My Little Korean

I sometimes call Alana my little Korean. She feels way more Korean than Liam. Mostly because she's more interested in Korean culture. She's obsessed with her Korean name, she's loved kimchi ever since she got her first taste, and will prance around in her hanbok at the slightest chance. She told me she wants to take Korean lessons, and will scream "Oppa!" at Liam at the playground.

There is no "F" or "V" sound in Korean, so they sometimes get pronounced like B's, P's, or H's. Last night I was explaining what "novel" meant to Liam, when I hear Alana singing "na-bel, nabel" over in the corner. Earlier in the day, she had called what we call a "force tickle" (when you are able to tickle someone across the room without touching them" as a "horse tickle."

Very cute. For the record, she can pronounce "F" and "V", but sometimes the wires get crossed.

I made a thing

....and then promptly screwed it up in photoshop trying to get rid of the grid lines. I made it one of the many nights I couldn't sleep.

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보신각 Bosingak

보신각 (Bosingak) is a bell in the middle of Seoul. It's the bell that used to signal the opening and closing of the great gates. It's rung at 11:40 everyday with the exception of New Years where it's rung at midnight to literally ring in the new year.

I had read that on Tuesdays they let foreigners help ring the bell. Seoul residents can sign up online. I think that if you show up on any day they'll let you ring the bell because there were only about a dozen people the day we were there. We arrived early, a running theme of our trip because I was eager to get to everywhere. However, 11:40 came and went, so I don't know when the actually bell ringing time is. They let us up onto the second floor and explained the bell's history. The bell here is a reproduction as the original bell cracked I believe. It's in the National Museum.

After the everyone had a turn "helping" ring the bell (in reality, the helping is holding on to the support while the guard on the end is actually doing the pushing.) the guard struck the bell one last time. The docent told everyone to put their hand on the bell and make a wish. It was cool to feel the last vibrations. After we were done, we grabbed a cab to head to the furniture museum.

Day 7: 경희궁 Gyeonghuigung

The last morning before the day we left, we started out at 경희궁 Gyeonghuigung. Despite having being largest of all the palaces, Gyeonghuigung is now the smallest, being able to see all of it in a hour. It is unlikely that it will be expanded as it is surrounded by government building. Out of the five palaces, Gyeongbokgung is the grandest, Changdoekgung is the most natural, Changgyeonggung has the secret garden, Deoksugung is the most modern, and Gyeonghuigung is the smallest and quickest to see.

We got there a little bit too early, before it actually opened. There is no fee to enter. We were the first ones in and the place was empty except for one other person.

This used to be called the king's rock and was supposedly the reason that the palace was built here.

King Yeongjo

This is the original bridge from the palace. It's outside of the park a good ways, but is where the purifying moat used to be, showing how big the palace used to be.

These are replicas of the roofs that are on the palace gates. All of them are restored due to being destroyed during the occupation. These are interesting cross sections. These are outside a great museum that unfortunately we didn't have time for.

남산골한옥마을 Namsangol Hanok Village

Gyeongbokgung was fun, but it closes early in the spring, so we went to 남산골한옥마을 (Namsangol Hanok Village). This is a newer park created by moving five hanok (traditional Korean houses) to the base of Namsan, It's cool small park that can be done in about an hour and half. We managed to hit at the exact right time in the evening. It was getting cool, and most people were leaving, but there was still enough light to get some nice pictures. Sorry a lot of the pictures were blurry. I must have touch the lens of my camera, and there were some fingerprints on it, making it hard to focus. Again, I have forgotten a lot of info about the building, so just enjoy the pictures.

A time capsule buried in 2012 when the park opened.

There's a traditional theater in the center. There weren't any performances going on at the time, but check the schedule, because you might be able to catch something cool.

We ended our evening by going to Namdaemun. Namdaemun (great south gate) where the oldest market in Seoul is located. It's where you can find some great stuff, but that's harder in the evening when people start shutting down. I managed to score some socks for Alana, stationary for the kids, and Justin bought some souvenirs for his brother. I found some stuff that would have been cheaper than Insadong, so in you're in Seoul, look in Namdaemun before Insadong to save money.

We ate some more hotteok, but I intended to eat dinner somewhere in the area. Unfortunately the only pojangmatcha (literally "covered wagon") had a really pushy ahjumma I accidentally insulted and nearly started and international incident, Justin told me I hadn't insulted her and that he suspected she had been dipping into her alcohol supply early.

At the flat, I was so tired and sore, I refused to walk any further, so Justin went downstairs to the grocery store and bought some instant ramyeon that we ate with some more hallabong.