Skip to main content

Dongdaemun Museum, Bukchon and more~

Yesterday was a full day of being a tourist in Seoul with friends I haven't seen since last year. Although it has been 2 years since I was last here, there definitely has been many changes here. Sunday morning, I decided to meet my language exchange buddy, who helped me a lot with my Korean while I was in Victoria. It was so great to be able to see her again. We went to the newly established Dongdaemun museum. It really has an interesting/futuristic design and we decided to check it out.
Inside there were a couple of exhibits that you could choose to visit, but we decided to go to an exhibit called The Treasures of KANSONG: Preserving national Identity through Culture. Apparently this person named Kansong was a collector of some of Korea's national treasures and now it has been placed in a museum. One of the treasures, that I personally mostly recognized, was the transcript of King Sejong's explanation of Hangeul called the Hunminjeongeum. Picture taking was forbidding within the exhibition, so I wasn't able to take any. However, did took a couple of pictures of the weird funky futuristic designed buildings. It was hard to take a picture of the whole thing and definitely an interesting design. Since it is connected to a subway station, there is actually a really nice shopping area developing.

After something to eat, we decided to go to Bukchon village. There we walked around to see Korean traditional houses. It was interesting to hear that people are actually living in those houses to today so when we were walking around Bukchon, we had to remain quiet as to not bother the other residents. It made me wonder what it would be like to live in those traditional houses. We had the opportunity to actually be inside in one of the houses. Number 47: SimSimheon. There after depositing KRW 10,000 you get a tour of the house and tea at the end. Although it maintains its traditional architectural design, it also has modern setting inside as well that was cool to see. A combination of modern and traditional in one. It was really beautiful and made me think what it would be like to actually be living in one. From there we walked to Insadong, had lunch and looked around. It was really nice to see a friend I haven't seen for a very long time. Although sight seeing is nice, what is more valuable is definitely the conversations between friends. It's funny because I just arrived from Japan, my Korean language has been slight awkward. Maybe by the time I leave, my Korean will be up again but then my Japanese language will be awkward again. Well it happens right?









Afterwards met up with different friends in Gangnam to eat at my favourite chicken restaurant. YEOLBONG! ( Ah~ now they have the option of adding cheese to my favourite chicken dish. Oh~ it was soooo delicious. The weather started to get really rainy towards the end of the day, so the chicken dish was just absolutely wonderful! Ended the day with Noraebang (Karoake) time across the street where apparently because of the rain, the owner decided to give us so so so so much extra service. Oh how I love Korea for their "service" service? Redundant much. By the end of the day, I was tired, voice was hoarse but all in all a good day. Today will be mostly a shopping day. Myeongdong/Dongdaemun. I need teacher clothes. Welcome to the adult career life.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Transfer and Communication

So, I arrived in Seoul after a long 14 hour trip. 14? maybe even 15. The layover in Shanghai was brutal to say the least. Well the flight to Shanghai itself was brutal as well. First, there was no tv like i'm used to on long flight travels. Second, My laptop wasn't fully charged, so I couldn't even use it for long as I was saving it for the layover. Third, Food/service on the plane wasn't that great. I got 2 meals and some sort of sandwich snack. Also, I told you yesterday about gate checking in my guitar? Well, that didn't work out well. At least they let me put it in the overhead compartment besides it being a full flight. However, I sat beside a really nice person who helped me. The flight attendants were not really good at understanding English, so the person beside me helped me ask the flight attendants what to do and etc. So the 12 hr flight to Shanghai was brutal with me fighting to sleep or staring into nothingness, attempt at conversation to the perso

Osaka! Takarazuka! Junsu?

So where do I begin? Last time I told you I was going to update in Japan but I ended up not doing that because on the flight to Japan, I made friends with the person beside me. We somehow connected in conversations during the flight over that, before she had to move on to Shanghai, thought we should chill together a little bit more. (Which reminds me that I need to e-mail her). Anyways, the flight over to Korea eventually was uneventful besides the turbulence in the beginning, well landing in Japan was very turbulent as well. The weather was not great at that time to say the least. Landed safely and I was happy to see that my friends had came to pick me up. Keeping it Korean style, decided to take a picture of my arrival/reunion. We caught up with each other on the way to the friend's place I'm staying at, and it really felt surreal for me to be back in Korea. It was nice and welcoming at the same time it was... yup I'm in Korea... kind of reaction. Since my plane lande

A lot has happened

so a lot has happened since i last wrote. Kojokan's girls track and field team got 1st and 2nd place in the marathon relay. And the boys got 2nd place in the marathon relay yesterday. The band club went out for some fun at a bowling alley. That all went well. The sports festival went well. Running with a flute is really really difficult i must say. Then I went out with some friends and such. Studying times are getting hard. Now I am starting to get homesickness why? mainly because my school's 2nd year students are going to Canada in December for one week. that's all they talk about. Aaaa My bike had a flat tire so I had to walk with my bike home. Kinda tiring but the next day it was okay. Lately I have been in a rut. Friends are making me choose between them. Music club friends or class mate friends. I hate having to choose. urgh. The worse situation in the world. Himeji went well. Went Karaoking, saw Himeji castle and ate some really good food. Nice to meet them again. I w