A Week In Seoul

Here are some pictures from the past couple of days!!! :)

The first and second one is from one of a palace in Seoul. It is called the Gyeongbokgung palace. Originally it stood as the main palace but was burnt down during the early 1900's during Japanese Imperialism by the Japanese.

To date, several buildings in the palace walls have been reconstructed, but many have not been reconstructed.

The third one is from another side (I think. I can't remember. Everything blurs together) of Gyeongbok. But the story is that building behind me was where a Korean Queen, named Queen Min, who was killed by Japanese ninja soldiers. In fact, a while before, the Japanese had an assassination attempt to the Queen but failed because she traded clothes with one of her lady maids and lived. So this time when they assassinated her, they killed all of her lady maids to make sure that the Queen was killed. 

After her death, there was 3 stone monuments erected in her honor AND as a source of Anti-Japanese propaganda, but they were taken down later when they were reconstructing this area.

This picture is taken outside of a Buddhist temple. They were celebrating Buddha's birthday! :) There are a bunch of lanterns commemorating his birthday and we just happened to walk past a temple so...we took a picture. :)

This picture was taken outside of yet ANOTHER palace, this time outside of Suwon, South Korea. It is called Hwaseong Haenggung. This was a lot smaller palace but it had a couple games to play! Also they have this thing where you write a wish down on a piece of paper and then you tie it to the tree and it'll come true. So I did it. ;) But I can't tell you what I wished for or else it won't come true!! ;)

This was the reopening of South Korea's number one national treasure, called Sungnyemun. A couple years ago it was burnt down by a nutjob who was mad at the government and sought retaliation by burning this down. So they just finished it and had the reopening ceremony that day. But...I have never seen so many people in my entire life in one small area. ARGH moving is just impossible. But the president was there (not that I saw her) and a bunch of other influential people were there! :)

So that's been my adventures this past week! Sorry for the lack of posts. Where I'm staying, we actually don't have wifi. SAY WHAT?!?! haha. But yea. Just a quick update. We are leaving for Andong tomorrow and we will be there about a week before we move down to Gimhae for the last month!! :)

Love you all!!

Heather

Walking, Sock hunts, and La Festa

HEY! :)
So yesterday was LA FESTA day in Ilsan! La Festa is my favorite place in Korea. hehe. It's so adorable there. There is hundreds of shops both outside and inside and a ton of hidden shops that makes it fun to explore! We went there at like, 11 am and just explored and shopped until three or so. However, saddest thing ever: THEY DON'T SELL CHARACTER SOCKS ANYMORE. WAHH!! Character socks are just socks with famous people on them. Super trendy. ;) I have about 20 from last time I was in Korea but I didn't find any in La Festa to add to my collection. With that being said, I DID find the most adorable pair of Little Mermaid socks. I'm super tempted to go back and get the snow white pair. hehe.

Also, I don't know what my deal is, but my feet have been SO SWOLLEN the past two days. It's not like I'm walking around barefoot. But I mean, we have been walking a lot so, I don't know. ;)

Uhm, let's see. Today we're going to some markets in Seoul central but...of course it's raining today. Sigh. Just my luck. ;) Oh well, good thing I brought an umbrella!! YAY!

Well, I'm going to go.

I gotta get ready! :)

BYE! <3 p="">

Day Two Adventures

I'm back!! :)

It's seven am here. I don't know why I'm up. haha.

So lets see...yesterday. We went to the DMZ. I asked them if they come here often, they say it's their go-to place for foreigners! HAHA!! :) So we went for emily but let me say this...a LOT HAS CHANGED THERE SINCE I WAS THERE LAST. There are a TON of Army soldiers there now...In fact, you're not even allowed to park up there now. When we went, we literally just pulled up to the front entrance with no problem...but you have to park your car at the very bottom of this hill and take a bus up. Very interesting. I think it is security measures but I don't know how to ask that in Korean. 

So we get to the DMZ and they've added this....memorial thingy at the first level of the DMZ observatory ( http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=264489 )  Also called the Odusan Unification Observatory. 통일 (tong-il) is the word for unification.  But this memorial is in dedication of....the FORTY SIX men who died in the boat bombing in April 2010. Remember? The reason why I almost couldn't go to Korea?! Yea. It was kinda depressing. They had a ton of pictures there of the parents crying and stuff. But that is all new, obviously because it had just happened when I went.

Then we went to the third level (the second is for Korean speakers) and watched an english video on the reunification. I asked my host dad about it. They said that most of North Korea wants to be reunited but after what happened with the bombing of the boat, forgiveness will be hard. There was a HUGE picture of a bunch of post-it-notes with comments to North Korea (you know how people sometimes pick an area and have protests there? Same idea). and there was a huge banner that said, "We will never forget." Scary, huh?

So we watched the video and then went outside and looked through the binoculars at North Korea... I find that concept slightly weird. We're totally creeping on North Korea citizens like they're monkeys at the zoo and yet, they probably have no clue what a pair of binoculars even is! haha. I saw a North Korean man walking though! Its weird because it is so DEAD there... 

Anywho, afterwards we went to this park place in Paju and flew kites. I honestly didn't think it'd be that much fun but it was! :) There was about 100 people flying kites (I have pictures too) and we did that for like an hour and a half. Then we walked over and went to this historical part of korea (it was like a two minute walk).

AND DAD, GUESS WHAT?!?! There was a train there! haha. I took a bunch of pictures because I thought you'd like to see it. But apparently the train, which was BADLY ripped apart, was bombed by North Korea and was the last symbol of unification between North and South Korea because the train went to obviously both countries. So I'll add the pictures here. ;) 

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Then we got home. All in all a good day. Emily and I are going to Ilsan today! YAY! And tomorrow we're meeting with two of our friends (who are in the program and arrived last night) and we're going to Myeongdong...which is where I will buy a bunch of gifts! haha

Love ya'll! 

Heather

I'm here!

It's been almost three years since I've been to Korea and almost three years since I've last seen my host family. It's funny, so much has changed over time yet things are still the same. :) I love them both so much!

Airports:

So I started off in SLC International Airport and that was a pretty quick and painless flight. Then we got to Portland ready to go to Tokyo. Okay let me tell you something. I have honestly never been more scared of a plane than during that flight. We're on the runway ready to take off, and all of a sudden the power shuts down. The entire power on the plane turned off and they didn't know why and they were like, "Sorry, we are rebooting everything up, we don't know what happened but we need the generator to run our engines." Yea, I thought that was a comforting thought...They need the power to run the engines but don't know why they all of a sudden stopped? What if we were mid-air and that happened?!? :)
But no worries. Obviously I landed (barely) safely. They kinda didn't hit the run way properly so the plane was bouncing around...ah, it was an awful moment. BUT they have individual tv's for each passenger and about 100 FREE movies and tv shows to choose from to watch. So I watched Pitch Perfect among other various things ;)

Then was Tokyo. Oh my golly, people are SO RUDE THERE. This one guy literally SHOVED ME OUT OF THE WAY so he could get past me and said "move." RUDE. But I really felt like that was a longer wait than it really was. We arrived at like 5 and took of at 8. We were surprisingly fed dinner on that plane even though it was super short. But it was sushi, and if any of you know me, you know that the one thing I would rather starve than eat is fish, so I starved. ;)

Customs surprisingly was short. Last time it took me over an hour to get through and this time was about 15 minutes. I likey. ;) Then we picked up our baggage and went through the gates where all the people are! I got to see my host mom and dad and it was a marvelous experience! :)

Today, it's about 1 pm here and we're going to eat curry. My favorite food is my host mom's ddaktoritang (I'll add pictures later) and so I think she'll make it for me soon! <3 p="" yummy="">
Well all, I'm hungry so I'm going to go!!

love you all,
Heather

I'm back!!!

Hi guys! (:

I'm back! I know, I know, it's been over two years. Two crazy, hectic years. :) But I wouldn't change a thing. 

I'm reactivating this blog because....

I'm going back to Korea again!!! :) 

Actually, I'll be in Korea in TWENTY DAYS! AGH! Crazy. :)


Now for an update:

-I'm currently a junior in college (I know; holy moley where has the time gone?!) majoring in Asian studies with a Korean emphasis and a minor in TESOL and Korean. YEPP! Korean is still a huge part of my life.
-I'm a mormon! :) And I'm proud of it!
-I have a boyfriend (hehe) and we've been dating for a year and a half.  He's currently serving a mission in Texas (I have another blog that talks about the life of a missionary girlfriend). 
-I will be in Korea through a study abroad program offered at my university and I will be there until the end of June! 

And...
I think that may be just about it. I'm SO EXCITED to go back. And I'll try and do a better job this time of uploading videos and pictures of my experiences! I'm going a week early to stay with my old host family! :) So I'll definitely try to post when I have time!

Thank you all for reading my stuff. :) 

I love you all!