Today (Friday) we had off from work because Friday-Sunday are considered national holidays. Chuseok, which is the Korean version of Thanksgiving, is celebrated tomorrow. Koreans give each other gifts for Chuseok. Most of the gifts here come in the form of a boxed gift set that you can buy at any department store, grocery store, or convenience store. The gift sets might have an assortment of beauty products, food, alcohol, or an ungodly amount of Spam. The Spam gift sets are oddly popular, and tons of people were carrying them around on the subway this week. Danny received a really nice wine gift set from his school director and one of his student's parent's gave him some organic soaps. I was a bit jealous at first, but last night my school director gave me a big gift box before I left work. Unfortunately, I lost the gift box when Danny and I went out for dinner after work, but I went back to the restaurant and it was still there. It turns out I got shampoo, conditioner, and lots of toothpaste. At least it's something useful (and much better than Spam!) I forgot to mention that because of the school closings today, I had 29 kids in my elementary level class yesterday and 22 kids in my middle school level class. I normally only have between 10-13 kids, so I was pretty nervous. It went better than I had expected though, but I was exhausted after work.
On our day off, we went to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. The palace is right in the middle of the city, but it has such a natural setting that you would never know you are in a city. There were so many buildings, so it took hours to walk around and see them all. Most of the buildings on the palace grounds look very similar. They are beautiful but the royal family's living quarters were actually relatively modest (compared to palaces in Europe, for example). The simplicity is probably due in part to the Korean foundation in Confucianism and Buddhism. We got to watch a reenactment of the changing of the palace guards. There were also two museums on the palace grounds, which we visited as well.
Afterwards we went to Sinchon to one of our favorite Indian restaurants. We walked around the neighborhood after because they have all these cute shops. They sell mostly women's clothes and accessories because the area is right near Ewha Women's University. We happened to walk onto the campus by accident, and it was so beautiful and looked just like any traditional American college campus. Tomorrow we are going to visit two more of the biggest palaces, so check back for updates and photos!
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