Day 2 of Seoul searching

We woke up to pouring rain that blanketed the whole day in Seoul, which was the forecast for the whole week (luckily this ended up being the only full day of rain). We decided to make the best of it and go on a tour bus of the city thinking this would be a good way to see some great sights while staying dry! 

On our way to the tour bus we, of course, stopped at Kyobo Book Store- which has a large “foreign” section that Kyle got giddy over. Then off to see the city! 

Seoul is very large and we soon realized that we would only be seeing a very small portion of it and that would take up the entire day. We started at Gwanghwamun (the old city gate) then went past Deoksugung Palace. Next we got off at Namdaemun Market which was a network of streets with many small shops and vendors selling traditional Korean things as well as clothes and knock off handbags. 

A shop for traditional Korean clothing for children

We jumped on the next bus and went past Seoul Station, the U.S.O., Yongsan Station, then jumped off at the National Museum of Korea. At the museum we had lunch- Raman noodles and a spicy soup- Duk Boki, which is the soup we had with my students weeks ago for the first time. 

The National Museum of Korea

The museum, you can see Seoul Tower in the distance

The museum is the 6th largest in the world. And free! We explored only the first floor for hours- reading and looking at artifacts from the earliest history of Korea through the Joseon Dynasty. It is incredible to read of a history of a people that have such deep roots and rich history that is sometimes heartbreaking to read of. I thought of how the American “melting pot” and my multi-cultural background has almost estranged me to such a deep pride and identity as there seems to be here. Do I identify with American history? Mexican? Irish? Scottish? German? European?... although the mono-culture of Korea is sometimes overwhelmingly homogeneous to me, there are MANY things that I find beautiful about it.

Seoul Tower- we wish to go up to the top someday but it was too cloudy this trip to Seoul

10 Story Pagoda

Buddha carved thousands of times 

Back to the bus and our high hopes of stopping at many other places was beat by our exhaustion and our not-so-effective rain coats with a too-small-for-two-people umbrella. 

After some coffee and resting we met up with Chong Jung Ung (Hero) and one of his friends. Hero is our supervisor’s boyfriend whom we have met a couple times before. They brought us to a traditional Korean restaurant in Insadong (a traditional market). They wanted to introduce us to some of the traditional dishes we had yet to try- fish, spicy crab, burnt rice tea, Korean pizza, bulgogi, and of course- Kimchi! After dinner we went to a traditional coffee/tea house where we had great conversation filled with the typical language barriers. 

After devouring the fish

It was late. So we then went back to the hostile to get ready for an evening of... DANCING!! 

We walked up and down the streets in Hongdae to find a “happening” club- bright lights, loud music, and a good sized line to get in gave us the cue- this was the place! The underground club was 2 levels of rave/techno madness! Men and women danced pretty much entirely separately- and just let loose! Kyle did his jig while pointing his index fingers and shaking his hips! 

Off to bed after a full day :)

p.s. there are many many people in Seoul (as expected), and many that spoke English, along with a fair amount of foreigners everywhere. Kyle and I shared with each other several times that we enjoy the trip to Seoul but are very happy about where we live- it is much slower and less western. 


-Shana