More Siteseeing......

Well, we started out today walking from our hotel to Namdaemun Market, one of the other big open-air market areas in Seoul. The streets were lined with little individual booths of stuff for sale, much different from the traditional Korean goods we saw yesterday. It looked like a huge flea market, selling lots of clothes, shoes, purses, hats, etc. Everything was a lot more expensive than we would have thought. Close to there we went to Deoksugung Palace, which used to be a royal palace. We happened to be there during the royal guard changing ceremony, which was pretty interesting. You could do a walking tour withing the palace grounds, which was a huge open area in the middle of all the city buildings. It also had an art museum (which we are in front of in the first picture), but it was closed for renovating. It was a very nice day out to be walking around, and I think we estimated we walked for about 6-7 hours today! We also saw city hall, and the site of Sungnyemun Gate which burned down about a month or so ago after being there for hundreds of years.

We also walked to Dongdaemun Market, another popular market area, and it turned out to be much of the same like we had already seen, just like a huge outdoor flea market. We wanted to go to Dongdaemun Stadium, which we thought was a baseball stadium, and by the time we got to it and inside, saw that the seats were all still there, but what used to be the field was now a big parking lot for the market area. On our way there, we did stumble on another market by accident, I think it was called Jungbu Market, and it was packed with all kinds of individual booths of people selling bulk food. There were all kinds of spices, beans, candies, and every kind of dried fish and seafood you could think of. It was really neat to see, but not very appetizing! We decided to be safe and eat at T.G.I.Fridays. We continue to be amused by all of the moped drivers weaving in and out everywhere, delivering all kinds of stuff. We have decided that there must be no traffic rules for them! We even saw a Papa John's delivery moped, but I didn't get my camera out quick enough to take a picture. We have been very pleased with our hotel. It is very centrally located, so we have pretty much walked to everything so far. It is just about 1 year old, and so it is very modern, and is very clean. Well, we are now very sore and tired from all the walking the past couple of days. Only 2 more days till we see Olivia. We are hoping she warms up to us better this time. Her foster mom brought along the little photo album we had sent to her in January, and she told us that she has been showing it to Olivia every day, and pointing out mommy, daddy, grandparents and brothers. She asked if she could keep it until Monday. She also gave me one of the disposable cameras that I had sent in January, and I tried at about a half dozen places today to ask where I can get them developed, but nobody understands what I am talking about. So, I'll probably just wait till I get home.


These last pictures are for Aaron's co-workers at IDOT -- Seoul's highway department fixing a stoplight amongst all the busy traffic (much different than back home!) and a survey control point at city hall. We miss everyone and are looking forward to actually seeing some grass again, and being able to walk outside without the constant smell of exhaust fumes! All for now.......