The Weekend in Seoul

Saturday started with muffins from the Cake House and hot chocolate from Billy at the Morning Tomato. We traveled to Gyeongbokgung, a large palace complex originally built during the Joseon dynasty and rebuilt over the years. We emerged from the subway station to catch a reenactment of the changing of the guard. We took an audio tour through the grounds. The ponds within the palace walls were frozen! It was fascinating to see the royal halls and quarters for the king, queen, queen mother, and prince and the palace eunuchs. It was quite beautiful, yet not too ornate since they followed the Confucian ideals of simplicity.
After leaving the old Seoul of Gyeongbokgung, we ventured into the modern CoEx mall, a huge underground expanse of shopping. It was crammed with people. We checked out the Hyundai Department store--10 stories of everything imaginable--a grocery area with giant crabs to designer clothes. We had a nice lunch of bimbimbap.
From there, we headed toward Namdaemun Market, a more traditional shopping experience. The market is open day and night and has all kinds of curiosities. We bought a few gifts and just wandered amongst the stalls. We had our first experience with a non-Western bathroom, which was, umm...interesting.
Sunday morning we met two Dads who have traveled from the US to pick up their 2nd Korean sons. Also, a couple from Norway has moved in next door. The guesthouse seemed pretty quiet when we arrived, but it seems to be filling up. We spent some time in the reception center this morning. Babies that aren't placed in foster care are housed here, in the same building as the guesthouse. We had a good time playing with these little ones and talking with their housemothers. We next found Seodaemen Catholic Church, which has an English mass. It ended up being sad because, instead of a homily, the priest talked about how this would be the last English mass and thanked all the parishioners who had helped with the mass for 4 yrs. It seems there just isn't enough demand to continue having it--glad we made it this week! After church we headed to Insadong. This street of art galleries, craft and souvenir shops is closed to traffic on Sundays, so we were able to stroll the street freely. It was another sunny day with temperatures in the 30s and 40s. We are learning about this wind chill thing though. We picked up some gifts and a very beautiful tall paper lamp. We also had chops-the traditional Korean name stamps that were once used in lieu of a signature-made for all three of us. We headed back to the guest house and then walked over to a great restaurant. For you Gainesvillians, it was much like the JOA barbeque, but you are seated shoeless on the floor and the grill at your low table is charcoal, not gas. We had delicious pork bulgogi and, of course, gimchi and all the sides.
We have lunch today with Rowan and the foster family at noon!