It's Saturday!

This morning I woke up and thought, "Oh my gosh! School! I don't remember doing my homework!" What a terrible first thought to have, and then as I gained awareness, I thought again "...no...today is...Saturday! It's Saturday! No school!" Ah, nice!

I had an interesting morning; I helped one of my friends from Inje University by checking his grammar in his presentation/powerpoint so, unfortunately that took me almost an hour to do. I also received an email from my "Chicago Korean father", Mr. Kwon. He told me his wife's cousin's daughter is the same age as me and lives just outside of Seoul. He wanted me to meet her so I could have a new friend and he gave me her phone number. I also skyped with my Mom for a little bit. Then I was off adventuring. I had found a museum about King Sejong that was not too far from my campus. It also said it was free on the weekend. I found it, but it was not free-it was 2,000W and it was not a very good museum. :( Everything was in Korean, but even if I was able to read Korean, it would not have been very interesting. The only thing I really learned was that the Korean characters on a keyboard are consonants on the left and vowels on the right. (There was a room full of probably 50-75 typewriters of all sorts and as I was looking at one with Korean characters on it, I realized that.) So, that museum was a bust. I walked to a subway station nearby and as I was walking found a market--after walking through and seeing some of the meats there...I think I want to become vegetarian for awhile. I saw pigs heads, pigs jaws, leg bones, cow tail bones, chicken heads, chicken feet, whole chickens (with the head cut off, but neck...muscle? still attached), chicken or duck beaks, intestine and a whole lot of stuff I'm not sure what it all was. In addition to meet, they were also selling kitchen utensils, fruits, clothing etc.

After that nice cultural shock, I got on the subway and headed to downtown again. When I got just past City Hall, I remembered seeing some photos from the Korean War last night, it had been rainy and cold, so I didn't want to stand and look at all of them, knowing I'd be back in the area soon, I put it off and was able to see them today. The pictures were quite moving to me and made me hate war so much.

Last night I realized I had been quite close to Namdaemun Market, so I wanted to go there today before meeting my friend Jessica. I walked past Namdaemun Gate and was sad to see it still under construction. It's been 3 years and I'm not sure if they have made much progress restoring it. How sad. I walked through the market a little and then headed on to Myeongdong to meet Jessica. Jessica is an adoptee from the Netherlands I met in 2009. We did some shopping and then walked around to find dinner. As we were walking, I heard someone say "hey" and tap me on the shoulder kind of. Who should I see but "Hiruhomi", a Japanese classmate! He works a part-time job in Myeongdong. It was funny running into him. Jessica and I finally picked a BBQ place but both ordered stews. I had a good time chatting and catching up with her. We made plans to study Korean together in the next few weeks. Then we walked to the subway because she had to head back to her apartment. I stayed around the area poking around. I went past City Hall and listened to part of a concert going on. I also went into City Hall--they just built a new building and it opened in the beginning of October. It was really cool because they have an entire 'green' wall inside--it is all plants! I exited the building and was headed back to the subway station when I spotted those golden arches. You know what that means? Chocolate dipped ice cream cone for 700W. Yes, please. (yes, even though it was freezing outside!) Best 700W I've spent in a long time!

As I was walking back towards the subway, I heard some music along Cheonggyecheon--I recognized it as the band "Coldplay" and it sounded very much like them--I wondered if maybe a cafe was playing it or what, so I went to check it out. As it turns out, it was a group of 3 young men playing guitar and maybe a keyboard of some sort and singing on the street. They were really, really good. I stood and listened to a few songs before I got too cold to stand there anymore. I started walking to the subway and when I got to the station, I must have not been paying close enough attention because I ended up on the wrong side and didn't realize until I was in the car and we were headed to the next station. I was upset at myself and more upset because most of the stations on this line/in this area had the platforms of the trains on opposite sides--some stations have the platforms in the middle and the trains on the outsides, but these would all be trains on the inside and platforms on the outside--so I had to pay for a fare twice because of that mistake. Also, because it was getting to be around 9 or later, they kept condensing trains and I had to get off twice and wait for the next subway to arrive--it took me quite a long time to get home.

Ah, and I forgot to mention, this cousin's daughter of Mrs. Kwon, I will be meeting her on Thursday. Her name is Bohae. I am looking forward to making another Korean friend and I hope I will be brave enough to practice speaking Korean with her!

Beautiful red leaves in a park

Giant FAIL of a museum! Grr

The market--if you look carefully, you can see the lady in the red on the right side of the picture; below her arm are cow hooves + part of the leg. Ew, ew, ew!! They were also selling cow tailbones there too

One of the many photos on display

Namdaemun Gate under construction

Namdaemun Market breaking out the Christmas decorations!

Westin Chosin Hotel all set for Christmas

Inside City Hall--those are REAL plants!