Hanboks

This week's Friday event was wearing Hanboks at a place in Insadong! A Hanbok is the traditional Korean costume. A long time ago it was worn more, but nowadays children will wear them for special occasions and then adults for when they get married. All of the Korean buddies I talk to said they haven't worn a Hanbok since the were 10 years old. 

So at this place (store?), you pay to try on the Hanbok and then you are free to take pictures in their photo room. You also have the option of getting professional photos done, but they cost a lot more. 

The best part was choosing your style and colours! There were so many pretty options is was hard to decide! They had 4 styles: original, princess/queen, geisha, and some-other-one-I-don't-remember-because-no-one-picked-it. Then once you've chosen your preferred style, you go into the closet and have to pick out the colour combination you want. This is the tricky part, because you go in there and become so overwhelmed because everything is so pretty, and you want to wear it all. I chose the geisha style Hanbok because it had nice detailing on the skirt. 

Then the workers will also style your hair! There are a few options to choose from for each Hanbok style. They also had big headpieces you could wear too, but since they were black it wouldn't have matched my blonde hair well.

So here are the pictures of me and some of my friends in our traditional Korean Hanboks!

Belle and I. Haha, the lady taking our photo made us do funny poses.

Haha, now the camera lady made me do this touching pose.

Belle, and Gyeongeun. Gyeongeun is our ItaeOne group leader! <3

<3
Gyeongeun is wearing the princess Hanbok and I am in the geisha one.

Kevin and Chris! They really liked their hats.

KUBA buddies Hong, Irene, and Gyeongeun.

Top: Emily, Kevin, Estelle
Bottom: Gyeongeun, me, Irene, Hong, and Belle

Ah it was so much fun! Thanks for reading everyone!

Changgyeonggung Palace

For our Friday event, our KUBA group went to Changgyeonggung Palace! They were holding a festival there because all of the flowers were in bloom! We were able to get there by bus, which in itself is a crazy experience. You really have to be on your guard while riding the bus because the drivers are crazy! If you are not 100% focused, you will go flying across the bus!

But anyways, the Palace was beautiful! According to my pamphlet, it was build in the Joseon Dynasty in 1483. It was however destroyed in 1592 by fires during the Japanese invasion, later restored but destroyed again by fires in 1830 (restored 4 years later). One of the KUBA buddies, HyunJin, also told me that one time when the Japanese invaded, they turned it into a zoo!

It was so pretty to see the buildings, especially among the flowers and lanterns. Here are some of the pictures I took!

Guards at the palace entrance.

Me and one of my best friends, Tierney!

Main building!

Using fancy-schmancy camera settings.

Gyeongchunjeon building. For crowning queens and princesses.

Yanghwadang: guest receiving hall.

:D

Lake and lanterns!

Me and Irene, one of the KUBA buddies! :)

Main square lit up! Also you can see Namsan Tower (its red now!)

Also, today (Sunday) is Children's Day here! I find this amusing because I always wondered why we never had that in North America when we have Mother's Day and Father's Day ("everyday is children's day..." -Mom). Well I guess that is just another reason why Korea is awesome!

I am off to go see Iron Man 3! I think it only just came out in the US/Canada, but its been out here for a week and a half already! (Go Korea!)

Thanks for reading! Miss you~ :)