Spending time with Yesul, our music teacher friend, her family, and some of her students has been a highlight of our time in Korea. We have gained much insight from being able to ask questions, and hearing about Korea from her perspective. Tim and I have found ourselves warmly welcomed into her life and her family’s home.
Yesul, Tim and I out for dinner at a wonderful restaurant in downtown Seoul. The restaurant was hidden among small streets with typical Hanok (traditional Korean house) village architecture. Hanoks were first designed and built in the 14th century during the Joseon Dynasty
After dinner Yesul took us to another Hanok style restaurant to try their traditional Korean rice wine (makkoli ) and appetizers. The wine is a “milky, off-white and lightly sparkling wine that has a slight viscosity that tastes slightly sweet, tangy, bitter, and astringent” according to Wikipedia. Very tasty!
The last couple of weekends we have spent time with Yesul, unless she is busy. During the weekdays Tim and I are happily scouting out new experiences like the one below. Deoksugung Palace has a changing of the guard ceremony three times a day. There are five palaces in Seoul, built during the Joseon dynasty of roughly 1400 to 1900AD. Also rebuilt after multiple Japanese invasions. All of the palaces offer English tours at various times, which we have enjoyed. While on the tour with several other Korean visitors the tour guide asked what we thought the King’s favorite drink was while at Deoksugung palace. Since no one said anything and she wanted an answer, I ventured “rice wine?” only to have them all laugh. I guess the “correct answer” was coffee! Smile.
The Koreans (along with the Malaysians really seem to like their massage chairs. Didn’t know that Lamborghini was involved in the business until we ran across this store.
The stores and marketplaces here are fascinating to us. Virtually none of the “big box” retailers we are used to in the US, instead we will find a street lined with multiple small shops all selling items in a category. Below is a garden store in the “plant and gardening” street that we found.
Deb and I are fortunate to have a nice “restaurant alley” just down the block from us. Dozens of good restaurants line a couple of blocks. If we’re hungry for soup, octopus, rice and Kimchi burgers, Korean barbecue, seafood, or most any local food we can find it here.
And the city of Seoul appreciates good art as well. We find interesting artwork and sculptures often as we wander around the city.
Yesul and I have had much to talk about with both of us being music teachers, loving traveling, hiking and students. She has what is called a “homeroom” much like I had in Vienna for six years while teaching. It is a group of students, in her case 30 of them, assigned to meet daily, for everything from getting homework done to counseling. One of these duties includes taking the homeroom on field trips. One day Yesul was responsible for taking the kids on the subway system to a tour of Gyeongbokgung Palace. After their tour, Tim and I met them at Tongin street, a traditional market where they found snacks and lunch before meeting us. The students were shy, but, but happy to practice their English, and the boys asked Tim to play rock, paper, scissors. Having our photos taken with them was popular and the students seemed surprised at Tim’s height and blondness. They called him “handsome”. We have decided we like Korea. Smile. 
We followed Yesul and her students back to their neighborhood on the subway, then after the kids dispersed we headed to a large park.
We started at Olympic Park Stadium where World Cup Soccer was played. We visited a sculpture park and walked around the green fields preserved for visitors to enjoy. Afterwords, we headed out for supper.
On the way to the restaurant we enjoyed seeing this “traffic cop” helping out in the construction area. Actual traffic cops are quite common here to help people in especially busy intersections and around construction areas. But this is the first mechanical one we have seen.
The street outside our apartment has been busy some days with jack hammers and workers tearing up a sewer line. Afterwords, they have been putting in upgraded granite sidewalks. Good news is we are not home much during the day and it is surprisingly quiet once evening comes. This city of 30 million people tends to be busy during the day and evening, but quiet at night and early morning. More coming soon, with lots more pics!
