Rice Wine and Spider Candy... among other things

On Saturday, Elly and I went to Seoul! We also invited Tom, a soldier from our elementary school, to go with us. He's my age, just a couple months older :) In Korea, when a guy turns 20, he has to serve for a couple years. You could be a police officer or a security guard or many other things... Tom chose to work at an elementary school. Pretty sweet place to go if you ask me.

Anyway, we went to Jongno-gu, a section of Seoul, to go shopping (more like window shopping; there was so much to take in!) and to visit the neaby palace. We went to Insa-dong which is this busy street full of shopping and souvenirs. I bought a cute pair of earrings with little kitty cats and a dangly pearl (not a real pearl) for 1,000 krw! Like a dollar! We had a traditional lunch at a restaurant nearby, consisting of soup and sides like crab, kimchi, anchovies. And since we're super classy, we orderd a Korean rice wine to enjoy with lunch! We drank them out of small metal bowls. It was milky white, but carbonated...?

And, silly me, I forgot to charge my camera! So I didn't get pictures of everything I wanted because it died soon after we got to the palace.. grrr... But don't worry! I'm sure I'll be back....

we took the subway in. hi elly ^^ (< their version of a smiley face. cute, right?)

makgulli, a korean rice wine.

good ole anna... gettin' drunk at lunch.

Then we walked around this mall that was also on this Insadong street. It was very busy and had a lot of different shops. Elly bought us some desert. I don't have a picture, but it was a pastry with chocolate frosting inside and it was shaped like a little pile of poo! Whaaat?

While walking down this street in Insadong and watched these guys make candy! They start out with a brick or lump of fermentated honey and stretch it into 16,000 strands. It's crazy! Then they cut it into smaller portions that they wrap around crumbled chocolate or nuts (what the guy is doing above). It's pretty delicious. I bought a box after I watched their little performance. It's kind of like eating a crushed candy bar wrapped in spiderwebs. Floury, honey flavored spiderwebs. Interesting...

After lunch and window-shopping, we went to one of the palaces, Changdeokgung Palace, and looked around the grounds. It was very pretty! And there were a lot of foreigners :) After that, we went to the museum that included Korean history and artifacts. Pretty cool. Some of the displays had English explanations otherwise, they'd at least have an English name.

their version of a serious british soldier. no smiling!

it was difficult  getting a picture of them without someone else standing next to them posing for their own pictures!

straight cheesin'

the kings throne. the moon on the mural is for the queen, the red sun, for the powerful king.

Once we were done at the museum, we went back to Insadong and went to this adorable tea shop. I had the sweetest fruit tea with little bits of fruit in it. We shared this traditional lunch box meal that kids used to take to school. It came in this metal tin and included an egg, rice, seaweed, an egg, and some sauce. You're supposed to mix it all up together; it was sooo good! We also had a plate of little sweet snacks that were so cute. Again... I wish I had pictures.

So despite not having my camera for half of the trip, I still hope you can imagine being there with me... it's like we separated halfway through and I just had to give you the play by play? You just... took a nap... in my purse...

Anyway, school pictures soon to come!
Anna