Sightseeing around Seoul

Well I did post pictures on Facebook, but I did want to put 

up some more pictures and add some captions 

as well for those that are interested.  

Brittany and I went on our own little adventure today, the first place we went to was Changdeokgung Palace.  In Seoul itself there are six palaces and this is a very nice one.  

Here a girl looks into a sundial bowl that still works to this day.  The sundial bowl is accurate  and even tells what season it is.
It only works when it's sunny.(I guess I didn't have to mention that)

wood railing design

Hey, it's me!

A stone decoration in the garden. 

This is a bronze pot with water in it.  There were four bronze pots on the terrace.  The Koreans believed that the water in the pots would scare away the fire ghosts.  You see the fire ghosts were nasty and ugly  looking and this was before the epidemic of cosmetic surgery in Korea. Well when the fire ghosts flew over the pots they would see their reflection and fly away and not set the building on fire.

I am not tall, the doorway is short.

Here is actually a chimney that went under the ground.  The chimneys were placed like this to prevent fires from occurring  in the buildings.  The fireplaces were in the basement of the buildings and would heat the floors of the buildings.  Most people would sleep on the floors in the palace because they were toasty warm.

Here is one of the meeting halls that the King had. This building was built in 1920.  It had to be rebuilt because of massive fires in 1917.  The furniture is from France and there was even electric in the building when it was built. 

Yes there was a King of Korea until his death in 1926, but for most of his reign he had no power.  He did have a car though and he did have a bed to sleep in as opposed to the floor. 

 Actually his wife lived until 1966, she lived on the palace grounds in another house until her death.  

Only the palace and royal buildings could have such brightly colored paint on them. Other Koreans, even if they were rich, could not paint their dwellings so brightly.

Here is a selfie of  Brittany and I.

This is the inside of the palace, It was built about 200 years ago, after you guess it.... a fire...

Fires kept destroying many buildings because they were all interconnected with walkways so the King and Queen never had to walk outdoors to get from building to building.  Well the walkways helped the fires spread.

Look at this kid's cute outfit.

Ok we left that palace and went into the neighborhood.

cabbages growing

 What do you want grab?
















We ended up going to a house that was wear an artist had done artwork in the 1920's and 1930's.  Well the house was going to be torn down and demolished a few years ago.  Many people were sad about this and they fought to save the house. The house was in very bad shape and had to be almost completely rebuilt and restored.
  The house just opened up to the public last year in November. 

Here is the artist's bed.  notice the wood neck pillow.  Is that why some Korean's are grumpy on the subway?  Could be....

The artist's studio

 

Some artwork

The courtyard of the house

A house in the neighborhood.

A cool door on a house.  It's new, but neat.

Notice how this house combines the old style with the modern style.  

Then we headed to another palace called Unhyeongung.  At this palace you can actually rent Hanboks(traditional Korean Dress) and take pictures in it.  It was quite inexpensive, maybe 5 dollars. 

 A room in one of the buildings.

Notice the beautiful bun of hair inside his horse hair hat.

Try to say horse hair hat five times fast.  

This is not a real person. Though I think they should put a cellphone in his hand.  It looks like he is reading a text from his babies' momma. 

Wow, they didn't think of wearing beaded curtains in the 60's

I now have a cellphone and preschool learns about sex.

Ok, I finally got a Korean cellphone.  I took over the contract from someone named Pat.  I had seen an ad on craigslist where someone wanted someone to take over their contract on their phone. I sent Pat a picture, but all I knew was that Pat had red hair, because Pat told me so. 

I went to the Gwanghwamun exit on Saturday and was there at noon.  I first saw a white girl and her hair was auborn and I thought it was Pat.  "Hey Pat, how's it going?" "Um... I'm not Pat."

Nope it wasn't Pat.  It was Pat's girlfriend.  Then Pat arrived and we went into the Olleh Store, Olleh is a cellphone company here in Korea. 

A crappy first shot with the new cell phone of  the Olleh store I signed my contract for the phone from Pat.

 Here's the second crappy cellphone picture I took!

Olleh has funny commercials in Korean with this middle-aged married couple.  

Ok I could not find the couple commercial, 

but I found some Darth Vader commercials for Olleh.

Actually this is four commercials and I bet ladies you wish you could do the fourth commercial when there is a long line for the bathroom.

Oh now here is some good stuff from school the kids had a training called "Child Empowerment"  

Here are the children sitting in the library.

The entire lesson was Korean.  The woman brought out girl and boy dolls and talked about vaginas and penises.  The dolls were anatomically correct.

Then she brought out adult dolls and showed the same private parts and also the woman's breasts.  

Then she brought out the sperm!

Here is how the woman showed a sperm fertilizing an egg.

 If you can't see here is a better view.

She had a magnet to made the sperm swim from man peninsula to woman vagina.  Wait.... now that I think of it penis..... penisula.... oh wow

Well after the sexy river ride the woman brought out a pregnant doll and the pregnant doll gave birth and the baby came out with the placenta still attached.  The woman explained that that's where their belly buttons came from.  

Then of course she put a pregnant body suit on the children and a boy first?

 Looking pretty good there boy.  

Make sure you remember this day
 in 25 years when your wife is complaining of swollen ankles.  

Then there was a girl who put on the pregnant body suit, oh she's carrying the weight really low.... Must be a boy!

Then no Child Empowerment Training would be complete without Stranger Danger!!!!!!!!

"Hey Kid come here, I got some kimchi and rice in my van for you."

"Why are you running away kid, I also have some Korean Shrimp chips in my van for you too"