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Thurs. May 29th
Today decided to do some real sightseeing. With Matt - our travel guide - in tow - we headed out to see some palaces. Our first stop was at the Gyeongbokgung Palace and the next was the Changdeokgung Palace.
At the Gyeongbokgung Palace we saw a reenactment of the Royal Guard Changing Ceremony. This is the largest and grandest of five palaces and was originally built in the late 1300's. But a large part of the palace was ruined by the Japanese and has since been rebuilt. While the palace was really beautiful and interesting, I had just as much fun watching the pre-school students run around in their matching outfits and backpacks.
The Changdeokgung Palace was not as extravagant as the first and after awhile - all the buildings started to look alike! Again my attention was diverted to the cute pre-schoolers.
It was a really beautiful day so it was nice just to be out and about. We had plans to meet up with one of Matt's analysts (from Target) and her husband (her parents actually live here and they happened to be visiting at the same time). We headed to Gangnam
- a more modern, fast-paced part of Seoul.
Our first stop was at a cafe called Dr. Fish...hmmm...here you buy yourself a cofffee and then you stick your feet into a tank full of hungry, little fishies - to have them gnaw dead skin off your feet. I guess this is the Korean version of a pedicure... It's not as if anyone forced me to do this...I just figured what better way to immerse myself into this culture than knowingly torture myself! Honestly...I'm glad I tried it but you won't ever catch me doing it again. I'll opt for th old-fashioned pedicure - thank you. Matt was the first to go feet first - while Laura and I had a really hard time even sticking our toes in. Although I don't think I did myself any favors by just sticking my toes in first because I was just teasing the little guys...they were even more eager to chomp away at my feet. I never got used to it...it felt like a million needles being poked into my feet...not too bad, right? It wasn't so much the sensation but the idea that your feet was probably their dinner... While we
were causing quite a scene, I look over and this other group is just hanging out - their feet completely immersed in the water - having some pleasant conversation!
Strangely enough - after this experience - I was ready to eat! After dinner we walked the streets of Gangnam...it was really nice. There were a lot of street vendors selling odds and ends...we had a good time looking through printed t-shirts and hats with English words - some with grammatical errors and some just politically incorrect! We came to the conclusion American companies must sell their factory mistakes to Korea...Koreans will wear anything with printed English...they seem to not care at all what it really says!
We headed back to KoRoot that night knowing the next day we'd get to meet our family! When we arrived at KoRoot, I found out my luggage was being delivered that evening at 1 am! While waiting up for my luggage, I had a chance to meet some of the other Korean adoptees. It was really interesting getting to know their stories...they were all here for different reasons. One adoptee was a CPA from Minneapolis and was here for the entire summer
- just traveling all over Asia. Another Korean-Australian was taking Korean classes full-time during the school year but was traveling all of Europe this summer with a travel group. There were several adoptees from Belgium and others from the States. One Korean-American was here for the second time and was in the process of trying to find a teaching position. His story was particularly interesting...he was adopted by an American family - along with his little brother when they were 3 and 4...after one year - their adoptive father passed away and they were given up for adoption a second time! They were then adopted by a Korean-American family in Illinois and were raised bilingual and very much in their Korean culture. What a unique situation! While most Korean-American adoptees are so fully Americanized - Joe and his brother were able to have the best of both worlds. This evening Pastor Kim was also up and visiting so I had a nice conversation with him. Pastor and Mrs. Kim are very much involved in the Korean adoptee community and I think it will be nice to have them in my network. They host many events at KoRoot and I'm excited
to participate during my stay in Korea. They seem very open and willing to help all of us in any way possible and I'm really thankful for that. While I'm planning to move into my apartment this coming weekend, I'm certain I will stay in contact with them.
My luggage has arrived!
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Autumn
non-member comment
You're Safe!
Yeah ~ you have a blog ~ awesome. Glad to hear the luggage has arrived and it sounds like you may have made your first friends (the Kims). The pictures from the fish cafe are priceless. Take care hon!