Seoul!! Visiting the largest city in South Korea!

At the war memorial museum, looking at all the flags and army statues. This picture is of me and Keith at the top of Seoul Tower looking at the city lights and seeing the distance we are from Chicago!

Sitting near a pond on the guide through one of the famous temples in Seoul. Shopping at one of the many markets in Seoul, Insadong.

Posing with a cute little Korean girl, who is all dressed up in the traditional Korean clothing, Hanbok, for their thanksgiving holiday, known as Chuseok.

Lots of neat crafts, including masks, that we saw at the traditional markets.

Seoul tower at night with the lights changing. A fun picture of me and keith posing in army outfits at the war memorial museum.









Shopping in Seoul city!

This popcorn man was making popcorn in this loud cannon! Really cool!

Keith playing a Korean game where you have to keep the ring rolling by using a stick. It was so funny to watch him running around like a kid so excited by the game....and even funnier when he raced an older Korean...they were both competitive!

We just visited Seoul city in South Korea for a 3 day weekend, since it was Chuseok holiday (Korea's Thanksgiving celebration). Chuseok holiday is Korean's 2nd biggest celebration (New Year's is the first). Students do not have school on Friday because that is the day that the cooking is prepared, traditionally by the women while the men relax. I asked my students about what they will do for Chuseok, and it was funny to hear all the girls say that they will be cooking and cleaning with their mothers and aunts, while the boys all told me they would play computer games at the internet cafes (PC room) they have on almost each corner. The boys all laughed because sometimes they do help and they also must study for their upcoming midterms; however, they wish and sometimes get to spend their holiday playing computer games. The big fiest is then on Saturday morning, with lots of rice cake, pork, and other side dishes. Rice cake is very popular among the Koreans. It is like a little bakery good, sometimes the rice bread is filled with honey, sometimes with black bean (which I love), and sometimes the rice cake is different textures or have powder on them. I will have to take a picture some time to show you.

Since it is a popular holiday for Korea, and because of all the teachers at my school being so helpful and kind to me, I bought them some goodies (almond pound cake and another type of bread/cake) from the bakery. Gift giving is huge in this culture, therefore, I know they appreciated the gesture and could tell they were excited and surprised when I came with the treats. It is common for my staff to put little snacks....like rice cake, fresh apples, pears, or grapes, or sweet potatos, on the center table for everyone to enjoy. Therefore, that's where I put the treats for my office to share. I also brought some into the principal's office, along with fresh coffee!

Most people said Seoul would be a ghost town and many stores would be closed for the holiday, but we found it to be just as busy for most of the weekend and we were even lucky to go to some of their celebrations for Chuseok! We got to Seoul late Thursday night (took a quick 1 hr. flight after school) and stayed three nights in a hostel called the Hongdai guesthouse, nicknamed, the Yellow Submarine. We stayed there with other EPIK teachers, and left on Sunday around 5. Airports are so quick and convenient to use, very different than ohare airport. There is hardly any line to check in bags or get your tickets, then you don't have to take off jewelry, watches or shoes when going through security (you can even carry liquids on). Tickets are also pretty inexpensive if you use the right website. Sometimes you can find tickets for $40 roundtrip to the mainland...which we will definitely take advantage and use for future trips to Seoul or Busan or other parts of South Korea. This trip was $120 roundtrip for each of us, because of it being a busy time for travel because of the Chuseok holiday. Although there is a ferry, it takes much longer, about 8-11 hours at night, and comes to about the same price.

The hostel had miniature yellow submarines all over the building and was very comfortable to stay in. We stayed in a room with about 8 people. Everyone had their own bed/ part of a bunkbed. There was breakfast provided and snacks around the place, including cereal, orange juice, milk!!! which is expensive on jeju so we don't buy much of it, toast, peanut butter and jelly, oatmeal and coffee. There were also free computers to use with internet, Seoul information pamphlets, a few bathrooms and showers with shampoo and soap, and places to hang out with your group late at night. I loved the place, minus other foreigners coming in at random times during the night. But the people working there were very nice and we even met some new people staying there who told us about their travels and recommendations for places to visit nearby.

We pretty much did everything we could during our visit....I was soo exhausted by Sunday!! That Friday night, we just went out with our EPIK friends, who were staying with us at the hostel, for a few drinks and food at a nearby bar. Since we were staying at the University area, it was a good location for bars/danceclubs.

On Friday, we took the city tour bus, which brought us to most of the main tourist sites to see and stopped at each location about every 15 minutes. It cost only $10 and it was our unlimited travel use for the day (besides the subway to get to the bus stop...but that was only 1,000 won= $1. Some main spots that the bus stopped at included traditional and new markets for shopping, a huge palace with temples, the history/arts museum, seoul tower at night to view the city lights, and the most restaurants you could ever imagine (Korean and western restaurants.

We had woken up early and our first stop was the National History Museum of Korea. The museum was celebrating its 100th anniversary. It had three floor levels with art, clothing, sculptures, culture pieces, scriptures, and other historical artifacts. It was also surrounded by lakes, gardens, plazas and an outdoor exhibit. It was interesting, although not very interactive. Next, we went to Itaewon, which is a foreigner district known for its food from all around the world. It was neat to see so many foreigners, since Jeju is mostly all Koreans, except for the few EPIK teachers or other English teachers on the island. In Itaewon, people came from all over, there were so many types of restaurants and places to shop. I ate lunch with an EPIK friend, Magda, at Quiznos....my favorite (I miss eating sandwiches!), while Keith ate a huge meal of sauerkraut and potatoes at an Austrian restaurant. After grabbing lunch, we decided to catch the bus and head to a palace before it closed at 5:00.

Cheongmukdong palace was a huge temple and the only one that remains unchanged. We took a tour that allowed us to see in the temples, through a secret garden and hidden passageways and giant plazas. We took many pictures and did not hear any word the tour guide said, since it was all in Korean (I think we missed the last English guide for the day) oh well:)

After the temple, we went to Ipsadong. This was my favorite market to shop at since it was a huge mix of traditional Korean goods. We saw many masks, pottery bowls, fans, food, little gold pig statues...it is said that they are good luck because they bring fortune since pork is sold so often in korea, but dogs are supposedly bad luck. It is interesting because the number 4 is also considered bad luck, symbolizing death. Therefore, in elevators you will not see the number four, but the word "foor" instead. Just like in the US, number 7 is their luckiest number.

Other things we saw in the market were paintings, scarfs, clothes, and many other things. I was first looking at a small beautiful Korean fan to put in our place. Keith recommended us getting a larger fan if we were going to get one. So then Keith was off looking at his own things, while I was looking in a new little shop and I asked the man if he had any fans that were bigger...he laughed and brought out this HUGE Korean fan, maybe about the length of two doorways, a good size for putting on the wall. So as I was smiling and looking at this fan, Keith saw me and came into the store with a huge smile on his face as well. It was the perfect souvenoir from Seoul to decorate our apartment. I'll put a picture of it up here soon, once we get it up on our wall above our bed in our apartment. After buying the fan and looking around at the shops, we went into a peaceful teashop and drank level 6 (highest level) of Jinsing tea. This is a popular Korean tea that is very strong and is very good for your health and clearing any sinuses or sore throat. It also gives you a lot of energy. We then went into a small mall area where there were more expensive shops and art galleries. They were also selling rice cake and they had this huge hammer that people could use to try smashing the rice cake. I ate some rice cake and then Keith and I shared a kimchi/seafood/veggie pancake that we dipped into a type of seasoned soysauce. Both were delicious! There were many strange food around the market like doughnut ricecake in the shape of a fish, raw fish, fish eye/ scaled fish, nuts, corndogs, blood pepper sausage, etc.

After the shopping, we took a bus to Seoul Tower, known as Namsung Tower, to see the city lights from way up high. It is similar to the Sears Tower in Chicago, or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. At the bottom of the tower, though, there was a light performance, lighted forms of people hanging above your heads, and there was a musical performance...a few people singing and playing the guitar. The top was an amazing view. We spotted Chicago area...which shows the distance we are from Chicago. The lights from Seoul city were very pretty and showed how big of a city it is. I was told that Seoul is actually the 3rd largest city in the world! Although we were planning on going out when we got back, unfortunately, Keith and I fell asleep while waiting for our friends to get back from dinner, since we all got back around midnight and had been sightseeing the entire day! oops

On Saturday, we went to the war memorial museum, which was very interesting and had many interactive displays. It had a wall with about 53,000 names of Americans that died in the Korean war, as well as other names and countries.

Then we went to the traditional Folk Village, where there was a festival for Chuseok. This was probably my favorite place we visited, since it was not just foreigners visiting, but mostly Koreans with their families celebrating the holiday with games, food, music, and crafts. Some games included Korean wrestling on a huge circle of soft dirt, a wheel spinning game, a game similar to baseball but with throwing bean bag balls into a hole, a huge swing for the kids to swing on, top game, and teeter/totter catapulting. Kids were also making t-shirts, masks, dolls and other crafts. So many little kids were wearing the traditional Korean clothing, called Hanbok. I was even able to try on an outfit and pose on a stage with an EPIK friend...and then all these little Korean kids came and sat by us to have their pictures taken by their parents! It was adorable! We also saw a traditional popcorn cannon, which a Korean man used to make very popcorn with a big loud bang from the cannon! Very cool to watch! As we walked around the folk village, we saw traditional Korean houses, food and we also saw a huge time capsule. 500 years ago, Koreans put food, clothes, tools, and other things into the capsule and they will not open it for another 500 years...which means everything will be 1,000 years old when they finally open the time capsule! I love that idea and wish America would make one too!

After the festival, we went to a more Americanized market, called Myeong-Dong. The streets here were insanely busy and had popular name brand clothing and items. I was sad to hear that I missed the Forever 21 (didn't know it was there until we were done shopping and ready to head back), they had kickoffs of Guess, Coach, etc. and everything was still pretty good bargains. It was neat to see so many people shopping and the streets filled with so many tall buildings and stores! I bought a scarf, some earrings, and some shoes! After Myeong-Dong, we went to one more market, known as Namdemeun,a more traditional Korean market for mostly food and some clothes. It was similar to a farmer's market. Keith and I bought some jinsing tea level 6..since we loved it the other day and because it was definitely a bargain. At the airport the 100 bags we bought would have been about $60, and we bought it for $18 at this bargain market. Go us! That night, we tried to make one more festival that we had heard about, but by the time we made it on the subway, it was already closed. We had a few drinks of my favorite stuff...makali (the korean rice wine) and hung out with our friends that night.

On Sunday, before heading to the airport around 3, we took advantage of our last day by running around the city one last time. Keith decided to go off and adventure at the other huge palace, known as Gyeonbuksang. Meanwhile, Magda and I went back to Ipsadong, where we did lots of more shopping in parts of the market we had not seen the first day. We bought lots of jewerly, bargained and had killer deals, and we both bought little Korean mirrors with beautiful designs on the front. It has the lotus flower on it and a Korean story which symbolizes that the flower was made in mud, however, it does not reflect the dirt in life, but grows to be beautiful and innocent. I was also told by my co-teacher that this flower symbolizes the life of a person, since the flower opens at the beginning of the day, and closes or dies by the end of the day. I also bought gift for Keith's b-day (which I can't share with you yet in case he reads this!! :)

After the quick plane ride back, we were definitely very, very exhausted from our busy weekend. However, we saw and did so much and can't believe how lucky we are to have so many wonderful opportunities to travel and see the world! We are learning so much and enjoying sharing our stories with you! I will try to keep adding more details of what I am learning about the culture and more details on all of my experiences.