Wonderful Weekend I!

I realized I haven't had a post in a little while, so I thought I'd share some of my recent weekend adventures.

Last weekend (Sept. 4-6), started out with a trip to the fabled night markets of Dongdaemun.

Dongdaemun is a part of town where you can --literally-- shop 24/7. In fact, some stores don't even open until 10 pm. A few teachers and I started out walking through this arcade that was about 2 blocks of hats and scarves.

Then we moved on to the street vendors and department stores. There are probably 4-5 major department stores on the same strip, each one anywhere from 5-10 stories full of STUFF. We were only able to make it through a store and a half before deciding it was time to GO HOME!

Saturday I started Gayaguem lessons at the Korean Center for Traditional Performing Arts (or something like that). The Gayageum is kind of like a zither, except it's about 4 feet long and has 12 strings. I was very pleased to earn my first blister. My teacher says this means I am a good student.

The NCKTA is a part of the Seoul Arts Center, in the neighborhood of Seocho (Satch-o). My favorite part of the Arts Center is the World Music Fountain, which plays a different song every 10 minutes. The presence of the Arts Center gives Seocho a lot of creative energy, I think. There are music stores all over the place and cool little coffee shops. If I played the cello or violin, I would be set in Seocho.

After walking around Seocho, I met up with Shauna (a co-teacher) and her friend, Courtney, in the Namsan Folk Village. In this Village, you can partake in traditional arts and crafts, play traditional games, see folk/traditional housing, and see traditional folk performances -- all for free! Plus, you can also dress up Hanbok.

You guessed it, traditional Korean dress.

Sunday, because all that tradition on Saturday wasn't enough, I decided to set out for Bukchon. Bukchon is also a "traditional" part of Seoul, but unlike the village of Namsan, people still live in these houses. There is a suggested walking tour that goes through the neighborhood, where you can also find small museums and cozy coffee shops. I visited the World Jewelry Museum first, which was having a special exhibit on Handbags.

Then, I kept walking and next visited the Bukchon Museum. There were a lot of "traditional" items here, but it also seemed to be someone's house in which they collected all the neighborhood artifacts and put them on display.

I was happy to see that the residents of Bukchon cared so much about their history though. I mean, look at this, could you imagine living here?

Ok, it looks like this weekend has taken up enough space. I will start another post for the next weekend... :)