A Journey for my Seoul: Second Tuesday of the Month...

Well, first, I want to wish Joe a happy birthday! :)

Class went alright. We had a 'substitute teacher' in for the 2nd teacher today. We had a male teacher and he was very loud and enthusiastic. It made the time go by much faster I think. We started chapter 16--we are just flying through this textbook!

After class, I was able to talk with Joe so that was nice. :) I was going to go to Seoul's Flea Market, but it is closed every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. Of COURSE it was the day I planned on going! But luckily I did my homework and found this out before I went! So, I looked up other museums or places to go--most closed around 5 or so, which felt like a bit of a waste because I was leaving around 3 and couldn't get to them until closer to 4. I found one that stayed open til 6--I wasn't really sure what it was a museum for, but I thought I could at least check it out. As it turns out, it's quite near Bukchon, which is traditional Korean "village" area with homes 600 years old (it's where royalty and the rich lived back in the day-though I'm sure it probably continues somewhat today too). I wandered around for a bit but couldn't find the museum. I backtracked and took another street and found a tourism booth-stopped in there and got a map of the area and figured out how to get to the museum-it was not quite on the main street, so that's why I didn't see it at first. Well, I went into the "museum" it was more just a room in a basement and it was full of masks and other sculptures. No one was there so I didn't pay the 2,000W entrance fee, but I was in the room for maybe 30 seconds before deciding if someone did appear, it was not worth 2,000W so after a brief look around, I headed back outside. I noticed on my tourist map some sights around Bukchon that sounded interesting, so I followed the walking tour a bit. I came to a part of the road that overlooked "Samcheongdong" a street that is famous for small art galleries, cafes and boutiques. I took a steep staircase down to street level and walked around there a bit. From there, it is not too far from Insadong, (see Friday for Insadong notes) so I walked to Insadong. Then I hopped on the subway and headed back. I went to dinner at a restaurant right next to my dorm. I had seen an 'advertisement'/picture of japchae (a noodle dish that I love) from this restaurant and had been thinking about it for a few days. It was pretty good, except I think it was a Chinese restaurant so the japchae was a bit different than "Korean style"--it was a little bit spicy.

I returned to my room and did some homework and also talked with Jung Yoon (Jenny-my old roommate) for a little. I can't believe it's already 10pm! Time for bed!