Gyeongbokgung Palace

It's been quite a weekend. Friday night we had the big fancy, schmancy dinner hosted by one of our student's parents. I have their daughter in class this year, and she is such a great kid. I really like her! Remember the same dinner last year? I got a couple of pictures this year, but I have yet to upload them, of course.

Yesterday, we had a birthday party in the morning. It was quite a trek on the subway--more than an hour before we reached our stop. And then, we exited the station. And we really had no idea where we going after that. Suffice it to say, it was cold, we couldn't find the party, and things started to go downhill fast. Thankfully, we all made it home eventually. I'll just leave it at that.

It has been another busy week. Only the second time this semester that I have had to work THREE days in one week! Sheesh! It was overwhelming! It was fine, but I spent one entire day working on my day off, and the other day Cade and I had a play date, so there wasn't much spare time to speak of.

On the Saturday that my dad was here, we went to the biggest palace in Seoul, Gyeongbokgung. Somehow, we had managed to skip this palace up to that point. I think we've been to all four of the big ones in Myeongdong now. I think you have to pay a whole three dollars to get into this one. That includes the huge palace and the National Folk Museum.

Shortly after we arrived, it became clear that something was going on. We saw these guys dressed up and carrying flags, so we followed them.

They were doing the changing of the guard ceremony, which turned out to be very long.

It was cool, though. 

Finally, we were free to explore the palace. Which, of course, looks a lot like the other palaces!

And, just like every other Korean tourist spot, they have these cutouts for you to pose in. I love how much my kids love these incredibly tacky things!

My dad gave in to the kids' pleas, but he warned me that he did not want to see his pictures on the blog, so it's sadly lacking!

The kids were already cold and hungry, so we stopped at the gift shop for an overly priced muffin and hot chocolate.

We were only about halfway through the palace at this point, so you'll have to stay tuned for the next post. There were too many pictures to put them all in one post!