We had an early start since the jet lag hadn’t worn off. After checking my emails, I was excited to read that Kim (adopteemommy from the Holt BB) will be here Sunday night and has nearly the same schedule as us (meets Zoey on Monday, City Tour with us on Tuesday, receives Zoey Wednesday, and flies back through DFW with us on Thursday). It’s funny to think that we both live in Texas but will meet in Seoul for the first time. And I will keep my fingers crossed that Korean Air will put us near eachother, so Rai and Zoey can play on the way back. (By the way, there were numerous families with small children on the flight over. It was both a reality check with so many children going from happy to irritated/crying by the flight and a wonderful relief to know that if Rai cries the whole way back, he won’t be the only one.) :-)
Getting Acclimated to Mapo-Gu (Holt office, Guest House, Paris Baguette)
We have wonderful maps of every area except the district in which we are staying, Mapo-Gu. Aaron was relieved that Google Maps finally pulled up a more detailed map now that we are in Korea, and thank goodness he can make out the Hangul! We found our way to Holt and stopped at the Paris Baguette for breakfast. Having breads for breakfast brings back wonderful memories of Asahikawa, or Japan in general. (If I can get away with it, we’ll try a new bakery each day. Any recommendations?) :-) Then, we searched around for the Holt Reception Center/Guest House to locate Kim’s whereabouts for the following day. I finally discovered why the Holt map doesn’t have the name of the street for the Guest House listed; you can’t see it from the main street. In fact, it looks like a little back ally turnoff from a gas station, but there are hundreds of signs lining both sides of the street. For those that stayed at the Holt Guest House, do you have any recommendations for a restaurant nearby? It was hard to tell what is open since we were there at 9am, but we’ll try to eat in the area when Kim gets in on Sunday night.
City Tour (National Museum of Korea, Changdeokgung Palace)
We, or rather I, had an entire day planned to visit several places on the Seoul City Bus Downtown Tour, but I forget that it is far too easy to spend an entire day at any of these attractions. After managing the subway routes with various closed exits, we took the City Bus Tour throughout downtown. It seemed as though everyone on the bus spoke Korean, Japanese, or English, so Aaron and I did our best to try to understand what was going on around us. Luckily, the recorded audio tour was in English since Aaron’s Korean and my Japanese leaves great room for improvement! Our first stop on my itinerary was the National Museum of Korea.
Before entering the museum, we perused the nearby Pagoda Park. I had my eye out for the advertised 10-story pagoda only to find it inside, which makes more sense when we noticed the incredible detail of this enlightening work of art. The pagodas outside, though, were still quite impressive, and the azaleas surrounding the park were gorgeous! Everywhere we looked, there were opportunities for pictures, especially the Dragon Fall (see pictures below). I kept telling Aaron, the next time we visit Korea, we’re taking Rai here! The museum itself was as impressive as promised. Three floors of Asian art filled the permanent collection, but we only had time to visit the 10-story pagoda, the archaeological exhibit, and the Buddhist art exhibit with breathtaking Buddha and Bodhisattva statues. Once again, we’re taking Rai here when we come back! One could easily spend an entire day taking in this museum.
We did stop at the cafeteria for lunch. Aaron had his first experience using metal chopsticks in his udon noodles nonetheless and determined that he doesn’t like fish cake, fried tofu, and pickled daikon (although I don’t know the Korean name). What are we going to do when he goes to Japan? :-)
Since we were running out of time before the last English-speaking tour for Changdeokgung Palace, we skipped the Namsangol Hanok (traditional Korean house) Village. By the time we arrived at the palace, however, it started raining. Boooo We meet a female volunteer from the Diamond Sutra Recitation Group (Chungwoo Buddhist Foundation) who promote Korean culture through distributing free books to foreigners with the promise of donating them to local libraries and schools after initial use. Upon hearing of our adoption, she immediately pulled out the entire collection in English and spoke about each book. She let us choose one “Chung Hyo Ye: Tales of filial devotion, loyalty, respect and benevolence from the history and folklore of Korea” and then gave us two more “King Sejong the Great” and “Fifty Wonders of Korea” to read to Rai and teach him about his culture. It was so touching! I regret that we didn’t take a picture with her, but there were several others waiting for books and our tour was beginning. Unfortunately, she was gone by the time our tour was complete.
Changdeokgung Palace was Aaron’s favorite part of the sight-seeing thus far. Our tour guide held our attention, despite the pouring rain and chilly wind, with captivating stories of this palace’s history in the Joseon Dynasty through 1989, I believe, when the last resident from the royal family, a Japanese woman who became a Korean citizen after marriage, passed away. I hope we can remember enough of this story to pass on to Rai or find a great age-appropriate book we can read to him. It is a shame that so much Korean history, outside the Korean War, never makes its way to Western history books nor Asian history books. So much emphasis is placed on China, Japan, and India that we often forget this rich culture exists.
Pizza!
After a very a strenuous day of exploring, my knee had given out from the hundreds of subway stairs and Aaron’s allergies had kicked into full gear. Exhausted and tired, we decided to return to the hotel and order a pizza. Unfortunately, the Papa John’s website for the store directly below us did not have enough English (or English characters) to know enough to order, so we went back out into the rain searching for a restaurant. We did finally decide on pizza at the local Pizza WhooPee. The menu listed five pages of choices from sweet potato mousse filled crusts to chicken curry pizza and even a bulgogi pizza! Aaron was a little less adventurous and ordered a pepperoni pizza, but it was great! We stopped by the 7-Eleven next to our hotel on the way back and picked up drinks for the room. I haven’t found Calpico yogurt drinks, but I did try O’yu which tastes similar.
Sunday, April 26, 2009 – Day 2 in Seoul – Sight-seeing
One more day until we meet Rai! It’s still 7am here in Seoul, so we’ll be heading out for the Korean Folk Village in Suwon shortly. It has finally stopped raining, and with so much left to see, we will keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way for the rest of the week.
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