Today was city tour, no classes, just that. Left the hotel at past eight in the morning and proceeded to National Museum of Korea. Three levels of historical, asian and everything in between art of Korea, which has an uncanny resemblance to Chinese art, precisely because they were "Chinese" before they become "Korean". Whatever. Haha. Korea used to speak Chinese before their language was invented and used those characters too before they had their own.
Not a historical art freak, the only thing that amazed me were the PDAs that we rented to serve as our audio guide, map, locator, and everything. It has a sensor somewhere and fixed somethings everywhere are detected so it instantly plays a certain audio clip for you to hear about that certain work of art. Coolness. Me and Mica tried to go to the Children's Museum part but had to buy separate tickets so we went to the ticket booth but unfortunately we could only get in after noon. And we had to leave the museum half past eleven. Sheesh.
Afterwards, we went to have lunch at Sizzlers. We were informed that it's Salad Bar buffet so most were like, nyayks. But when we got there, ooh la la! A fusion restaurant. Salad bar, except for the greens and all the other salads you could think of, had spaghetti, bread, a salmon-sashimi-plus-lettuce-and-some-sauce salad, soup, coffee and the best part: three choices of soft ice cream with different toppings available. Ooh.
Not a historical art freak, the only thing that amazed me were the PDAs that we rented to serve as our audio guide, map, locator, and everything. It has a sensor somewhere and fixed somethings everywhere are detected so it instantly plays a certain audio clip for you to hear about that certain work of art. Coolness. Me and Mica tried to go to the Children's Museum part but had to buy separate tickets so we went to the ticket booth but unfortunately we could only get in after noon. And we had to leave the museum half past eleven. Sheesh.
Afterwards, we went to have lunch at Sizzlers. We were informed that it's Salad Bar buffet so most were like, nyayks. But when we got there, ooh la la! A fusion restaurant. Salad bar, except for the greens and all the other salads you could think of, had spaghetti, bread, a salmon-sashimi-plus-lettuce-and-some-sauce salad, soup, coffee and the best part: three choices of soft ice cream with different toppings available. Ooh.
Today was also Jacq's birthday so as we were eating, our adviser signaled for the cake to be served and then we surprised Ate Jacq by singing Saeng Il Chuk Ha Habnida (Happy Birthday) to her.
Tablemates in pink plus the birthday girl in white.
After getting full, next stop was the Gyeongbokgung Palace, palace of the early king. (Some parts were reconstructed coz it was burned down during Japanese reign.) Some areas of the palace were used as background for the Koreanovela, Jewel in the Palace. (Most of the scenes were shot at Jeju Island, an island down south of Korea, which they say is comparable to uh, Palawan.)
Under the sun with nothing but a map.
The tour guide's English was hardly understandable and were under the sun's nose (think about that, we were walking at around 1-3 in the afternoon. Anyway, my classmates also tried on the traditional costumes for a fee (ulp, 15,000 won!) and took lotsa photos. I enjoyed the trees and the mountains in the background. :)
Harmony. Land, air and matter. Whuuttt?!
After that we went shopping somewhere nearby where we were able to buy Korean goodies. I was looking for them for so long but only got to buy Korean clothes, not souvenirs. So now I feel accomplished that I had bought myself a keychain already. (I buy a keychain from every place I go to.)
And then, the long drive home.
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