Hey all! We ended the Records Management?class with cake on Friday in celebration of Chris’ last class and subsequent graduation. It was really good cake too (fresh cream and fruit or green tea sweet potato). A women from the International Vaccine Institution named Heejung Kim came to lecture on Korean records management and archives. The history of records management in law in South Korea is surprisingly young, as the first law was only enacted in 1992. It was a good presentation in order to understand the differences affecting the cultures of the class.
On Saturday, we all headed out early to the Korean Folk Life Village. Unfortunately, I was a little sick during the visit so I’ll ask that you refer to Clare’s blog about the trip. I’m sure they had a great time. I did witness some awesome traditional Korean folk dances, but the heat on Saturday was unbearable.
Performers from the Korean Folk Life Village.
However, on Sunday morning, Lori, Chris and I began our day with waffles and pancakes! We quickly (as we could in the heat) moved on to Namdaemun market again to purchase gifts for people back home! Then we decided to check out Itaewon, which is a district near an American military base. It was very, very tourist, but we did have a great lunch at a Thai restaurant that Lori picked out. I had a yellow curry chicken dish with rice, which was delicious! And Chris picked the best dessert to share, mango sticky rice! It was really, really good. We wandered all around Itaewon (where I managed to score to Transformers belts, I’m not kidding, one Decepticon belt and one Autobot belt) and we met the sweetest bunch of little shopkeepers, whose English was excellent.
Namdaemun!
After that, we took the subway back to Seoul Station, where we decided to hike up Namsan Park to Seoul Tower. And by hike,?I mean, we had no idea just how much a hike it was. We climbed hills just to get to the park, stairs the entire way up, but it was so worth it! We found a fountain at the base of the stairs to the tower, and we totally jumped in because it was just so hot. Then we made it up to the “photo island” and we got an idea of just how high we were climbing up these winding stairs. By the time we made it to the top, it was just about sunset. The ride to the top of the tower, advertised as “shocking elevator,” was less shocking than we imagined. It was super fast. At the top, we got a real idea of just how big Seoul really is.
Let me tell you, it’s huge.
Lori and Chris at the fountain of salvation under Seoul Tower!
Chris, Lori, and I – being goofs under the “Two becomes One” sign at the top of Seoul Tower.