Jongmyo Shrine

Last week, we were let out of school early for Parent's Day. To celebrate, I went downtown to see Jongmyo Shrine before my Korean class. Earlier this year, I saw Dongmyo, but Jongmyo is much more impressive. Located in central Seoul (right next to Jongno 3 Ga), I feel kind of silly for never having visited the shrine. Especially since it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Jongmyo was commissioned by King Taejo (the founder of the Joseon dynasty) and is the shrine for all of the past kings and queens (plus some other honored guests). I almost didn't go last week because there weren't any English tours available, but I decided to suck it up and do a tour in Korean.

My Korean level is decent (I'm starting the advanced level at the Korea Foundation next week!), but historical words are hard. I probably understood some 80% of the words, but all of the important ones were lost. Since some of these words were difficult for Koreans as well, the tour guide did explain them quite well. For example, she started the tour by explaining the word Jongmyo (종묘) as there is confusion over the difference between a tomb and a shrine. 종 means ancestral and 묘 is normally a place to do ancestral rites. Nobody is buried at Jongmyo.

The first building we looked at (behind the tour guide in the picture above) was Hyangdaecheong. This building acted as storage and a waiting room for those coming to the shrine.

We walked along a road that had an elevated strip in the middle. This elevated strip was for the king, while the strips on the left and the right were for other high-ranking officials (rankings I didn't know). Women weren't allowed to perform the ancestral rites (제사), but a queen could have her tablet (신실) enshrined after her death. Equality after death.   

 Next, we saw Jaegung. Here, the king and crown prince would prepare before doing the rites. There was a building for the king, a building for the crown prince, and a bathing facility. The picture below is the king's room (Eojaesil).

After walking through Jaegung, we stopped in front of Jeonsacheong, where the food was prepared. I had 제사밥 a while back in Andong, and it was delicious, in a very plain way. 냠냠.

The next building was the most impressive: Jeongjeon. Jeongjeon is te main hall of Jongmyo. While it started off as a small shrine, when a king or queen died, a new hall was added. This continued until there were 19 chambers (and had to be stopped or it would rival the size of China's royal shrine... I think).  

Under King Sejong, a second shrine, Yeongnyeongjeon, was built to accommodate more tablets. As you can see in the picture below, there are four shrines with a raised roof. These shrines house King Taejo's ancestors.

If you want to visit Jongmyo, the English tours are at 10, 12, 2, and 4pm (but closed on Tuesdays). On Saturdays, you can visit the shrine without a guided tour. With the English booklet, that might be the best way to enjoy the shrine. The entrance fee is 1,000 won.

Seoul Bucket List

I've accepted the admission offer for UC San Diego, so unless I get a full-funded scholarship to a school in Korea (and decide a program in Seoul would be better), I'll be leaving Korea on August 24th. I LOVE Seoul. I'm going to miss it a tons. So I've decided to be quite pro-active during my last days. I'll be trying to do something interesting/new/unexpected everyday until the 24th (oh, and re-visiting favorites). Although I want this to be a lot of randomly cool things, there are some things I have on my bucket list. When I've seen these things, I'll write a post on this blog or over at my Korean diary. This list is by no means exhaustive and there is a good chance I'll add to it as I go along.

Achasan: Very simple mountain that can be done on any given afternoon.

Andong Jjimdalk: This used to be one of my favorite dishes my first year in Korea. I haven't eaten it since 2012! (Ate it with Cali and Catie on May 14th near Korea University).

Banpo Bridge fountain: I've never seen the rainbow fountain! And I wanted to visit this before I even came to Seoul!?! I imagine I'll be disappointed.

Bugaksan fortress wall: The mountain behind the Blue House has a pretty cool wall. But I need my passport! (Thursday, June 6th)

Bukhansan: While I've climbed this peak before, I've never reached the top. Lazy me. Part of this mountain is literally at the back door of my school.

Cheonho Dong Jjukkumi Street: On one of these upcoming hot summer days, I want to cool down with spicy baby octupus

Chimaek: I hardly ever have chicken and beer. This should change! (We had some Chimaek in Gunsan on May 17th, 2013)

Chu-eo tang in Pyeonchang dong: One of the oldest restaurants in Korea is on one of my jogging routes. And I love this eel soup!

Coex: I've never really explored Coex. I've only been to a couple of exhibition halls in the building. 

Dobongsan: I'm going to be doing this mountain on the 26th of May with my Korean class. As long as I wake up on time. Update: I didn't wake up on time. Must do later...

Everland: I kind of feel like I should go to Everland but also won't be completely upset if I don't make it.

Garak Wholesale Food Market: I love food and markets! Woot!

Gwanaksan: Nice big mountain in southern Seoul. 5/5/2013

Han River Cruise: Though it isn't the nicest river, I still want to take a cruise on a sunny day.

Hamilton Hotel Pool: I wanna soak in the sun with the fabulous

Hwagyesa: This temple was so near Suyu but I never went. Because I'm stupid. (August 13th, 2013)

Hwangudan Altar: This altar is in a garden in the Westin Chosun hotel. Looks really cool.

Imo chip: I must visit my auntie and her great restaurant in Itaewon again. And again. And again.

Inwangsan: The large mountain in western Seoul.

Jeongneung: The tombs near my school are just a hop and skip away. I visited them on 5/15/2013.  

Jongmyo Shrine: I visited Jongmyo on 5/8/2013. Great time. Highly recommended.

Jogyesa: I walk around Jongno all the time in Seoul, but I've never been to Jogyesa. And my family has! 헐.

Kimchi Field Museum: Enough said. 

Korea Furniture Museum: Looks pretty fantastic. The building housing the furniture is beautiful too.

Korean War Memorial Museum: Just minutes from my house and I've heard that it is a great museum.

Magpie Brewery: Located in my neighborhood. I've heard they have really great beer. (Visited in June for an awesome event for the season finale of Game of Throne).

Majang Korean BBQ Street: Meat street!

Namhansanseong: A fortress at the top of Namhan mountain from the Joseon period.

National Museum of Korea: I've been here for twenty minutes. I should go for a bit longer... (Visited August 17th)

Noryangjin Fish Market: Sure, I've been here before. But I want more fish! 

Ojang-dong Naengmyeon: Apparently they have the best Naengmyeon. AND I LOVE NAENGMYEON! *Update* I went there on 5/7/2013, and yes. It is amazing. I will be back!

Random buses: C and I jumped on random buses before to enjoy the destination. We need more of that in our lives.

Samsung Museum of Art: Ten thousand won has always looked like such an expensive entrance fee for a museum, but that is just me being stupid.

Sarangchae at Cheongwadae: I like political history, and this museum focuses on the presidents of Korea and Seoul history. Nice.

Seokchondong Tombs: Never even heard of these before, but..

Seoul Museum of Chicken Art: I forgot this existed. I wanna see it!

Seoul Museum of History: I love Seoul and this museum is free.

Sillim's Sundae Town: Yum yum yum.

Sindang Ddeokbokki: Although I once hated ddeokbokki, I now crave it. Especially Sindang's ddeokbokki.

Suyu Dalkgalbi: Best. Dalkgalbi. Ever. (Ate some more for Magaly's going away dinner on June 16th. Definitely still the best).

Suyu Toast: Best. Toast. Ever. Yum. This is still the best.

Time Square in Yeongdeungpo: A bit of shopping! 

TUM: SK Telekom's Ubiquitous Museum. A museum about future technologies. 

Unhyeungung Palace: Not really a palace, but a rich person's house from the Joseon dynasty. Saw it on 5/16/2013

Jecheon Weekend

After a tremendous barbecue and house party on Friday, the plan was to go to Jecheon for their Cherry Blossom festival. Jecheon is in Chungcheonbuk-do, which is the only 도 in Korea without access to the sea. The mountains give it its own beauty however. I think the last time I visited a specific area in Chungcheonbuk-do was back in 2010, when I saw the beautiful Songnisan Beopjusa (and apparently never blogged about it so here is a picture of younger [and skinnier?] Mark).

 It was time to make another visit. Cameron organized the trip, but HS ended up helping with a lot. Particularly, he helped reserve our pension, which was kind of in the middle of nowhere. This would have been grand, if it hadn't been so far from the lake and festival. Nevertheless, we spent the afternoon wandering in the nearby mountains. That included meeting a very creepy older Korean guy who told us that it was too dark and we should turn back in a voice that was completely devoid of tone and emotion. Glad we made it back to Seoul.

Trains!

After Margaret fell in a stream (ㅋㅋㅋ), the ungentlemen abandoned her to go wandering through the woods. There, we found an outdoor toilet that actually was pretty well made and had been freshly used, but where were the people? A lot of abandoned construction projects in this area...

Dinner was the good to try once 오리백숙, which is a soup made from the entire carcass of a duck. Unlike a lot of Korean food, it was very bland but I was assured this is because it is so healthy. While the soup may have been healthy, I'm sure the amounts of soju we drank were not... oops.

In the morning, we headed to the festival. I only got one picture, which is actually quite beautiful. The cherry blossoms were bustling and gusts of wind would cause them to fall to the earth like so many snowflakes. Really quite beautiful. If you look at the picture, however, you may notice the downside of a beautiful festival.

Yes, just like everything in Korea this festival (not even a well known one) was quite packed. What should have been a half an hour drive from Jecheon to the lake ended up being closer to two hours. We got to the festival and practically immediately had to turn around so we could catch our bus in Jecheon. But there weren't any buses coming by! So, of course, we had to hitchhike. Surprisingly, all nine of us were picked up (by three different cars). Although it was kind of a bummer at the festival, Saturday evening and Sunday morning as well as hitchhiking with strangers made the trip memorable.

Next time I go to Chungcheonbuk-do, though, I'm going to try to stay a bit longer. And hopefully see Guinsa temple!  

Spring Update

First period was cancelled today, so I thought I would take these extra few minutes to share a few pictures of life in Korea lately. I have taken 114 pictures on my camera since I talked about our trip to Muiido. Sure, some a lot of them are food. But I thought I'd share some with my few readers.

I don't talk about school very often (because my job is boring) but I really liked this activity. I got the idea from my friend Allan way back in 2009. I color coded cups with celebrities placed on them. Using ordinal numbers, students made an apartment building by stacking cups. It was a reading comprehension game and pretty fun. Since they were color-coded, I could check to see if students made the correct apartment building pretty easily. 

 I've been attending Korean classes again in the Jongno area. This means every Wednesday I am downtown so I pack my dinner and at next to the Cheonggyecheon for lunch. My class is in the Mirae Asset building, which has a pretty fantastic view.

St. Patrick's day was a bit of a blast (though also a tad to much to drink on my end). The festival started in Sindorim, where I met up with a bunch of friends to drink and chat while listening to Irish music. The weather was glorious. In the evening, we went to Itaewon to my favorite 이모집 (auntie's house) for dinner. Our group had picked up some random Korean girls in Sindorim, and we spent the evening playing Korean drinking games and practicing speaking A LOT!

 The next day, I met up with Megha and Cameron for a photo shoot. Megha is doing some sort of project, but nothing has surfaced. We'll see if it ever does... We got some awesome pumpkin porridge, and for second dinner I met up with my boyfriend, HS, for rice with tons of 반찬 (side dishes). And I mean TONS! For six dollars, we got 28 dishes. Yum.

 Speaking of HS, he is pretty awesome. Our relationship is pretty serious, though we aren't certain what the future brings. It looks like I'll be heading to San Diego for graduate school in September. For now, we are just enjoying the relationship as much as we can. That included going to the Tim Burton museum last Friday, despite it being incredibly busy.

Our trivia league ended in March. Our team got second place! First place would have included an interview in 10 Magazine, but second place was pretty awesome as well. Mag was a bit sad about second place, but at least we finished with integrity.

I've also been trying to exercise lately. My knees have been bugging me (I need new shoes!) so instead of running I've gone on long walks and taken awkward selcas (selfies). Like this one:

My two walking partners are probably C and HS. C and I explored the Seongshin University area the other day followed by a delicious meal of duck. I'm going to miss duck...

On the 13th, we celebrated Julie and Sanghun's birthdays. Dinner in Sinsa followed by clubbing in Itaewon. The following week, Stacy had returned to visit, so we went out in Sinchon and Hongdae. A lot of partying, but less drinking. I'm aiming for a flat stomach this summer!

Last Sunday, I had the chance to see the exhibition at Culture Station 84. This museum was constructed within the old Seoul station. The exhibit was free, and focused on random collections: barbies, toys, coca cola cans, etc. Luckily, I went on the 14th, because I think it closed this past Monday. 

That took longer than my extra forty minutes this morning. 헐. This weekend I am planning to go to Jecheon. It will be nice to get out of Seoul (and away from North Korea's saber rattling?).

Mark & Magaly's March Muiido Madness

Magaly and I share birthdays (March 6th, 1987), as well as a few other random things. Like allergies to penicillin. And a fondness for beers on the beach. Well, then again, who doesn't like a beer on the beach?

For this year, our 26th birthday!, we headed to Muiido (무의도) for the first island weekend of the season. We went to Muiido in June of last year. It is a bit of a hassle to get to, but still quite close to Seoul. You just have to take a subway, bus, boat, and another bus to get there.

We got there in the afternoon and enjoyed some time on the beach. The day was warm, but as it was early March, there were hardly anyone on the beach. A zipline must have been installed in the past year, and every once in a while someone would zip past over our heads. One of the first things we did was grablunch. Muiido has some nice seaside specialties like 해물라면 (seafood ramen) and 해물칼국수 (seafood cut noodle soup). Being good considerate residents of Korea we ordered food and shared it. Except we didn't share with Megha since she is 설사녀 (diarrhea girl). Half kidding: we couldn't share with her because she doesn't eat meat. The ramen was definitely the better choice.

Very serious Hyeonsu...

We spent the afternoon lazing about, playing cards, talking, and enjoying the ocean. Well, Muiido is a bit dirty, so it was more about walking around and avoiding broken glass or washed up corpses. It was a good place to start island visits this year, because it can only go up from Muiido. I do love their little shacks though... cozy, warm and only 10,000 won a person.

As the sun came down, Muiido decided to laugh at our foolishness for coming in early March. The wind picked up, the temperature dropped and the door to our shack kept falling off. Magaly was feeling a bit under so she headed back to Seoul while the rest of us tried to keep warm. Although explicitly prohibited, we decided a fire was in order and gathered sticks, logs and kindling.  The fire was ready to commence after watching the muggy sunset.

 

We lit the fire and left it to be watched over by an oyster-cooking friend while we went off for a more substantial dinner. If you live in Korea and haven't had 조개구이 yet, you probably aren't a very adventurous eater. It's one of those interactive Korean dishes. Various shellfish are cooked in front of you. Make sure you force the youngest member of your group, that'd be you HS, to ensure the shell fish is cooked through. Cut them up with your handy kitchen scissors and enjoy with the condiments provided. 맛있당!

As the night grew thicker, the temperature fell greatly. Wind was blowing in huge gusts; every once in a while they would blow off our door. When we finally went to sleep it was with a slight fear that the door disappear during the night. I had to pee throughout the evening, but didn't want to leave our cabin as I feared opening the door would disturb its precarious connection to the frame.

After a sleepless night, we headed back to Seoul. I had originally wanted to climb the small mountain on Muiido, but it was far too cold. Instead, we went to Hongdae to see 설사녀's new apartment in Hongdae. I must say, I'm a bit jealous. While I'm a huge fan of HBC, Hongdae would be an amazing place to live. And her apartment looks like it is far away from the madness so it isn't too noisy. What an ideal place!

We got a very late lunch at an Italian restaurant in Hongdae with lunch sets for about ten dollars. By the time we finished eating and chatting, it was getting quite late. We said our goodbyes and headed home. Although I feel that my birthdays are becoming less important each year, I hope my birthdays in the future can be just as fun with just as wonderful people.

Oh, I miss my beard...

^^

Yesterday was pretty spectacular. I woke up, got ready, and then took the subway as normal. On the subway, I checked my e-mail to find that the decision had been made for my John Hopkins application. Unfortunately, I couldn't open the letter on my smart phone, so I had to wait for school.

Waiting made me pretty anxious

I opened the letter (well, e-mail) to find that I had been accepted into the International Development program at John Hopkins! I certainly am proud about this feat, but still not really sure where I'll be going to grad school. Too much rides on financial aid packages... I've gotten one from John Hopkins, and, even though it is generous, I would still end up with 40,000 in debt. Ouch.

Anyways, back to my great day. I had some good lessons and fun activities that worked well with classes. I had Korean class downtown at 7 pm, so I decided to take a jog from work. The route was a bit loopy, but quite wonderful. I ended up running east from my school under part of Bukhansan, through Pyeong-chang dong, Bu-am dong, and Cheong-un dong. It was VERY hilly, but so beautiful. I'm one of the few joggers in Seoul, so it is a bit awkward to be running in the streets. But I find such wonderful places, so I just ignore when people stare.

View from the north

So many cute cafes on this street

The ticker said 'Welcome to Korea' in English. Not really sure why...

As I was getting further south, there were more and more policemen. I wasn't really sure why, until I ran into a plaza with a huge plaque for the Cheong Wa Dae museum. Huh? Was I near the Blue House?

Yep, apparently I had run right by Park Geun-hye's new residence. Pretty awesome. Also explained a lot of the barbed wire on the mountain.

After a bowl of tuna jjigae to warm me up, I had Korean class downtown. I haven't attended the Korean Foundation courses in a long time, so it was great to be back. I've downgraded a level, but it is ok because I need to review grammar. Maybe I'll make this run a weekly thing.

Working on HTML

I have been practicing writing in HTML so I wrote this entire page in HTML. It has been a lot of fun. I'm using the website Code Academy which is quite informative and uses a really smart pedagogical approach. I made the following table. It took about an hour... but it is kind of cool. Some people that I really like and hyperlinks to their facebook pages. The picture of David and Shela goes to Shela's facebook page cause, well, she is much more active on facebook. The pictures of Sarah's kids goes to Sarah's page, because that is where I get all the latest updates about my niece and nephew. WOW!

Some Wonderful People