Gyeonbukgung Expedition

Today I went to Seoul with some of the Janggi Foreigners to see Gyeonbukgung Palace and do some shopping. It was first constructed in the 14th Century, although has been reconstructed several times since of course. Especially during the Japanese invasion in the 20th century it was mostly destroyed, but has since been rebuilt again.
But anyway it's really quite beautiful. There are gardens and ponds and lots Pagoda-style buildings. We didn't actually take a guided tour so I'm not sure what all the buildings are, but we had a good time.

I'm quite tired now, as I was out from 9:30am to 11:30pm and then made a few skype calls. But I want to share some highlights from the day and pictures.

* We hadn't been on the palace grounds very long before a group of middle school girls started following us and giggling, and told my friend Derek he was 'berry cute-uh'. He's 6'5" so gets quite a lot of attention around here. But I didn't feel left out because as the only blonde on the premises I was soon approached by a group of girls wanting their picture with me. So of course I obliged. I've grown accustomed to stares and pointing, but this was the first time anyone had asked for photographic evidence. I was really tickled by it, but didn't think until afterwards that I should have gotten one with them as well. Next time I'll remember to do so.

*I saw one of the students from my Hagwon there, as well as her brother, who is in Taekwondo with me sometimes. So I said hello to them and to their mom. It was another time where I marveled at the fact that I can be in a city like Seoul and actually see some people that I know. It makes it feel more like home, and that I'm part of a community, which is really cool.

* When we foreigners get together we are just ridiculously goofy. We had a lot of fun taking pictures in silly poses and making up songs. It was a good time.

* My friend Nadia's friend Lisa joined us...she's an American too but doesn't live in Janggi. Anyway later on we were in the neighborhood of Seoul called Insadong, in a back alleyway outside an Italian restaurant and she asked where I'm from...turns out her best friend from college works in the public defender's office in Fairmont and my dad knows her. It was yet another example of how no matter where I am in the world, I meet someone with a connection to Fairmont. It's really amazing for such a small town, but I love those moments!

As I said, I'm pretty tired right now so forgive the lack of detailed stories. I will let the pictures tell the rest.

Although I will mention that last Thursday I went for dinner with my TKD instructors again. When I invited them they wanted me to choose the place but I insisted they choose, since I chose last time. When they said they wanted 쭈꾸민 I had no idea what it was...when I found out it was grilled, spicy baby octopus, I was terrified. How could I eat such a thing in front of Chang Bae and manage to choke it down without embarrassing myself? But actually it turned out to be really good. You mostly only eat the tentacles. Although at one point he recommended that I eat a head. Of course, since he recommended it I had to do it. After a few chews, something inside popped and a liquid squirted out. Involuntarily I made a face. He asked me if it was spicy, and I was going to explain but then thought it best if I didn't know what it was. So I just smiled and said no and finished eating it. I think it was an ink sac, but I really don't know. I still don't want to know. Frankly I think he told me to eat it just to mess with me, but he didn't say anything either. Anyway other than that, it really was quite good. I want to take the other foreigners there sometime.
But as for Chang Bae, the conversation was pretty limited of course but it was still fun. I'm still really frustrated by my lack of Korean language skills. I can understand it a lot of times, but I feel like a mute. Hopefully I can continue to improve, so I can talk to people!

Ok, here are the pictures...I won't label all of them but hope you enjoy!


Here is a picture of a statue of King Sejong the Great, in Seoul outside the Palace. He created the Hangul alphabet and other things.


The statue was in the middle of a really long boulevard...this is a little bit farther down. You can see the entrance to the palace at the end...


Here's the entrance to the palace..


Here's me posing with one of the palace guards...they are kind of like the famous guards in London who don't move, although they did occasionally look around with their eyes and smirk at the tourists. But otherwise they didn't move.





Throne room....


The ceiling above the throne room...


Here is a view of downtown Seoul from outside the throne room..



I was really excited when I realized this was the first grass I'd seen since I've been in Korea.



There was a calendar/sundial/sculpture thing of the Lunar Zodiac, so I took a picture with my sign, the Rat. Note that I have adopted the Asian photo pose..



There was a folk museum inside, which we didn't go to, but outside there was a little mini-village set up that they called 'Mom and Pop Village'. So it was scenes from Korea in the 1970s.

Here I am on a street car.








Some pictures of the gardens/ponds..


Kevin ruining my picture...






The pond is fed by a spring directed down from the mountain, built with the original palace. The path of the water was built with 2 bends in it so that the water seeps in rather than flows, so that the water will remain still to reflect the trees and building. This shows that well and pond.



There were character cutouts. We had to utilize them. Yes, this is me. Trying to look like a fierce palace guard.



Finally after the palace we went to Nomdaymoon market for Halloween supplies. It's an international market so they had pretty much everything a foreigner could want. I thought it was a cool photo opp.



So, that was my day! Quite a fun day. It wasn't paintball with 최 청 배 (to which I was invited but Hannah told him I already had plans!), but it was a good time.


****EDIT*****

I thought of another story to share about the day...

At one point we were standing around in one of the courtyards and a sort of large group of Muslims happened to be passing by. Just then, a teenage boy ran up behind them and was running and jumping around among them and around them and then moved in front of them. At first we thought he was with them but then saw he was Korean. And then saw that he was holding what appeared to be a glock.
And he was aiming it at them, and at the crowd, and at the walls, and all over the place.
He looked to be somewhat mentally disturbed.

We were all rather alarmed, as you may imagine. I mean, we were pretty sure it was a plastic gun but the toy guns here look really realistic. So we couldn't be positive. The other strange thing was that no one else seemed to care. We were all looking around wondering if we should hit the deck, and flinching when the gun pointed our direction. Even a tour guide walked by..she did look at him but didn't say or do anything.

Soon enough he ran out through the gate to the other courtyard. Keith realized too late that he should get a video of this so he ran after him, but apparently the kid kept running until he was out of the palace, so he didn't get a video.

We were all amazed. If anything like this had happened in the States, it would have been mass hysteria and all hell would have broken loose.

It was definitely one of the more bizarre moments I've had in Korea.

And here are a few more pictures...me and some of my friends, minus Kevin who is taking the picture. it's Keith, me, Nadia, Derek.



Then me playing a traditional Korean game in the folk village area. Some Korean guy showed me how to play. You have to get the sticks into the pot. I got 2 in.