Seoul for the day: Saturday October 13

Highlights from this past week include a welcome dinner my co-teachers organized for me on Tuesday night. It was great going for dinner and coffee to get to know them better – who knew they all loved watching shows like friends, desperate housewives and CSI miami! Another highlight was that I signed up for a membership at a hot yoga studio near our apartment. Ian has kept up with his taekwondo, going twice a week. Maybe he will become a yellow belt soon!

Saturday we decided to head to Seoul for some sightseeing, shopping in Myeong-dong, and to find some different food. The first stop was visiting the Gyeongbokgung Palace.  It is huge and is located in downtown Seoul.  It was interesting to see how the city expanded around the palace.  Walking around the grounds, it really felt like we went back in time.  There were guards positioned outside the main entrance gates.  The buildings were so beautiful, with so much detail. The detailing on most of the buildings is called Dancheong and it consists of 5 colours: red, yellow, blue, white and black. There were also amazing gardens surrounding the palace.

Here are some fast facts about Gyeongbokgung that we learned.  The palace was built in 1394 and it was the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The name Gyeongbokgung means “the Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven.” There are 7,700 rooms! During the Japanese occupation in WWII most of the palace was destroyed. The Korean government has been actively restoring the palace. Even while we were walking around the vast grounds, certain areas were under construction.

Before heading to Myeong-dong, we were lucky to see the closing ceremony at the end of the day. The guards march and drum out of their positions. We were both so happy that we chose to visit the palace this weekend.  The next activity was shopping in Myeong-dong, which was fantastic! We went to Forever 21, HM and a bunch of other stores. Every time we entered a cosmetic or “face store” they handed out free samples. I received many of these facial masks that are very popular here. Most of the stores handed out mini lotion bottles, and face masks; however, one store gave out “Skin Whitening Cream” but I think I will give that one a miss. After Myeong-dong, we went to Itaewon, which is the foreign area of Seoul. There is an American military base near this area, so we saw a lot of army guys walking the streets. We went out for Indian food, as there was an “Itaewon Global Village Festival”. It was yet another street festival, serving a variety of foods. It was definitely a lot fun to walk to around.

It was also a good weekend, because we were also bunny-sitting for our friends. Our friends bought a bunny in Korea and went away this weekend, so we said we would watch him. His name is Monster, and he was such a cutie! 

Main entrance gate to Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul.

Ian with the guards. They aren't allowed to move.

This seems to happen quite often when we are out and about in Korea. Students from middle, high school, or university have homework that they need to interview a foreigner. After entering the gates, it took 5 minutes before we were asked to do an interview. 

This photo needs to be rotated so that the red chair is at the bottom. This is one of 7,700 rooms at the palace.

This building is actually a mini island that has a pond surrounding it. There is a bridge connecting it on the far right side.  There were huge fish swimming around in the pond, around 3-feet in length. 

National Folk Museum of Korea 

Gyeongbokgung Palace. 

Closing ceremony: The guards marching out of positions.

Taking the subway from the palace to Myeong-dong for shopping was crazy! The subway was packed!

Itaewon is the foreign area in Seoul. This is where we had dinner.

Itaewon festival

Bunny-sitting Monster

Monster

Getting lost in Incheon on Sunday. It is so great we can search a map with our phones. 

We came across this sale in Incheon, but didn't quite understand...

This is a video of the closing ceremony at Gyeongbokgung Palace when the guards march out of position.