Namsangol Village and Seoul Tower

Another Sunday caper, another huge post.

Today we went down to the Chongmuro exit and visited the Namsangol Korean Village. This is a traditional style village that is preserved/restored. It was a beautiful, slightly cool slightly sunny day and it was wonderful to walk around and enjoy the gorgeous antiquated architecture and learn more about Korean life in the olden days. They had traditional games, a wicker weaver, costumes to wear, a traditional "backpack" for you to try on, etc. There were also beautiful park areas, a huge lawn, little groves of trees, and a stream and various ponds scattered throughout the grounds. They had buildings that had furniture set up to show what a traditional Korean home looked like, they had giant kilns and decorative pots, and then there was the Korea House which is a somewhat fancy restaurant where you are served in the traditional style and the servers all wear traditional clothing. They Korea House also has live traditional music and looks really nice - Nick and I have decided we will try it out one night when we want to celebrate something. It was a lot of fun.



After spending some time in Namsangol we walked over to the gondolas to get up Namsan Mountain and visit the Namsan Park and Seoul Tower. We hiked up the hill to get to the gondolas and saw the Seoul Cartoon Museum on the way. We took note and also took some fun pictures with the large cartoon statues outside and decided if there was enough time we'd check out the museum on our way back down.


We took the glass gondolas up the mountain. They crammed over fifty people into the gondolas at a time! It was a little scary but very beautiful being able to see the views of Seoul in all directions. Once we got up to the top (only a three minute ride) we climbed up the wooden stairs and perused all the different views available to us through a series of platforms admist the forest that covered the mountainside. We took lots of pictures of the hazy city that is now our home, and marveled over how gigantic this city truly is - it went for as far as we could see in all directions. We could pick out some places that we recognized but those were few and far between. There are so many places, buildings, streets and areas that we have no idea about yet, and it seems that you could live ten lifetimes here and never really know it all.



We walked up to the peak of the mountain and managed to watch some of a martial arts exhibition that was taking place in the main plaza underneath Seoul Tower. We got some more awesome shots of the city and also of the Tower itself, as well as the art that was in place up there. They had mesh people hanging on thin wires so it looked as though they were "flying" through the air. They were all posed in provactive flying poses, it was quite beautiful. Nick was also completely enamored with the outdoor viewing platform below the tower where thousands of people have left various padlocks with personal messages and dates attached to the railings. I think before Nick and I leave Korea we will return to Seoul Tower and leave a lock with our own message on it to be seen and remembered. :)



After seeing so many breathtaking things we took the gondola back down the mountain and quickly stopped in the Cartoon Museum. They had a small interactive section with games and then a massive viewing cartoon library and also a comic library. It was interesting but all in Korean so we played some games and quickly looked through the other sections and then went home. Back in Hwajeong we had some delicious bbq pork (with lots of onions and garlic, Nick's favorite, haha) and found some time to relax before our work week begins. This week will be hectic due to Monthly Testing, the rigorous exams that every student takes during each month for two days. They will be tested on all their subjects. Luckily we have a three day weekend coming up the following week for Chusak (Korean Thanksgiving), so after the stress of administering and grading tests as well as turning in grades for this month's report card we will have an extra day off.