Johnnie and Angela

Shopping in Seoul

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“Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.”

~Jawaharlal Nehru

Scenic Sunday

2012-01-08T10:56:00.002+09:00

* Every Sunday our blog features a random scenic photograph from our travels *

Summer Palace, Beijing, China

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“If today were the last day of my life,

would I want to do what I’m about to do today?"

~Steve Jobs

To see other blogs featuring a Scenic Sunday, visit www.scenicsunday.blogspot.com

Shopping in Seoul

2012-01-06T15:26:00.003+09:00

While my mom and aunt were visiting, we did a lot of shopping. In fact, they got almost all of their Christmas shopping done while here! We spent a couple days in Seoul and hit a few of the major shopping areas: Insadong, Dongdaemun, and Namdaemun.

Insadong is a shopping district near central Seoul and consists of a 1/2 mile long main street with countless alleys branching off of it. This is a great place to find things such as traditional touristy souvenirs, unique artwork, and beautiful pottery. It is closed to traffic on weekends, providing space for street vendors, parades, and entertainers. Touring Gyeongbokgung Palace and then shopping in Insadong makes for a great Seoul day trip since they are near to each other.

One street over from Insadong is a street nicknamed "monk alley" due to the large number of stores selling buddhist monk clothing, shoes, accessories, and religious items. There is also a large temple called the Jogyesa Temple. It is a beautiful temple with 3 large seated gold buddhas inside. It's worth a look if you're in the area.

Dongdaemun is... excess. For example, if you are looking for a pair of shoes, there are 10,000 pairs to choose from. If you want a scarf, you could spend all day looking through all that are available. This market is mostly indoors in large, multistory buildings like the one picture below. This huge marketplace is pretty well organized according to item. You just need to find the building and floor that has what you're looking for.

Namdaemun is one of my favorite shopping districts because it is a large, primarily outdoor, traditional marketplace. It's a great place to bargain for deals, try some street vendor snacks, take in the atmosphere, and for general people-watching.

Related Posts:

Folk Village Revisited

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"Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football.

Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger

of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase."

~Erma Bombeck

Changing of the Guards

2012-01-03T13:43:00.002+09:00

At the entrance to Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, a Changing of the Guards ceremony takes place every hour on the hour from 10am to 3pm daily, except Tuesdays. It is free for anyone to come and watch. The entire ceremony takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and is a fun sight to see.

The Changing of the Guards originated in the 15th century. The guards were in charge of opening and closing the gate, inspecting all visitors, and keeping watch. The ceremony now is a reenactment complete with traditional weapons, musical instruments, and colorful robes. The facial hair you see on the "soldiers" below isn't real, it's just part of their costume!

Related Posts:

Shopping in Seoul

Folk Village Revisited

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"A traveler without observation is a bird without wings."

~Moslih Eddin Saadi

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T12:30:00.001+09:00

Happy New Year everyone! Johnnie and I hit the town with friends last night and rang in the new year in style. We suited up this year!

It was such a fun night and we actually do remember most of it ;) This is the 5th time we've celebrated New Year's together and it's been in a different place every year! Here's a look back at our New Year's past...

In 2007, we were dating and celebrated in Savannah, GA.

In 2008, we had recently gotten married and celebrated with friends in Valdosta, GA.

In 2009, we were on our honeymoon and celebrated in Sydney, Australia.

In 2010, we were in the midst of moving from Georgia to South Korea and celebrated

with family in Seattle, WA. We ran a 5K race with Dulce on New Year's day!

This year, 2011, we celebrated with friends in South Korea!

2011 has been an amazing year! It wasn't always easy but it was always interesting. Johnnie moved to Korea last January and I joined him in February. This was only a one-year assignment for us and it's quickly approaching the end. We'll be moving at the end of January to an incredible new location for a three-year assignment. I'll do a blog post recapping our year in Korea before we move.

Here's to the changes, opportunities, and adventures that 2012 is sure to bring! Cheers!

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"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are

going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called

Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."

~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Gyeongbokgung Palace

2011-12-29T17:58:00.001+09:00

My mother, my aunt, and I traveled to Seoul for a day with grandiose plans of touring three palaces but only managed to see one. The palace we toured was Gyeongbokgung Palace which is the largest palace in Seoul. This palace is in the northern part of Seoul near the Blue House where the president lives. It was built in 1395, destroyed during the Japanese invasions of 1592-1598, and lay in ruins for centuries before being rebuilt in the late 1800's. A full restoration effort has been ongoing since 1990.

We took a guided tour through the palace which is free after paying the admission price. Our English-speaking tour guide was very informative, telling us facts and pointing out details that we would have otherwise missed. Gyeongbokgung Palace is huge, beautiful, and definitely worth visiting when in Seoul.

Me, my mom, and my aunt :)

Related Posts:

Shopping in Seoul

Folk Village Revisited

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"No road is long with good company."

~Turkish Proverb

Visitors

2011-12-28T12:22:00.000+09:00

Last month, my mom and my aunt came to Korea for a visit! They stayed for two action-packed weeks that were filled with shopping, sight-seeing, tours, more shopping, eating, and even a four-day trip to Beijing, China! We ended up with over 1,400 photos from those two weeks which took a while to sort through so that I could start blogging about it!

I went to the airport to greet them and had a while to sit around and people-watch. I realized, watching Koreans around me greet their arriving friends and loved ones, that Koreans are not hugging people. They got so excited, waving and running up to their loved ones, but the physical contact was limited to a hand on the shoulder at most. Even a girl who was obviously returning from college in the States only got a pat on her arm from her parents even though they seemed genuinely happy to have her home.

My mom and aunt were still smiling after their long flight across the ocean. We drew a lot of attention from the conservative people around us with all the hugs and kisses we exchanged :)

We covered almost all forms of transportation while they were here. Besides the plane and some taxis, we also rode the bus, ...

we rode the subway, ...

... and we rode the train.

We bravely used a Korean "squatty potty" and yes, there is a technique to doing this properly ;)

We had fun taking pictures everywhere we went :)

We went out to eat a lot since there are so many different kinds of restaurants here to try. We had Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, German, and Turkish food.

We stopped at coffee shops for lattes and teas every now and then:

We walked to the hilltop park by our apartment complex and used the random exercise equipment:

We had a good laugh trying some Korean facial masks:

And we relaxed with pedicures at my favorite local spa, 4NE1:

The rest of our adventures will be covered in subsequent posts since it's not possible to fit all of the fun in just one!

Related Posts:

Shopping in Seoul
Folk Village Revisited