Changgyeong Palace

I went to one of the palaces in Seoul with some of my friends today. The original plan was to go on a 4 mile walk to visit all 5 of the royal palaces in Seoul, but we ended up having to change our plans so we only got to see one palace. There is a garden here that is also lovely, but we got there too late to go to the garden. 

While Sarah and I were waiting for Thomas to arrive, we saw this sign. We decided to go check it out. There was this adorable little old lady who ran a tourist information place in her free time.

We were impressed because this was in six languages. Korean, Japanese, Chinese, English, French and Spanish. The Korean and English are fairly common translations, if there is going to be a translation. Chinese and Japanese are common in certain parts of town. The French and Spanish was what really made us happy. We hadn't seen anything French or Spanish in a very long time. 

She gave us a map and pointed out some spots that were really interesting, and she gave us adorable little cups of tea. 

Thomas showed up as she was walking us through the places to visit. After we drank our tea and visited a bit, she asked us if we would make some cards to hang on her wall. She had cards from all over the world. So, we added Indiana, Tennessee and Texas respectively. 

We finally made it to the actual palace.The fall foliage was still mostly nice, although it is getting towards the end of the fall season. It was a little overcast as well, but it wasn't too cold, so we were thankful. 

This is the main palace. I guess it would be something like the throne room? We weren't really sure what most of the buildings were for. There aren't any helpful signs in any language on these buildings. 

I'm always amazed at the detail in these palaces. Everything is painted and carved so beautifully. 

There are also random faces that pop up everywhere, like this guy on a set of steps. 

This is inside the throne room. It is quite opulent, especially since this is an old dynasty palace. 

The color scheme of the palace definitely went well with the autumn leaves. 

There were lots of cool doors and gates that I kept taking pictures of. This was one of my favorites. 

Some more examples of the ornate work in these palaces. 

This is Sarah, and she was part of our palace-going trio. 

Thomas rounded out the trio. 

There were lots and lots of walls throughout the palace compound. They were all pretty cool!

This reminded us of the entryway to a fancy hotel somewhere. 

This was another section of the palace compound. We don't know why the color scheme changed, but we all liked the more austere look better.  

Since I matched the palace walls, we decided we should pose together. 

*no friends were harmed in the staging of this picture.

These are persimmons. They are quite delicious, and they seem to grow all over this country. I'd never eaten a persimmon before I came to Korea. I think I'll miss them when I eventually leave. 

This little building was off by itself. I have no clue what it was for. But it was quite tiny, and quite pretty. 

The doors and hinges were pretty cool too. 

All in all, we spent about ninety minutes wandering around the palace. The day didn't turn out quite like we'd imagined, but it was still nice. 

Things I've Seen and Done, Part 4

Sorry this is delayed by a day this week. I forgot all about it on Sunday. Also, before we get to the pictures, here is a small public service announcement.

Since the time has changed in the States, that also changes the way you figure out what time it is in Seoul. Please refer to the handy dandy chart below.

If you live in Eastern time, please add 2 and swap the AM and PM.
If you live in Central time, please add 3 and swap the AM and PM.
If you live in Mountain time, please add 4 and swap the AM and PM.
If you live in Pacific time, please add5 and swap the AM and PM.

With that out of the way, here are some pictures from the city this week.

This is what my freezer looks like right now. That's about 25 pounds of frozen chicken that I ordered on the internet. I'm splitting it with a friend, but still... That's a lot of chicken. 

There was actually a lovely, clear day as I was leaving work last week. This is one of the best sunsets I've seen in Seoul. Granted, I had to be on stairs, on top of a mountain to see it... But it was still lovely. 

A random street in a residential area. 

Christmas decorations are already up and going strong. 

All of those pink things are stacks and stacks of individual Christmas ornaments. There were SO many of them. 

For some reason, this sign really amused me. Maybe it is because it is half English and half Korean.... The Korean part says "sale". That's not a translation, that's the way the word would sound if you read it out loud. 

I saw this phone cover at the Dongdaemun market. If it weren't so expensive, I would have bought it just to have it. 

These little bikes are EVERYWHERE in this city. People strap things to the back, and deliver it all over the place. Most of the time, they deliver food, but I've definitely seen other things on the bikes. These can go anywhere -- streets, sidewalks, it's all fair game. It makes walking interesting. 

This picture was taken early on last week. Apparently the big biography of the year is already translated into Korean. That was fast. 

Ok. This may not look like much to most of you. But this was my plate of food at the thanksgiving dinner at church on Sunday. We celebrated halfway in between American and Canadian thanksgiving. I have turkey, ham, scalloped and mashed potatoes, corn, persimmons, a deviled egg and a dinner roll with butter. It was lovely. 

This is a random culture note from one of my English textbooks. I feel like the world is a more enriched place for having this written down in an official text book. 

Adventures in Dongdaemun - Culinary and Otherwise

My friend Stacy and I decided to go to the Dongdaemun craft market again today. We both needed a few things for some craft projects that are in progress. We were on a mission to find buttons. We both needed very specific types of buttons for a project. The buttons are on the same floor as the jewelry making supplies. 

In Korea, accessories are a very big deal. They are cheap and plentiful, and some of them are like nothing I've ever seen before. Koreans especially seem to love headbands. Some of the headbands here are amazing. They are big, and sparkly, and have feathers poking out of them at all angles. I've purchased a few of the amazing, sparkly headbands over the past 15 months, but today I experienced headbands like never before. 

This is Kate Middleton. She's wearing a type of hat that is commonly called a "topper". It's small, and it doesn't actually fit on your head, you just pin it on top. Sometimes they can have a brim, like this one does.

Or sometimes, they're a bit more feathery. It seems that Koreans have taken the idea of the topper, and attached it to a headband. I tried several of these on, and really liked them. However I decided that they probably wouldn't be appropriate for most of the places that I go, so I regretfully left them in the amazing headband-topper bin. Stacy and I explored the rest of the floor and found the buttons we were looking for. As we were getting ready to leave, we both saw another store with the amazing headband-toppers. Only these were different. 

These were fuzzy! As you can probably deduce from the above picture, I did in fact come home with one of the amazing headband-toppers. 

Isn't it fun?!? I thought it was pretty amazing. 

I thought that this was enough adventure for one day, but clearly I underestimated things. Stacy and I have gone to Dongdaemun several times together. To get there from our meeting point, you have to walk through this alley with a TON of street food and other assorted things for sale in these tiny kiosks. Some of the street food looks a little strange, and I've been toying around with the idea of taking some pictures for awhile now. But it was always too crowded, or it was too dark, or I just didn't feel like it. Today the crowds were pretty light, relatively speaking of course, and it was still daylight. So I snapped a picture of this food stand. 

There was one type of food in particular that has been catching my eye as being Very Strange and Odd. Can you guess what it is?

This is a hot dog, dipped in batter, rolled in french fries, stuck on a stick and deep fried. I'd never seen anything quite like it, even at the State Fair. 

Not only did I take a picture, I actually took the plunge and spent a whole $2 to buy one in the name of investigative journalism. Stacy and I both tried a little, and were both surprised by how delicious this was! It certainly isn't something I'd eat every day, or even every week. It looks like a heart attack on a stick. But it was pretty amazing.  

After eating the heart attack on a stick (I feel like it needs a better name...) I stopped at a fruit stand and bought a giant pear to cleanse my system. 

Itaewon Global Fair

I saw the signs for a "global fair" that was happening in Itaewon over the weekend, but I wasn't too terribly interested in it. These kinds of things tend to be a little bit one-dimensional here. But, on Sunday some of my friends wanted to walk over to Itaewon to get lunch, so we inadvertently walked through the middle of the global fair. As expected, most of it was about Korean food and culture, but there were a few cool highlights.

Namsan is starting to look really beautiful. I especially loved the line of yellow trees at the baseline of the mountain.

There was a place that sold food from a Middle Eastern country that escapes me right now, but they were cooking a massive pillar of chicken breast that would later be sliced off the rotating spit and made into kebabs. 

There was a place where kids could experience playing traditional Korean drums. It was kinda funny. Most of the kids were Korean, but there was this one little girl who was a foreigner. There were all sorts of people crowding around and taking a picture of the foreign child doing something that is traditional Korean... 

There were a surprising number of people there for the global fair. I was surprised that there weren't very many foreigners in the crowd. My friend and I kinda stuck out more than we usually do in Itaewon. 

This is another traditional Korean activity. You basically toss the arrows and try to get them to stay in the container. This is much harder than it sounds, I assure you. 

Becky is trying her best to get an arrow into the bin! It actually went straight in, but then it bounced out again. Sad day. 

There was another traditional Korean cultural experience awaiting us. They let you choose from a list of traditional proverbs, and they would write it in Korean calligraphy for you to take home. This is the beginning of my calligraphy experience. 

This is the middle of the calligraphy experience. Unfortunately, I didn't actually get to see the end of the calligraphy experience. A man with a TV camera came up to me and started trying to talk with me. We did a little interview that was partially in Korean and partially in English. Neither of us spoke much of the other's language. After a bit of confusion about what he wanted, and some hemming and hawing while I thought, I was able to do a brief introduction of myself in Korean, and say the Korean version of the proverb I'd chosen, then I translated the proverb into English. I don't really know how much of it he filmed, or what he was filming for. But there we have it. I've officially done my first bi-lingual interview.