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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Wandering around old downtown

 After being invited to try out salsa dancing in Itaewon (the foreigner district), J and I decided to head out early and spend all day in that area. The reason Itaewon is the foreigner area is because there is a US base located there. And near the US base is the War Memorial. So we decided to go check it out.


[In the top-left picture, you may notice some missile-looking things in the background. Those are, in fact, warheads.]

 We went in the Korean War Museum, which had an exhibit that resembled what it would have looked like after the Korean War. It was pretty depressing. They also had a combat simulation "show." It was also pretty depressing.

Next we went to a Latin club, apparently located on Hooker Hill, for some salsa dancing.

On Sunday we returned to the old downtown, Gwanghwamun, to visit some of the monuments we had missed last time. This was where we were when we went to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace.

First we checked out Independence Gate.



Then we got really lost and finally found ourselves at the Seoul Museum of History. They had this neat-o room with a 1:1500 scale of Seoul.


They had computers which you could use to search for a specific area and these projectors up above the replica would shine lasers around the area. Unfortunately, due to our lack of Korean skills, we were unable to use the search function.

Later, we got lost again looking for the Cheonggyecheon Stream, and instead found a giant bronze statue of King Sejong the great.

You could actually go inside the monument and underground they had a museum dedicated to him. This guy is pretty special in Korea and he often comes up when we're talking about great world figures in class. He is credited with inventing (or at least having his scribes invent) Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Numerous scientific inventions were also invented during his reign.

We did finally find the Cheonggyecheon Stream.



The middle schoolers start coming back this week, so that means I'm back to the regular grind. Next week is the level-up achievement tests, and then there are only 3 weeks until the end of the term. I'm hoping for an easier prep schedule next term. I have about 7-8 hours of prep per week this term, which is a little too much considering I don't get paid for it.

And here's hoping the weather gets warmer soon! Twas a brisk 45 today.

3 comments:

  1. This new look definitely suits Jon way more. He doesn't look like a girl anymore.

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  2. Seriously, you have to jump through like 20 hoops to comment on here. What gives?

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  3. I love the pictures you post for us to see. If you tire of teaching you could become a tour guide :-). I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary

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