I went wandering this weekend too. Saw some of the most beautiful parts of Seoul I never knew existed. I ended up walking up, down, and around a good chunk of mountain as I went in search of these archers I heard about who shoot arrows over this big ravine and try to get the targets across it. Leaves were changing, it was so pretty! I went to the traditional village too and ended up catching this show they were having.
A view of the village from the mountain trail I wound up at. Kinda funny in the middle of the city.
This is EXACTLY what the tea room looked like, except this is at the village. Someone's living room I think.
If you can guess what this is, I'll send you a postcard.
A little peek into one of the houses. Can you see the little dark part at the bottom of the picture? It's got logs stuffed in it because they heat the house underneath the floors (they still do). Makes things super super warm.
Prepping for winter. Scraping off the old stuff and putting new rice/wax paper on the frames.
An old game where you throw arrows into a metal vase, and it's ridiculously hard. This girl, along with all the other people I saw trying, didn't get it.
A celadon vase. And on the right, its detail. Can you imagine carving all those little flowers and spaces?? Talk about patience...
A couple scenes from one of the dances. Look at the hanbok (traditional dress, like a kimono) on the right, crazy embroidery. The better pictures for this entire day are on real film in my other camera, but for some reason it's hard to get real film developed...
Haha, this is me sitting by a waterfall. I look kinda creeped out because I didn't understand what the guy was saying, until I figured out that he'd taken my picture while talking to me and only wanted to send me the picture. He said because I was by myself I wouldn't have anyone be able to take one of me so he did. A nice gesture...
This is the only flower I saw on my entire 4 hour wander. It was gorgeous though, it looked like velvet!
This is where the archers shoot from. It's 150 meters from the numbers to the bullseyes of the targets where a guy is standing in a little booth to tell you how you did. The contraption on the right brings your arrows back to you. I think Candace and I are going to try and go back to see if we can get lessons. I just missed the guys actually doing it.
In case you were wondering how long it would take you to walk off a cookie, ice cream, spaghetti, a shot of alcohol, or a hamburger, this sign lets you know how fast to walk and for how long.
The tower at sunset.
This is me and Candace out at a birthday party a couple weekends ago. It was late and we hit the norebang (karaoke room) with a group of the kids there. Wow, some people are amazing, and some were awful, it was fantastic. You get scored, and no one did worse than a 95% so everyone thought they did well. I had ZERO voice though, so I'm just there for looks. Notice the microphone condoms to make sure you don't pass on any germs...
This is Amy, she and her boyfriend, below, are from New Zealand and they teach at my school too. It was Amy's sister's birthday party and we had to dress up in the Reds t-shirts and wear sweatbands of any sort. Mine is a nod to the Red Sox.
This is Tama, Amy's boyfriend. He's Maori too - he can speak it! He's very uncomfortable in the room that we're in because it really is about as tall as he is when sitting. That light in the corner really is in the corner where the ceiling meets the walls. You'll see below.
Have you ever seen "Being John Malkovich"? Do you remember the part with the 7 1/2 floor? This was it. A couple of the guys we were with knew of this teeny tiny restaurant open til all hours owned by this really old lady. You can get really good kimchi pancakes (sounds gross, but they're so good) and supposedly some of the best bean sprouts in town. Their 4 tables were taken, so we were taken up to the upstairs which was ridiculous. Kinda cool though. From left to right are Tama's feet, Derek (I think), Majid, Candace, Mark, and my striped feet.
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