A Day In Korean Culture, Gyeongbokgung Palace

This morning we had the pleasure of experiencing the exquisite Gyeonnokgung Palace after a short visit at a museam focusing on the history of the Korean writen language. Just as we arrived at the wall surrounding the primary residence of the Joseon Dynasty, the palace guards were doing some sort of a ceremony. The head guard called upon some of the other soldiers and they yelled all kinds of stuff in Korean. It was a pretty impressive display.
Just as we got in line to buy entry tickets, we all decided we’d rather have lunch first. Now all day Nick had been craving dumplings, earning him the esteemed title “Dumpling Dictator.” We set out in search of these Chinese treats but couldn’t find a restaurant specializing in just what we wanted. The family settled on a little place on a side street near the palace. The meal was filling and we were all full on our walk back to Gyeongbokgung.
By noon the sun was beating down as we crossed the large court yards boarding the decorated structures. It was a little hard to concentrate on anything just because it was so hot. After peeking our heads into everything and walking up and down the dusty paths we unanimously agreed to retreat to air conditioning.
The National Folk Museam of Korea had all the AC we needed. We spent a good few hours learning about about salt mining (“All this information is a-salting”- Dad), ancient Korean lifestyle, Kimchi, old style housing, ceremonies and more.
On the way back to the hotel we found the much anticipated dumplings. There was a little place off of the in-sadong and we took 2 orders to go.
We’ve learned a lot today and after a good rest hope to explore Namdaemun Market, the oldest and largest market in Korea tomorrow.

Does Anyone Know What This Is?

Settling into Seoul

All of the family is excited to be in the big capital city.
Friday morning everyone was up very early because of jet lag, so we left our little airport island we’d been staying on around 8 am. We stopped at Incheon Port to buy ferry tickets to China. You see, after our trip to Japan we’ve decided we’d like to take an overnight karaoke ferry to China. This won’t be for about a month, but we need the tickets to get Chinese visas.
After an hour train ride, we arrived in Seoul.
It was very different from the part of Korea we’d been staying, it was a lot busier. For lunch we found a little place that looked appetizing enough. They served Korean barbaque because as you can see in the picture below, the low tables had the grills built in. We had hoped to order noodle bowls or something affordable like all the diners around us, but, unfortunately language got in the way. The guy running the restaurant was a talented chef but he didn’t speak a lick of English and other than a badly pronounced gomabseubnida (thank you) we definitely don’t understand Korean. Dad tried to communicate what we wanted with our server but at the end of the day we just pointed to some characters on the wall and hoped for the best. What came was amazing. 1.2 kilos of premium beef cooked before our eyes and dipped in a delicious sauce. The banchan (side dishes) that accompanied the main course were yummy too. Needless to say we didn’t have room for dinner that night.
After a bit of a scramble to find a hotel last minute on a Friday night, we discovered a clean little hotel hidden in some back alleys right in the heart of the city. Emphasis on little. Our family of four squeezed into a room that had a double bed in a room no bigger that 8 by 8 feet. Sleeping accommodations last night were uncomfortable to say the least. After a few hours of down time we decided to see what was happening around our hotel. We watched a vendor make these special Korean treats called dragon beard. They are made from over 16,000 hand stretched strands of cornstarch covered honey wrapped around an almond filling and are utterly delicious. (That’s what I’m eating in th photo below, the white, hairy looking pouch)
Jetlag struck again before the sun rose this morning. This resulted in Nick, Justin and I taking an early morning walk around our neighborhood.
We came back to the hotel room for breakfast and to tidy up our clostrofobic room.
We decided we would spend the day exploring the quaint traditional Korean villages. We hiked a few blocks to the beginning of a self guided walking tour. As soon as we got into the first peaceful complex Nick and I discovered a room where for 3,000 wan a piece (about 3 bucks) we could use special ink brushes to create pictures of Korean tigers. While very zen, it was a very time consuming process taking over 2 hours to complete.
When we were done it was the heat of the day and if you don’t know Korea gets really hot. Everyone was pretty sticky and a bit hungery but we still walked up all the old fashioned streets, they were quite picturesque.
We then finished with a late lunch sampling all kinds of street foods vendors were selling on a street called the Insadong.

We Arrived. Finally.

Last night at around 10:30 our families stepped into the Icheon Airport, the stagnant blood starting to move around our legs. We were all tired and stiff from the long long ride so we hauled our heavy bags through customs and what not, eager to locate our shuttle to the hotel.
But wait, how did we get to Korea? I guess we’ll have to start at the beginning, almost 2 days before...
We were completely done moving out of our house by Monday night. Bags were packed, furniture moved, house winterized. We had a last meal at our Grandmas house that night and after a final bag check the family was in bed by 11.
At 3 the next morning (if you could really call it morning...) we piled into grandmas truck. It was raining so the 5 of us crammed into the cab along with all of our bags. We said goodbye to Vermont at the Dartmouth Coach station around five. It was a long, foggy drive to Boston airport, but believe me, we didn’t know the definition of a long trip yet.
It wasn’t hard to track down our gate. Our terminal had pretty much zero food options so we divided up some of our snacks we’d brought.
The Alaskan Airlines non stop to LA flight took roughly 6 hours and it felt like more like 4 to me. I half heartedly attempted some geometry, but would you do homework when you have a bunch of interesting, free movies right there? That’s what I thought. Plus, there was this app built into the screen on the back of every seat where you could message other passengers. We had some fun using that.
We were glad that our plane came in a half hour early because we had plans to meet up with my moms side of the family in California. We had a fun lunch with my grandparents and cousins for like, the hour we got to see them. Before we knew it, it was time to go back through security. When we got to our gate, I was exhausted. We’d been traveling for a while and though it was only 5 in LA, I was still on Vermont time. Nick and I ran around our terminal once or twice. I hadn’t moved enough that day and when we sat back down, I could feel my legs tingling.

Words can not discribe my excitement when I got on that plane. I had never been on a plane or even sitting on a plane for more than 6 hours, and now I got to be on one for 13 hours!? Nick and I excitedly explored the capabilities of entertainment consoles before we began to taxi.
Each member of the family passed the next 13 hours in different ways. Michele watched tv and battled for the high score on trivia. Justin got up once during the flight as he was deeply engrossed in the movie selection provided. I skipped through music and tv and caught a few hours of sleep. Lastly, Nick played this one video game called Home Run Hero. Every time I looked over at him during the ride he concentrating on getting the perfect hit.
We pulled into Incheon International Airport around 11 pm, went through customs and caught a shuttle to our hotel, where we all slept like rocks. 

Departure is Eminent

Less than a week until Team T leaves in the early hours of the morning bound for Boston. I know, we’re excited too. Frantic packing is underway, whether it’s filling a backpack or attempting to cram a house worth of possessions into totes, slowly but surely (slower than we’d like) we are getting closer and closer to saying goodbye to Vermont.
Nick and I are trying our best to fit 6 months worth of social time into just over 10 days while Michele and Justin work on dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. Recently our family finished taking our typhoid vaccines over the course of a week and Michele invested in a medical kit that will hopefully protect us from the alien ailments of the east.
We recently went to a local store and bought all kinds of Vermont items to share with friends we meet along the way.

Our family pets will be going to their temporary homes this week. After a bit of a scramble to find a pet sitter for one of our bunnies, we managed to find a caring family to take care of her.

Michele has been ordering some items online. She recently got a great idea from a friend to use a pedometer to document our homeschool “gym class.” She also purchased packing cubes that come highly recommend by world travelers. These lightweight fabric containers will help keep our few belongings organized and avoid those bus station explosions of miscellaneous garments still remembered infamously in our family.
Make sure to check out our trip Instagram account @anika_in_australia !

← Nick and I have our bags laid out and ready!

Getting Ready...

With less than 25 days until departure, Team T is getting ready to take off! Recently Nick and I got brand new trekking backpacks for our venture. They may be a tad larger than necessary, but they are a good fit and we are pretty excited about the packs none the less.
At regular family meetings we have recently filled out visa vital to our entry of China. Michele has been working hard to make sure the family is prepared to leave the continent. After a long and stressful week of falling down the rabbit hole of the web, she purchased round trip tickets from Seoul, South Korea to Osaka, Japan. The family has a unanimous interest in a week train trip around the archipelago that will lead us to some engaging and entrancing sights via the high tech railway system.
The greatest trial in preparation has definitely been home schooling. Us kids have been out fitted with grade level Singapore Math Books, journals for note taking as well as recording events of the day, tablets for foreign language studies as well as other learning apps, and sketch pads for parent instructed art class and doodling. We're just sinking our teeth into the math and foreign language using Duolingo, a language learning app. Keeping your temper in check while your parents try to explain a rather confusing topic is proving rather difficult, but hopefully everyone will get used to it.
Well, I believe that's about it from the preparation front but we'll make sure to keep you up to date before our plane takes off, bound for Korea.

Preparations and Planning

We did it! 4 one way tickets to Seoul Korea have been purchased, our arrival set for mid August. We hope to spend a few weeks in Seoul and see the sights there. K-Pop Concerts, Trick Eye Museum, yummy Korean food, and intriguing culture all seem like interesting thinks to check out while in the city.
A week or so side trip to Japan? We're looking into it.
After we've gotten our fill of these two countries, we plan to explore China. If we take a ferry from South Korea, we will come into the Chinese city of Qingdao. From there do we want to see Beijing? Travel down the coast to Shanghai? Well, we'll see where our curiosity takes us...