October 6, 2012
Palaces in Seoul (and the rest of this week)
Hey everyone,
I know I haven’t updated in a few days, but that’s because I am actually spending my mornings studying at this moment. (I have no idea what to expect for the midterms.) Anyways, so a few days ago, it was Chuseok in Korea. It’s also known as ‘Korean thanksgiving’ it essentially means that most koreans go home and visit their grandparents or the family tombs or graves. I’ve never seen Seoul this empty! The campus also turned to be out less lively than usual.
In this period, I was asked to go out with a real Korean ‘grandmother’, she’s one of my roommate’s co-students (they both study History together) and since her children were in America, she didn’t have much to do during this period. We decided on visiting two of the historical palaces in Seoul, named Changdeokgung Palace and Gyeongbokgung Palace they are both so beautiful (I really want to go back here once more) and also the ‘Secret garden’ behind one of the palaces. The decorations could tell me a lot, the bat that is portrayed, stands for prosperity and good luck, I’ve been told that everyone wanted furniture with bats engraved into them for this reason. Also, the chinese symbol that looks like the logo for ‘Legendary pictures’ actually symbolizes eternal life, not bad eh?
Furthermore, in one of the largest palaces, there were not that many trees to be found, this is to make sure that intruders did not have any place to hide behind. The courtyard however had a lot of trees ^^.
I’ve also seen some other sights (including the secret garden), the pictures will probably be up on facebook soon, but I think this post will have a part 2, as I am going back when the fall colors seep into the trees, I think it’ll also give the pictures more character :D. It’s overall a very tranquil place in the middle of a fast-pacing environment. As soon as you exit the palace gates you feel that you’re back in a world city.
Moreover, I’ve been to the Seoul Drum festival the day after. However, earlier in the afternoon I went to City hall, because there was supposed to be a very large event there too. I however had to go back for the Drum festival.. It seemed like a whole lot of fun, which it was ^^. There was even a woman who was among the men that were making traditional Korean music. I’ve already seen some of this during the Korea in Motion festival (seems like forever) but this one was pretty good too. There even were two men with alien masks who were doing drums, I however didn’t think that they were that amazing, except for the masks. Lastly, there were four or five hipster guys who did amazing things ^^ (and many more people).
Whenever I have time, I will upload some of the video’s on my youtube channel.. After the festival a friend and I visited someone who was working at a French minirestaurant in Sinchon, but I got to say.. their french fries actually taste good 😀 I really enjoyed it. On our way back we found out that the metro and the buses stopped running, so we had to go home by taxi. However, the woman who was driving us was talking to me, and she kept on saying that she was scared to drive up to our dormitory because… hill + dark = very scared woman. I mean.. one of the main reasons for us to take the taxi was because it’d be faster, and because we wouldn’t have to walk in the dark by ourselves… We did make it back home.
Finally..Thursday came. A friend of mine decided to have breakfast at the back gate a little before 12. I ordered a chicken salad, instead I got a plate that was covered in sauce. It actually made me nauseous.. so not cool. I ate really fast, and after that I had to run to work.
Work was .. slow, as usual. Since I have the lunch times, nearly no one shows up, so I have plenty of time to study or watch drama. I think in total I’ve only worked… 35 minutes out of 2 hours. On top of that, a lot of international students were gone, so I had even less to do XD. After this I met with the girl who is going to my university next semester, to talk about things that might worry her. Finally, I went to have dinner at my buddy’s house. And I got to tell you.. it was really delicious. There was jokbal (the pig filet) with sauce, and a lot of side dishes, such as kimchi, or fish stew with little pieces of spicy octopus, so good.. After dinner there was fruit, and I even got some apples to take home (they were really good Oo).
Then Friday arrived. In the morning I went to have breakfast with a friend of mine, we have our own ‘favorite’ breakfast place. It’s only a few minutes from the university gate, and for 3000 won I have the most delicious panini I can wish for. It’s actually made with normal bread ^^. (Most of the korean bread is either corn-like or smeared with some sort of garlic..) As far as I’ve seen at least. So I really love this woman. I’m always happy whenever I go there. The rest of the day I didn’t do that much, I watched a movie and I pretty much studied.. Speaking of which, I’ll probably do that now again, as I have a presentation about Dokdo and it’s possession soon.
That’s all from me for now ^^.
Love,
-Kirti
Experiences in South Korea, 2012 / 2013 