the inexhaustible variety of life.: "today is my new favorite day"

"Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So, today is my new favorite day." ~Winnie the Pooh

Last weekend, one of my friends came from Japan with her friend to visit Korea on a long holiday weekend. Kanako was my resident in Birnam Wood at Western, and we were friends from IEP (Intensive English Program) events too! I met up with her and four of our Korean friends (Park, Minji, Ji In, and Jake) for an evening of running around Seoul and doing touristy things.

Our first stop was Myeongdong Cathedral. This is a beautiful place to visit on any ordinary day, but this day was special...there was a wedding going on while we were there! We walked in just as the ceremony was ending, and we stayed to sneak some pictures.

Here are the groom, the bride, and their respective parents. The mothers were wearing hanbok, the traditional Korean dress. Apologies for the poor smartphone camera quality! I was zooming in from quite a distance ;)

The extended family.

From Myeongdong, we headed on to Gyeongbok Palace!

And of course Gwanghuamun Square to see King Sejong!

By that point, we decided it was time to eat something. We wanted to have ssamgyupsal, a kind of Korean barbecue, so we set out to find a place.

#oscarselfie in the streets of Jongno-gu.

After walking around for a bit, we found a place to eat.

Look how beautifully the food was displayed!

Kanako brought gifts for us from Japan! How sweet is she??

After dinner, we headed to Kwangjang Market, a traditional Korean indoor market.

We sat down in a tiny restaurant in the market to have makgeolli (Korean rice wine) and pajeon (potato and green onion pancakes). Kanako did the honor of pouring makgeolli for us!