Palaces, Street Markets, and Snow

We did, in fact, go to see the Gyeongbokgung Palace on Sunday.  (I have pictures but can't put them on the blog until I get back to Honduras and get my camera connector thingy, so if you'd like to see some now, you'll have to refer to Ty's blog, www.seoulsuckingjerk.com).  It was very much what you'd expect an Asian palace to look like, very pagoda-like and colorful, and sprawling.  There were several different palace structures inside the whole compound, but since we elected to not go on the tour, we didn't really ever figure out which palaces were for which people (concubines, wives, etc.), except for the wooden-colored palace that was built by an angry son in the late 1800s.  (From what I could tell, this was the prettiest palace, although we couldn't actually see it because it was inexplicably closed.)

After the palace adventure, we took a stroll around the Namdaemun Market, which is apparently the largest traditional market in the country, dating back to 1414.  It runs twenty-four hours, and even Sunday night there were a shitton of stalls and shoppers.  I bought a bag of dried fruit for 5,000 won before we went to dinner and then walked down to Cheonggyecheon, a river turned laser light festival in the Manhattan of Seoul.  It was quite the scene.  After wandering there for awhile (and taking a picture of electric snowflakes for my mom), we headed back to Mr. Park's for a couple of beers before calling it a night.

Yesterday (Monday), I spent pretty much the whole day reading (first finishing I Know This Much is True--not sure I feel as enthusiastic about it as Allie, and then beginning Into the Wild--not sure how I feel about this McCandless dude, although I am thinking of beginning to write about myself in the third person).  

Anyway, Ty got home from job #1 in the afternoon and we headed over to job #2 where we took his 7 19-year-old students on a "field trip" to eat dinner at a local restaurant.  The conversation was quite entertaining.  As Ty elaborated upon later, Koreans learning ESL tend to possess a unique English vocabulary derived from old movies and electronic translators, I'd suppose.  At one point during dinner, one of Ty's students asked me if Ty was a playboy in college.  Nice.  The girls later invited me out to see Seoul, so we're meeting this Friday at 10 am.  

After dinner we went back to Mr. Park's for some beer--I have a feeling this is going to be a common occurrence for the next week--before I was forced to walk home and listen to Ty babble on and on about the freaking snow.  I swear, for someone as unemotional as Ty, he sure is moved by this whole snow thing.  (If you don't believe me, feel free to read his flowery ode-to-snow blogs on his site; I agree with several of the comments his friends have made--I'm sure you'll figure out which ones.)

Anyway, that's about all for now.  A Korean Jehovah's witness just came to the door and robbed me of my train of thought.  I guess some things are universal.