So my original plans for summer vacation were to go to Japan with Megan and see parts of Japan that I hadn't seen before. Sadly that got cancelled due to lack of people signing up, so instead I scheduled to get my wisdom teeth removed and Chris was nice enough to volunteer to go with me. I also told Ashley, our newest coworker from Canada, that I would go exploring with her. The first few days were spent helping Ashley get situated and I bought a few cheap gifts as souvenirs to send home. I went to the post office and mailed a package home with things that I had received as gifts or things I had bought for people back home. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all of it.
On Monday, I was suppose to have my wisdom teeth removed. Chris was going to go with me but there was some delay at the immigration office so she was running late so I ended up going by myself. It worked out in the end because according to the Korean dentist, he saw no reason why my wisdom teeth needed to be removed. He showed me the X-ray which was really cool to see. He showed me that all of my wisdom teeth had grown in straight (except for the one that had moved forward and was a little sideways from when it replaced the back molar I had to have removed before) and that the bottom to were already erupted with no problems. So basically all I got done was a teeth cleaning and Chris actually got back around the same time because her trip took four hours. Poor Chris .... and she has to go back too. T.T So what I expected to be a painful day ended up not too bad and it finally gave me a chance to read the family history stories my mom is writing. They are great and if you ever get the chance, ask my mom to read some of them. ^.^
Tuesday was an interesting day as well. Ashley and I decided to explore Itaewon a bit and went sometime during the afternoon as I slept the morning away. It's nice to be able to sleep in once in a while. I bought a bunch of nicer souvenirs while in Itaewon, which means another trip to the post office, and got a beautiful fan that I love. We also found the Canadian Bar that Elliot had mentioned to Ashley. We had dinner there which was nice because I enjoyed some good teriyaki wings. Though to get a good price on the wings, I had to buy a drink. I could drink it, but I can't say I liked the Canadian Club with ginger ale. But that doesn't surprise me.
Surprisingly, we didn't get lost at all and I realize I know the train system better than I thought. But then again, the path is very similar to where I would go when I visited Nathaniel. So perhaps that is not so surprising, hehehe. Sadly, I still did not see the hospital I was born in, mostly because I wasn't sure where to look. We also had a random Korean guy come up to us on the train and call us handsome. I think he was also trying to ask us where we were from and he shook me hand .... I was kind of creeped out by him. Then some high school girls (I think) came up to us and asked us where we were from for a school assignment. There were butterflies leading to the bathrooms. It was an interesting and fun day.
Wednesday was a nice trip to the Gyeongbokgung Palace which I had only briefly seen before because it was closed by the time I got there. The palace was huge and it took us a good two hours to walk around it. I really liked the traditional architecture and wonder what the green, gold, and red colors mean. Though we came too late for the tour, we did wander around for a while and saw many different things such as pottery, a throne room, a lake, etc. Everything was beautiful. There were a lot of animal statues around, too. A group of Korean guys came up to us and asked if one of them could take a picture with us. I felt a little bad for the guy as his friends put him up to it, but he was friendly enough and they took a picture with our cameras, too. It was hot out, but not as hot as it could have been and we have been lucky so far to have little to no rain during our vacation. Well, at least while we are out and about.
While visiting the Gyeongbokgung Palace, we also visited the National Folk Museum and the National Palace Museum. The National Folk Museum had a lot of different things and showed some of the history of Korea. There was a nature room where if you sat on a specific spot on a bench you would hear different nature sounds. The were also a lot of silk tapestries, too. The National Palace Museum was very similar to the National Folk museum, but it focused more on what you might find in the imperial palaces, rather than the history of Korea. Both museums were interesting, though sadly my pictures did not turn out too well as we were not allowed to use flash photograph ... meaning no light. Another little amusing fact is while at the Folk Museum I dropped my ice cream .... why am I so clumsy. :P
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