Engineering Picture Books

---

Corey taught Judo this morning until 9am, so we didn't get up until he returned home. Then Clara made us all tasty pancakes that we covered with Nutella and bananas. What a great way to start the day! Meanwhile CJ was watching cartoons on the TV. The show was one about pulblic buses and other transportation in Seoul. Corey told me the site was such a big hit that the government started making some of their public buses look like the characters (same colors/eye headlights) and have the voices inside for stops sounds like the voice on the show. Great idea to get kids comfortable on public transportation, if you ask me. The bus system in Seoul is inanely large. When we went to the bus stop that morning, the flow of buses never stopped. Finally the one we needed came and off we went to the 'downtown' or more right the historic part.
Our first adventure was walking around the major tourist street, Insadong market. The city actually requires that all signs be in Korean on that street, so the only Starbucks in the city with a Korean sign not English is there. Everyone was walking around with these bizarre curly J cones filled with ice cream. Clara pulled me over to one of the souvenir shops and asked me to pick out something fun for myself. I found this cute purse that will match my kimono! It was so nice of her to do that. Near the end of the market we stopped to get some lunch. This time I tried bibimbap, a hot bowl filled with rice, veggies, and the one I picked had beef. Like a lot of Korean food it was pretty spicy too. Unlike Japan, Koreans use metal chopsticks and also give you a spoon. That made it a little easier to eat, but of course I still managed to spill on myself. Luckily Clara had some wet wipes that took the stain out. Continuing through the market CJ sound a bunch of countians to play in that we had to practically drag her away. One had some kids playing trying to stop the flow of water, she walked over and tried to get the water to floor faster! After lunch, we walked over to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The place was huge! For $3, we got to see a ton of really neat buildings that have been kept nice containing everything from the throne room to the sleeping quarters. At one point the others found a nice shaded area in the grass for CJ to play while I wandered around. As I did, a helicopter flew by really low and landed just behind the palace walk. I had remembered Corey mentioning the current president lives just behind the palace. Walking back to join up with them, they were assuming the same that the helicopter was picking up the president. Especially when 2 took off again shortly later. CJ and I spent some time collecting flowers and I made a flowers ring that I put on her head. She is just so much fun to play with! Cooking off we snacked on these past/apple type fruits. Those drew the attention of some magpies. Soon CJ was throwing little pieces at them to eat. It was funny to watch because the birds were afraid of her but still wanted the food so they would hop away and fly back after she threw a piece.
Done exploring the palace, Corey took us down the road that had the US Embassy (a pretty ugly building surrounded by Korean guards), a statue of King Sejong (the man who made the Korean alphabet), & General Li (war leader). At the end of the strip, there was fine festival for shoes going on so we stopped and had CJ get her face painted. Out of everything she could pick, she got a shoe on her cheek. Corey couldn't believe it, but from what I've seen with her interest in fashion and clothes, I wasn't surprised. At the end of the street we meet up with Cheonggyecheong Stream. This used to be a river through Seoul that the government filled in to make a highway. Then the mayor years later wanted to revitalize green in the city so had it dug back up and created a manmade stream. Corey said many other cities have been coming to study the design because it is 5°C cooler there than the rest of the city, many fish that had did out come back, and bird populations have grown. Since Buddha's birthday is being celebrated on May 25th, the stream had been covered with lanterns and paper statues. Clara said at night they would be lit up. On one of the street corners after we came up from the stream, we found a little Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs themed playground. CJ and I were soo excited we had to stop and play around a little bit as well as take pictures.
From there we walked to City Hall. The city has recently built a new one that is very modern, glad with really interesting architecture. I was shocked when Corey pointed it out. The inside (which took us forever to get in because all but one exit was blocked due to gay marriage protesters out front) has a massive vertical garden and mini statue display. Then we went to the old city hall building that is now a library. It was huge! (Which I love, yey books) We went to the kids section for CJ. Clara found one book that had a puppet gator. CJ read through it analyzing the gators clothes if they were pretty or not. Meanwhile I find one that was about sports and as you then the page the figure moves! It had black line through it and I spent a good few minutes breaking down how it worked and made the picture move - darn engineering mind. Corey had been exploring while we read and came running back gesturing for us to follow. So we stacked up the books and headed up the stairs. He ran away too fast though so it took us awhile to find him. He had been building the elevator waiting for us, lol. He said there was a garden on the top but it closes right now. By the time we made it up it was blocked off and padlocked. We could see it out the window though. I asked him why he was so obsessed with grass ( this was the 3rd/4th time he purposely sought out grass. He said Seoul soil didn't foster it's growth and all the people would have trampled what there was, so it was rare to find grass in Seoul. Coming from Minnesota it was something he really missed. He said even parks were mostly dirt. SAD!
Tired and hungry, we grabbed a bus to Kyungnidan street (aka the foreign district) which is right by the Navy Base. On the way we saw one of those buses with eyes like the TVshow. We did a loop of the foreign district to show me the area and ended up eating at a really good German Bakery. It felt fantastic to sit for awhile. My panini was tasty too. Afterward it was dark, which made or a perfect time to visit the temple by Corey's place. Because of Buddha's birthday Bongeunsa Temple was covered with lighted lanterns and paper statues. It was great for picture taking. CJ wanted to join in so she was taking them with Corey's phone as well. Then she noticed the people praying and wanted to join in. Since we all are Christian, none of us knew what to do so we moved on to the big Buddha statue which had a big open prayer spot. We watched as CJ ran up and did pretty much exactly what those we saw earlier were doing to pray. We were all quiet impressed with her observation and memory skills! We went to join her and found that the section was heated! It felt great to sit there in the cool night air. Finally we got up to finish taking some pictures. Just as we hit the parking lot, all the lanterns and statue lights went out. We had great timing.
On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store for milk for cereal tomorrow. Clara also got me seaweed since that's a big staple of their diet and wanted me to have some to bring home. I asked her about getting some of the snacks she had brought today for CJ (one was dried anchovies, the other roasted chestnuts). She said this store didn't carry them but she has some extra at home. When we got back she gave me a couple of the snacks and another that is something to do with sweet potatoes. They all should be fun to share back home! Tonight CJ was too tired to play so I promised we would tomorrow.

---