Myeongdong and Seoul National Museum

Well I've been doing a lot our touring the city lately because I'm not sure how much free time I will have after classes start. Today was really fun. In the morning I went to the area of the city called Myeongdong with Michelle (I know her from Winnipeg, and she is here teaching English) and in the afternoon some other friends and I went to the Seoul National Museum.

Myeongdong (Me-ong-dong) is the place to go for shopping! They have a lot of Korean fashion stores, American-brand stores (like H&M, American Apparel...), department type store and makeup stores. All the stores are about 3 stories high but it is all outside shopping. Michelle and I first went out for brunch and shared a super yummy salad and beef tomato sandwich (I don't have a picture because we were so hungry and ate right away!). We then went to the Lotte department store. Lotte is a huge brand in Korean and has everything to hotels, high-fashion clothing stores, markets, and even an amusement part. We checked out the grocery store there- it was amazing! There was so many different foods-both Korean and imported. There was also so many staff members: literally one person for every 2 square metres. After that we just went browsing in the open area.

Here is basically what Myeongdong looks like....for about 3 square blocks!

Some good Engrish (aka bad translation): "Button a compelling, keep poppin up!" ...what? 

Haha

Later in the afternoon I met up with my roommate Connie and two other girls we met at CJ House and we all went to the Seoul National Museum. There was a lot of artifacts relating to Korean history there. It was especially cool because everything was so old; some things even dating back to the 1300's! We had a guided tour, and the lady told us a lot of interesting things (I will try to remember most of it, but I am already starting to forget!)

Outside of the museum

Korean Pagoda. The tour guide said there are over 400 separate parts to it and that the carvings on it are to tell a story.

Porcelain. This was used for incense. There are also tiny porcelain rabbits holding it up.

More porcelain jars.

Tea pot! (For you Bronnie! :D )

A statue made of bronze apparently 2mm thick. 

A pretty box (this wasn't part of the tour, but I thought it looked very intricate)

Bronze. A lot of detail work. Phoenix on the top.

A Korean Buddha statue. The centre of the forehead is supposed to have a precious stone, but the stones were constantly stolen. 

King crown and belt. This gold is only 0.5 mm thick.

And that's all for today. Later a bunch of us went out for some pizza by our area and it was delicious! I think I am going back to Myeongdong tomorrow with Connie so I probably won't update until my classes start. Thanks for reading!