooting a campaign for this women's clothing wear company that is targeted at 30-40 year olds. It was a rather straightforward job and I had a good time and was constantly being handed bits of chocolate to keep my energy up. Everyone from the company was great and we had a good time, but at the end of the day, I was knackered and couldn't wait to go home.

Saturday evening proved to take an interesting turn. Morwenna and I had planned to go to Hongdae at night, the university area to check out the scene and some bars. It's meant to be cheap, young and rather eclectic. As we were plotting our plan of action our flatmate Iona got a phone call from a friend in Tokyo. Long story short, we were all invited to take part at the Beats by Dre party at one of the clubs we have all gone to before here in Seoul. After being picked up by drivers the 5 of us were taken to this club Eden and escorted upstairs to a room filled with all sorts of goodies and various drinks. The room was filled with some other models, but mostly people who worked for either Eminem or Dr. Dre. We had a good time and it was interesting to meet new people.

As much as this life as a model can be somewhat humdrum compared to the idea people tend to think it to be. It does take some interesting turns!

Working Girl

and no, not THAT kind of working girl!

I've been keeping myself awfully busy these past few days! Beginning last thursday I have been shooting quite steadily. It began with an editorial shoot for a magazine that I can no longer remember, which was filled with constant makeup changes, so 6 looks did take the whole day! It was lovely working with the same photographer who shot me for the MOGG campaign almost a month ago.

Saturday was another full day shoot for Luxury magazine where my hair was constantly changing. The good thing about constant hair changes for me...I dont have too much hair too work with!

looking slightly Willy Wonka

Sunday was however the hi-light of this trip so far. Shooting an Italian brand Colombo's campaign with  my roomie here, fellow London resident and partner in crime, Morwenna! The leather bags we were shooting were divine, but the furs! They were something else, one of the pieces cost approximately $300,000 USD. I will take a house instead of fur thank you! We had such a great time and cannot wait to see it come out, look for it in Vogue Italia in the upcoming months.

The downside of keeping busy busy is that I tend to get run down, and this is just what has happend. So monday I had a day off and spent the most part of it lazed in bed with constant tea refills, trying to get as much rest as possible.

It was good I did, as my pickup time on Tuesday was 5.30am for a 6am call time. I was a bit uneasy when I was told of the call time and that it was a location shoot, as sometimes it can lead to a far longer day that one would want. This was definitely worth it though as our location was JCB gardens, about an hour and a half outside of Seoul.

It was great to get out of the city and be in nature, even though it was man-made. Thank goodness for having a row of seats to myself on the drive home though, I slept like a baby!

Birthday Bonanza

That's right folks, 08/08 has come and gone and I celebrated my birthday here in Seoul.

After a lovely skype chat with my parents and being able to open the wonderful gifts they posted me, I opened a selection of goodies from my roomate here and partner in crime, Morwenna. Even though it was my birthday, it wasn't a day off, so in between castings the two of us went to Butterfinger Pancake, an American style pancake restaurant, for brunch, something we've wanted to do since we arrived here in Seoul, so we had a perfect excuse. The wait was worth it as we each savoured each bite of our omelet and blueberry pancakes.

With full bellies we had a few more castings. I had one just by myself so as I returned the the apartment and was putting away my things, I started hearing the girls singing Happy Birthday! I was so surprised! One of our managers Emilie had brought a cake to the flat and serenaded me. It was such a lovely and unexpected gesture!

To complete the day Morwenna and I decided to hike up Namsan Mountain to go up Seoul Tower. It was such a beautiful hike filled with nature, and lots of sweating! It was super hot out even though it was evening and there was a lot more stairs than either of us had expected. But it was so worth it. We then decided to go up to the top of the tower and partake in the incredible views. 

I have to admit, I am one lucky girl.

The Latest

Another weekend has passed, and I've been here in Seoul a month now. I really can't believe how quick it's been passing. I'm discovering as I get older than time passes quicker and quicker, that's why it's always important to always be positive and take risks in life and never have regrets over what you didn't do.

Friday the flatmates and I went to a bar called Cork before heading to the usual club where all the models seem to go on Friday nights, Eden. Cork was a blast, after playing several rounds of Jenga and getting to know each other better, it was karaoke time! Good thing the bar was rather empty to begin with, because I think our voices would have cleared it out pretty quickly...

Unfortunately we should have called it a night after the bar as Eden was far too busy and not playing that great of music, a disappointment as it was our two new flatmates first night out in Seoul. There's always next time!

Saturday continued to be rather quiet, filled with a stretching class at the gym, then a wander over to the Hyundai department store to hit the food hall and eat samples. I must say, with all the food samples you're offered one can almost count a visit as a meal without having to spend any money!

Morwenna and I decided to get into tourist gear Sunday to visit the War Memorial Museum.

War Memorial Museum

The Museum was incredible. Just the scale of size was unbelievable. The nice thing about it also was that it wasn't just explaining the different wars that Korea has faced, but also commemorated not only the Korean soliders that fought, but gave great credit to all the soliders of the UN countries that aided in South Korea's defense.

me with all the UN flags

"Tear Drop" made with tags from soliders who participated in the war.

The Museum was extremely informative and Morwenna and I both learnt a lot. Yay for educational tourism!