Sign at City Hall
Friday was field trip day. As fun as these excursions are,
I’m super glad they are only once a month. I enjoy getting to do fun activities
with my students but between the motion sickness that always happens (little
stuffy bus full of screaming kids) and the stress of keeping everyone together
(preferably NOT fighting) makes for a really long morning. By the time I get
back to school I’m always exhausted and it’s quite a challenge getting through
my afternoon classes.
Anyway, this trip was to Gyeongi Children’s Museum and while
we didn’t have enough time to explore the whole facility, we were able to hit
up a few areas.
The place reminded me of OMSI only it wasn’t necessarily
science-based. Some of the exhibits were pretty fun…such as the human body room
where they kids got to do things like stuff plastic balls up gigantic noses and
play doctor (aka attack teacher).
There was also a “Truth in the Fairytale” room that featured
some displays from fairy tails…including these fantastic hats you could try on.
Ta da!
After school Jenee and I went to watch the recently released
rom-com movie Catch Me staring none other than Joo Won. Having just recently
seen him live on-stage at a musical, it was a super special experience for me
watching him on the big screen.
Catch Me
The movie was pretty funny. There were some slow scenes but
for the most part Jenee and I were cracking up. It was great!
Saturday we got to sleep in and then we headed into Seoul to do some market-browsing (not my favorite thing I’ve discovered with all the crowds and pushing) and then Christmas decoration scouting.
To get into the Christmas spirit we visited a couple of
places rumored to have some good decorations.
First was Times Square in Yongdungpo-gu. There was a big
Christmas tree lit up here and some lights. It was very pretty! And not very
crowded! Yey!
Pretty Christmas tree
Next we went to the Hilton Hotel near Soul Station.
Seoul Station at night
It was
actually quite an experience getting there. We weren’t really sure how to get
to it so we took off in the general direction (luckily it’s big so eventually
we could see it and just had to figure out how to get to it).
At one point we passed this dark construction-zone. Just as
we were coming up on it I looked and this business man came walking out and we
both gave each other heart-attacks. It was rather humorous (thinking back, I
about fainted at the time) when he saw me he jumped about a foot and shouted
this expression they use here when someone/something scares you.
View of Namsan Tower during our walk
Merry Christmas at the Hilton
Anyway, we found the hotel and just walked inside. I’m
actually not sure how that works with hotels but given the amount of people
inside admiring the Christmas decorations like us I’m assuming it’s okay but
regardless, we waltzed right on it and admired away.
The tree was awesome. It was huge and rotated around with
really elaborate decorations.
There was also a small toy train set that drove
around the entire thing. The details in the “scenery” were pretty cool, like
this billboard for the Ghost musical I recently watched.
Can you see it?
When we finished taking pictures we headed back outside and decided
to go back to the station a different way (which seemed easier to get to) and
it was neat because we happened upon this historic sight:
Namdaemun Gate
Sungnyemun Gate (aka Namdaemun Gate) which happens to be
Korea’s natural treasure #1. It was recently restored after being destroyed by
a fire and opened back up in April 2013.
It was pretty at night and all lit up. I think you can actually go
closer but it was closed so we just took a peak at it from the gate.
The decorations were really
nice. There were a couple more places I’d heard had good Christmas displays but
after checking out City Hall it was getting late and we were pretty much done
for the evening.
From Seoul Station we embarked on the subway once again to
City Hall where we got to see another large Christmas tree on display.
I'm really glad we were able to see a lot of decorations. It helped us get more in the Christmas mood since it's not celebrated quite the same here and it's always a bit lonely when your away from home during Christmas time.
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