I'm on my way, I don't know where I'm going. I'm taking my time, but I don't know where.: trisket876

trisket876

I'm on my way, I don't know where I'm going. I'm taking my time, but I don't know where.

Jan 11, 2009 07:34

It has been a busy weekend. Having 6 day work weeks really wipes you out! I have many little details about Fri, Sat. & today to share, so bear with me if I wander to and fro during this narration. (Scroll over pictures for captions.)

We had 'Halloween' for our special activity at school on Friday and Saturday. (Remember, I teach two different sets of classes, so it was not the same kids both days.) So from 2:30 to 4:00 (ish) in the afternoon the kids put on their costumes and went to different classroom for different activities in 15 minute increments. In my second hour class on Friday the kids wanted me to put on these silly glasses.

They got a good giggle out of it, and then we got back to class.
Here are a few pictures of the kids dressed in their costumes.

The days were fun, but exhausting. I also found another American product with a fun transliteration.

Original American Style Taste? What exactly is an American Style Taste? In this case it is Mountain Dew, I guess.

Saturday night Amanda and I went into the Myeong Dong market in Seoul. It was quite chilly, but we had alot of fun shopping. We took the 8100 bus straight in, got there about 6 - shopped and walked til 10ish and were home before 11.
There are many things to see there. This guy was selling potatoes fried in these weird spirals. They smelled good but he wanted 2,000 won for them. :-( Too expensive.

Some weird looking fish and octopus things:

The streets in Myeong Dong:

We ate fresh dimsun from a street vendor. Have I mentioned that eating from street vendors is one of my favorite things about traveling?

I like the fashion fads in Seoul this year. Largely inspired by the weather no doubt, but the girls still manage to look cute and feminine. Me, I look like a bundled up albino pimple, but at least I stay relatively warm.

At Myeong Dong I bought 4 pairs of earrings and a ring, and a little dress (which is a tad bit too small for me.) I spent around $15.00.

Sunday I went back into Seoul, this time by myself. I had thought that one of the girls was going in with me, but I ended up wandering the city alone and I had a great time. I am sufficiently tired now and am trying to get all this recorded before I zonk out for the night. I left Dankook about noon and arrived in Seoul at about 5 til 1. I jumped on the subway and road to Dongdaemun to walk along their market. I don't think I ever found the real market there, just some side and back streets.

The sandwich was yummy. They have a kind of ketchup-y stuff here that is sweetish. I like it on things like this (especially since I like ketchup on my eggs, etc.) It was 1,500 won and it made me warmer in the bitter coldness of the market.

So, I left Dongdaemun (well, really I was trying to find the real market but got turned around and headed the wrong way, which is easy to do around here since I don't read Korean and there is alot of construction. After about 15 very cold minutes I stumbled upon a fish market. I was in many different fish markets in s.e. asia so I am not at all a-feared of them, so I thought I would see what this one contained. (Sidenote: fish markets are MUCH more pleasant in this bitter cold than in the 100 degree tropical sun.)

(I paused for a moment in the midst of writing this to retrieve my laundry from the washingmachine and hang it to dry, and to run downstairs to the chinese restaurant and order some black beans and noodles for dinner. YUM! Most Korean restaurants do not have doggy bags, so since I wanted the food to go, I took down my ziploc plastic bowls and had them fill them up. Which worked quite nicely as they filled one with noodles and the other with sauce (giving me LOTS of sauce) so that I have extra sauce for rice tomorrow night. Life is sweet!)

When I emerged from the fish market it was bitterly cold and I was no longer on a main street so there were no big department stores etc. to duck into. I realized I HAD to get out of the cold soon. (My thighs were so cold I couldn't feel them anymore.) Within 10 minutes I reached a subway station so I went down to try to figure out where I was. I took the subway to Ichon (which was NOT what I thought it was) but ended up right at the National Museum of Korea. I took it as a sign from God. *smile*

The museum was free and very warm and comfortable. I am sure I would have gotten more out of it had I actually known anything about Korean history prior to the 20th century. The biggest problem with not knowing things is not knowing that you don't know until you realize that you don't know because you didn't know that you didn't know. Anyway, it was still very interesting. Here are a few pictures.

We weren't allowed to use a flash in the museum so the pictures of the artwork are a little dark. Hopefully though you will still see how relaxing it was.

Neat puzzles in the gift shop.

After the museum, I got back on the subway and went to Namdaemun market. I was getting really tired by this point, the cold wears me out, but the things there were still funny. I laughed outloud when I saw these boxers.