Some karaoke, some ancient houses, and a tower..

On Sat my neighbor Liz had a BBQ and she had some of her Hagwon friends over. (A hagwon is an “English school”) We all decided to go to Hongdai (one of the top hangouts here in Seoul) post-BBQ. We went to this hole-in-the-wall bar then went to a Noraebung (an all-night karaoke bar).

The noraebung we went to was actually quite “posh and upscale” for noraebung standards, but it was pretty cool.

You get this individual room with couches and a big tv then you select the music you want and everybody sings and dances.

There’s tambourines and other instruments.. it’s quite fun!

We did get in trouble for having alcohol, b.c. it was a “posh” noraebung so for some reason they didn’t want you to have any. (I think it was b.c. ppl drink enough before and after that we were seeing ppl get sick left and right on the way outta there!)

Sunday, Berengere and I took the subway to Deoksugung palace (just one of the 5 palaces in Seoul alone!) which was the residence of the last empire and the last emperor/King prior to Japanese occupation. It's a perfect symbol of Seoul.. a mixture of the ancient + modern:

There is a changing of the guard- like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in DC.. but it seemed like more of an historical reenactment to me...

It reminded me a lot of the Chinese palaces I saw last summer.. same architecture, same layout, just some minor differences.

Things like:

They both have “Gates” which lead to walkways that then give entrance to a “main hall”...

They both have huge buildings just for “receiving” people from foreign lands....

They both have intricate artwork on the ceilings of their buildings...

They both separate the sexes for sleeping.. so there is a house for the Emperor and a whole different one for his wife (this is also similar to Europe’s royalty at the time)...

They both imprison their women... for instance, the last guy that lived in this palace b4 the Japanese took over Korea killed all his brothers in order to secure his throne (another similarity) and then imprisoned his stepmother for 10 years in one building of the entire palace.. imagine that!! (It’d REALLY suck!!)

and...

Being INSANELY HOTT!!!!

... Just goes to show how similar their cultures are and how much the Chinese had an influence on Korea... such as...

The other cool thing about it is that it's the place where one of the 1st water clocks is housed! (Water clocks are basically one of the very first forms of clock in the world... and, yes, it was invented in China so naturally it was brought to Korea and Japan)

After the historical lesson...

We got back on the subway and headed to Hanok village- a place with very traditional Korean housing from ancient times. Hangban (Korean aristocrats) lived in these houses (again very similar to Chinese style). They are shaped in a square with a courtyard area in the center and all the rooms surrounding it on 4 sides.

Next we went to Seoul tower and took the cable car up to the base of the tower.

It was UH-mazing!! I couldn’t believe that I LIVE in the city... I kept feeling like I was looking at a mural or something.. DEF not the city that I now LIVE in...

Well, as luck would have it.. both of our cameras died!! blech. BUT we at least got 1 pic.. :)

It was a real nice day touring the city right before we had to go to work with the kids on the 1st day! Agh! Can’t believe my summer is over..