SEOUL WEEKEND: PART II

Saturday evening I met my friend Yumin who I hadn't seen since studying in the Netherlands my junior year of college. While in the Netherlands we had a close group of friends and while I had seen my other Korean friends, Hyunji and Chul, already since coming to Korea I had missed Yumin. Visiting her was actually the main reason for my coming to Seoul this weekend and I stayed over Saturday night with her family at their apartment in Seoul. We were so happy to talk again and nothing had really changed. We got along as if we had left Leiden only a month ago. In fact now we have even more in common since Yumin is also a middle school English teacher. We were able to reminisce about our time abroad as well as commiserate over our students. Her parents were so kind and very curious how the Fulbright program works and how I am finding Korea. Each parent expressed their interest in a different way; Yumin's mother, by cooking a delicious meal and asking me many questions in Korean for Yumin to translate, and Yumin's father, by telling me, in English, about his favorite action movies. They were so sweet and when Yumin and I left in the morning insisted I wear a scarf to protect my neck from the cold as well as that I come back to visit again soon. I really hope to. Though I love Gumi I wish I could see my friends in Seoul more often.

Since I hadn't explored any of the palaces in Seoul yet — having only looked at the outside — Yumin and I headed back to Gyeongbok to explore. We started at the Seoul Museum of Palaces which was free and contained collections of ornaments, furniture, paintings and instruments mostly from the Joseon Dynasty (the dynasty preceding Japanese annexation in the early 1900s). There was also some history of the dynasties, but being mostly in Korean it was largely lost on me.

Myself in front of the first pavilion in Gyeongbok.

As we began to explore Gyeongbok itself I realized that the grounds are enormous. Every time I thought we had walked through the final archway I would catch sight of another arch in the distance. It just happened that the re-enactment was taking place again as we entered the grounds and this time Yumin and I were able to see the procession up close. It was exciting to see re-creations of some of the banners and items of state we had seen in the museum being used in the pageant.

After walking, and walking, and walking, Yumin and I stopped on a bench to eat the seongpyeon her mother sent with us. Seongpyeon is a traditional crescent shaped rice cake filled with sugar and sesame. The ones Yumin's mother sent us were handmade with pine needles in the dough giving them a green color. Delicious.

Yumin with seongpyeon.

Afterwards we walked a bit more, explored the National Folk Museum which is attached to the palace grounds, and took some more pictures.

Yumin and I next to the lily pond.

The final part of our day was spent back in Samcheon where we ate hoddok (a delicious pancake filled with brown sugar), kimbap (like sushi minus the fish), and then went to a cafe to chat until it got dark. At 7:20 I caught my train back to Gumi, but not without a little regret to be leaving such an exciting city and good friends behind. However, after such a busy weekend, spending Monday lounging around the house reading Persuasion was exactly what I needed.