Seoul Update

Saturday: We had a taxi take us to Gupo Station and from Gupo we took a KTX train to Seoul Station. Emily was a sweetheart and got everyone a kimbap for the ride! Upon arrival to Seoul, we went and checked in to our guesthouse. We had a group of 7 at the time; 3 guys and 4 ladies so we decided it would be best to have dinner together and then split up for shopping. We went to Ewha Women's University area to shop and the guys went to Dongdaemun. On the way back to our guesthouse, we saw a cute little muffin shop in the subway station and all got muffins to try! 

Emily, Maren, and me in the taxi...the adventure begins!

Tim, Ben, and Emily on the KTX (high speed train)

Maren, Kim, Emily, Ben, Tim, and Seung Bae in front of Seoul Station...we have arrived!

My little muffin!

Sunday: Em and I had done a little research to find English Easter services in Seoul, but also near our area. The one I picked was very close, but when we arrived we were a little late so we asked some workers there about the English mass...the information we had was 4 years out of date and they did not have an Easter English mass! :( We met up with our friends in Insadong, which is a traditional artsy area. We had lunch and walked around there. Then, we were off to Namdaemun, which is a traditional market. After Namdaemun, we went to Myeongdong. Myeongdong is a "hip" young area with...lots of shopping. :)

Parade in Insadong

Lettuce growing in an alley in Insadong...made me think of my Mom!

Lunch in Insadong

Namdaemun

Monday: Emily, Maren and I went to meet Hwa Sun in Itaewon. On the way, I bought a Happy Birthday balloon for JaeBin and a little bear cookie-cake. The taco restaurant Hwa Sun wanted to take us to was closed!! :( So we found a Japanese restaurant instead. We went to Hwa Sun's home and she cut up strawberries and oranges...so delicious! She also had a Strawberry Cake from Paris Baguette! We went to go pick up JaeBin from the bus stop and then played with him and hung out there for part of the afternoon. Finally, we headed out to meet up with Ben and have dinner. We went to Cheonggyecheon/downtown area. I couldn't find the area I was looking for so we settled on a small restaurant that had food we could read off of the menu. Except, once we got our food it was really bad...the meat in Emily's dish still had the hair of the animal on it...it was pretty gross. After dinner, we went to get ice cream to clean out the bad taste/feeling in our mouths and stomachs...We did a little shopping and headed back to our guesthouse. Emily and I decided to go to Tom and Tom's, a coffee shop and get Honey Butter Toast, which is basically the best food invention ever. It is a huge piece of white bread toast with butter, honey, and a giant mound of whipped cream with more honey and cinnamon drizzled on top!

Hwa Sun Unni and me at lunch in Itaewon

Hwa Sun, Maren and me with fruit and a delicious cake at Hwa Sun's home

Jaebin...love, love, LOVE this kid!

Unsuspecting victims at a low quality restaurant

Cheonggyecheon!

Em and me with Honey Butter Toast!!!!

Tuesday: It was a rainy day, so the group wanted to go to Jjimjilbang (the sauna), but Emily and I didn't want to spend an afternoon in a sauna...so we went to the National Museum of Korea. We had lunch in their cafeteria and walked around for awhile. Afterward, we went to Gangnam area to go to COEX Mall, the largest underground mall in the world. We had an early dinner there-so many restaurants to chose from! After dinner, we decided to go on a night bus tour. It was a little bit of a disappointment; the guide listed a lot of places we were going to see, but we actually did not. It was more about the bridges over the Han River than anything else. It was still pretty and nice to see a lot of Seoul and the river at night. 

Giant artwork!

Jumpin' around!

Front gate of Gyeongbokgung

Inside the King Sejong Museum

We made some paper cranes!

Namsan Tower!

Wednesday: Finally a mostly clear day! We decided to go and tour some palaces. We had one guy from our guesthouse join us. His name is Jeff and he's from the Chicago area; currently he is studying/living in Japan and his visa was about to expire so he came to Korea for a few days. We bought the Palace Combo-4 palaces and a shrine for a discounted price! First we toured Changdeokgung. After walking around for awhile, we went for lunch at a kimbap type of restaurant. We returned to Changdeokgung for our tour of the "Secret Garden" which was within the grounds of that palace. After the tour, we went to Changgyeonggung; these two palaces are right next to each other-they are actually attached. Then we thought we would go and see Jongmyo Shrine-there are ancestral tablets there, but by the time we got there, it had closed for the day. We were meeting Ki (one of our program members) in Myeongdong for dinner, so we headed over there a little early. The guys and ladies split to walk around. When we met up, we walked to the restaurant, but unfortunately there wasn't enough room for our group of 9! We went to another kimbap type of restaurant for dinner. We went to another place to sit and talk for awhile after dinner. 

The whole group in front of Changdeokgung

Inside palace grounds

 Thursday: Our last day in Seoul! We woke up to blue skies and sunshine. :) Our palace combo tickets were good for up to a month, so we returned to our palace touring. Only Maren, Kim, Yangyang, and I went to Gyeongbokgung. Tim had left to go spend time with some friends of his, but he met up with us. After we walked around a bit at Gyeongbok, we had lunch in a little cafe in an artsy area. We continued on to Insadong; Maren and Yangyang needed to get some souvenirs. Kim, Tim and I went to Cheonggyecheon and then on to Myeongdong. We met up with Emily (she was meeting a friend there in the afternoon) and she and I walked around a little. Then, it was time for dinner! Ki had called ahead and made reservations at the same BBQ restaurant we went to the night before. It was really good-they gave us so much food! After dinner, on to Namsan Tower! The other nights had been cloudy or rainy, but this night was perfect! We took a little cable car elevator up to the main cable car that takes tourists up to the top of Namsan.  It was windy and chilly, but so beautiful! After Namsan, Emily and I went to the Tom and Tom's near our guesthouse to get one last piece of Honey Butter Toast to celebrate the ending of our trip!

Look familiar?!? 7th time here!

Em and me in Myeongdong!

At the top of Namsan overlooking Seoul

Today: We met Tim at the free bus for tourists at 8 AM this morning. The bus stopped twice and we arrived in Pusan around 1. We took the subway and city bus back to Inje. It was soo nice to come back! It felt like we had been gone for ages! I unpacked and settled in and then Emily and I went for a run.