On Saturday Aaron and I went into Seoul again. We had lunch at a fun little rice place - they bring you a skillet with a mound of rice of various meats or vegetables which cook right there on the plate and then you add different sauces to the whole mixture. After that we wandered into this fantastic shoe store that carried Prada and Gucci and $1500 purses. They had some beautiful shoes, but unfortunately the biggest shoes on the first floor were 8 and 1/2's. So I had to go to the fat foot floor upstairs - I think my feet need to go on a diet, darn these Asian women and their tiny feet. Its really sad because they have such pretty shoes. We went to an American Apparel like store and tried some clothes on there - Koreans like the urban grunge. Cute stuff but everything is so small! I had to try a large jacket and couldn't even fit into their jeans.
After shopping we jumped on the Metro and headed to Changdeokgung Palace, home to Korean royalty since the 15th century. It was a beautiful place. The Koreans believe that emptiness is beauty so there were alot of open spaces that gave the palace an elegant simplicity. The buildings are intricately painted with simple colors like green, black, white, and blue. The inside of the throne room was striking, with a high ceiling, elaborate light fixtures, a raised throne in front of painted wood scene, and lots of lovely wood carvings. Oh, they also had a building for, as our guide said, making babies. Over the building they painted chinese characters that say, "For the making of something great" Towards the end of the tour we saw the gardens, a lilly pond, the library, and lots of little Eastern pagodas. At the pond we learned lots about the "pish"- Koreans have trouble making the "F" sound which leads to some funny guffaws like "pish" and "oppicial" for official. Its pretty funny :)
For dinner we went to a pizza parlor with a salad buffet; salad is a rare thing in a traditional Korean meal so I was pretty excited. They had strange fruit that looked like some underwater amoeba, but tasted like an almost flavorless melon. On the way back we saw an Outback and a TGI Fridays. Sometimes its almost like being home.
The next day we went to our Korean church and listened to an almost incomprehensible translation of a sermon about slavery, Korean television, and the blessing of having God with us. As a new believer I am having a hard time finding nourishment through these sermons :) After church we had lunch at a Korean restaurant where you sit on the floor and mandoo, dumplings, and soup full of thick noodles and clams. That night Aaron and I walked down our Central Park and saw a 30 minute water show complete with music and changing colors. Very impressive.
It was a fun weeekend, but now I am back in the grind trying to prevent small children from killing each other. Life is never boring!