Saturday in Seoul

In my last post, I promised to write more about my job and how training is going so far, but there is nothing too interesting to share just yet. However, I had an amazing weekend in Seoul, and I think that would be much more interesting to hear about, so here we go! :)

On Saturday, I got to spend the day touring around Seoul with my friend Park! Park was one of my residents when I worked as a Community Advisor in Birnam Wood at Western, and we became friends because of that experience! I'm so happy that I got to meet up with him in Korea! He was a wonderful tour guide; I can tell that he loves his city!

We began the day in Jongno-gu, which is the area that I explored by myself when I stayed there for a couple of days last week. There was a singing competition happening on an outdoor stage just next to the Microsoft building, and we got to watch a few of the performances! The competition is called Jeonguk Norejabang, which means "National Singing Contest" in English. This is a very famous TV show in Korea, so we were lucky to get to see it!

I got a video of one of the performances (click here). My FAVORITE thing was that the audience had these inflatable sticks that they would hit together instead of clapping. In the video, you can see this sea of yellow sticks clapping together...it was the funniest thing!!

From there we walked through Samcheong-Dong, a shopping area, and up a hill toward Bukchon Hanok Village, which is a Korean traditional village. 

We stopped to have iced tea at the Tea Museum and enjoy the view from the top of the hill. It was incredible!!

This village is SO BEAUTIFUL, and we even had a view of Namsan Tower between the buildings!

When we walked back down to the street, we came across this jump rope performance that was going on at another street stage. These kids were so talented!

And on we went to Insa-dong! This area is a tourist street with lots of shops, booths, restaurants, and street performers.

We stopped to see a street performer who was doing magic tricks, and he called me out of the audience to help with his trick! There's no anonymity in being a tall white American in Korea. He had me pull cards out of his pocket to show to the audience. It was embarrassing to be pulling cards out of a complete stranger's pocket, but it was fun too and he really was a good magician!

Within Insa-dong is an area called Ssamziegil, which is like a small outdoor mall that sells lots of handmade crafts and other touristy items. 

On the top floor, there is an area where people can attach "love tags" with messages of dedication and affection for their significant others or family members. 

YOU GUYS, GET THIS. They sell "poo bread" in Ssamziegil, which is a little bread snack formed to look like poop. Korea will never cease to surprise and amaze me!

We decided to go sit at Cheonggye Stream to rest after all that walking. Park bought gyeran bbang (egg bread) and ho-bak yeot (pumpkin taffy) for us to share...sooooo good!

We decided it was time for dinner and ducked into a small Korean restaurant across from a blaring American bar. The food was DELICIOUS and so cheap!! I had je-youk bbok-um, stir-fried spicy pork. I'll have to remember that one!

It was starting to get dark, so we decided to head toward Namsan Tower to check out the night view!

On our way to find a taxi, we passed Bosingak, which is a beautiful monument containing a bell that is rung for the new year.

And finally, we ended this spectacular day with an incredible view of Seoul from Namsan Tower!

This was another place for couples to express their love and commitment to each other. They do this by placing padlocks on a fence that runs around the base of Namsan Tower. 

In addition to the fence, couples could also place locks on these "trees", metal structures that are covered in locks so densely that they look like Christmas trees!

I can't believe how many things we got to see and do in Seoul on my first full weekend here! I had a great time! Thank you for being my tour guide and friend, Park!