Tuesday June 4th, 2019

Good evening! (Morning probably of the 5th by the time I am done with this post I think!)  Today, I had another Il-WOOnderful day!  Starting today I will only post a few photos of each of the places I visit.  Then, back at home in Boston, I will post in fuller detail! All that I’m seeing and learning will definitely expand the section of my website entitled ‘Visiting South Korea.’

Today, I visited these places:

Olympic Park

COEX

Bongeunsa Temple

Seocho Senior Center

Seoul Art Center

Bampo Rainbow Bridge

 

Olympic Park

This was the venue where the Seoul Olympics from 1988.  It is a really big park!  My feet definitely got a work out here!  I came here because I really wanted to stand under the Peace Gate… I loved the image of it the first time I saw it and its name.  And… well you know who was here:

Here are my photos:

I felt such beautiful energy being here…  I totally give it a thumbs up!  🙂

Starfield COEX Mall

I was so curious to see this place… it is the biggest underground shopping mall in Asia! It has an area about 154,000 square meters of which 144,000 is underground!  I visited various stores and the aquarium which I found had a very interesting set up, unlike any aquarium I had ever seen before.  Again I will give you a taste and then later on, I will post throughly about it.  It is extraordinary!  Did some good shopping here as well!

It’s a pretty grand sort of place…

This is a library!  I had seen it in so many photos it was so great to finally see it in person…  It is unreal!

I took this video while going up the escalator:

I wish I had the guts to turn around to take the view form the top down but I was too nervous… heights…not my thing at all!

Coming up, this store was pretty crowded.. it was filled with well… a lot of unnecessary plastic things!  Can’t help notice that now…  I really try to not buy plastic things… even as cute as they might be!  Design wise it was very enriching to see…  and overwhelming!  There are a lot of signs in this city… compared to Boston it is 100% in Seoul to 1% in Boston.  I am not kidding!  My eyes feel tired of so many signs!  And there are so many more people here too… not quite in the same ratio as the signs thankfully!

I never thought I’d see broccoli this way:

Yummm is right!

I met my Korean tutor and his wife and  we had a wonderful conversation to a glass of cold tea (and coke!) at this tea place called Chloris Tea & Coffee.  It was so nice to meet him… he looked a lot younger than 40!  Like 21!  Amazing!!!   HOW?!!!

This is a partial view of one of the two tanks int the entrance of the aquarium… I forgot to take a photo of it by itself  as my tutor was with me to take photos!  So you see my hand… I didn’t really notice the kid until now… he must have been looking at me!

This is what I found so different in this aquarium… as it told the sotry of fish, there were also these rooms like someone’s home decorated with cute characters and fish related things.  This was the kitchen… loved that sink!

And yes!  A frog encounter of the real kind!  It was so cool!  The face… WOOw!

This was one of my favorite buys!  Such a cutie!!!  I will use it on my school bag!  Heh… I hang these toys on my backpack…just like my students!  They will love this one!

Bongeunsa Temple

This temple was built in 794CE.  It was the largest temple in Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty.  It is a buddhist temple.  I had never been in a buddhist temple before and it was fascinating to see the way it is set up, the images, the sounds… there was a ceremony taking place so there was chanting, humming and a drumming sound that filled the air…  I liked it a lot!  One of the things that astounded me were the impressive amounts of lanterns everywhere!

 

Yes… lanterns and more lanterns…  the following video will make you feel a bit of the place… the chanting and drumming…

I think this is my best so far:

Seocho Senior Center

I wanted to see the place where Jung Il-woo spent about two years of his life caring for seniors.  Some of his duties included helping seniors with eating, taking baths and helping them with rehabilitation exercises. He also helped with cleaning and tidying.

The center is beautiful, surrounded by nature and tranquility with a huge park nearby.  Though it is a public nursing home, run by Seoul Catholic Services, it looks private and very high end.

When I saw this I remembered these photos:

Oh Il-woo!

Seoul Art Center

This center was about a 15 minute walk from his ex-workplace.  So I decided to check it out…  It was so big!  It has an Opera House, with three auditoriums, a Music Hall, with two concert halls; the Hangaram Art Museum; the Hangaram Design Museum, and the Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum.  WOOw!

I visited the Calligraphy Art Museum… Its permanent collection… it was pretty impressive.  Here are a few photos, again… I will post more about his places later!

I decided to eat a little something… here:

Did you notice them in the previous photo?  Yes! the two frogs hanging…!  Frog Encounter!   Now look below at the menu…  number 20… “cancer”  herb tea!  No thanks!

While I waited I thought that it was really cool that the silverware was kept under the table!

This is what I had… a berry crepe… it was so delicious!

This place has a nice sitting area outside…

And this is the Calligraphy Art museum:

Last but not least I went to see the Rainbow Fountain…  I was so tired I almost went back to my hotel… but I knew I would not come back to this part of town so I soldiered on.  It was worth it, but to be honest I thought it would be filled with more color…  so I was slightly disappointed.  I also visited a floating island with two buildings that lit up in a really cool way… that made it a bit more worth it!

This is from the visitkorea.or.kr:

“Adjacent to the Banpo Hangang Park, the Banpodaegyo, which is one of the 21 bridges that connect north and south Seoul across the river, has been remodeled to accommodate a massive water fountain. The fountain, named “Moonlight Rainbow,” shoots down 190 tons of water per minute to the river from each side of the bridge with its 380 nozzles. At night, the color of the fountain will be transformed to that of a rainbow by the 200 lights that radiate various colorful effects. The total length of the fountain reaches 1,140 meters, listed as the world’s longest bridge fountain in the Guinness Book of Records.”

I’m fascinated with the signs everywhere… though I find it a bit overwhelming!  In Boston if our buildings have a sign, it’s just one… at the entrance bottom part.  Here they can be all over a building!  But I think the older the section of town the more signs there seem to be…

This is the Banpodaegyo Bridge…

With the rainbow fountain:

 

This is an artificial floating island that houses two structures that synchronized in color light up.

and last but not least another Frog Encounter!  Nope I didn’t buy one!  It’s plastic!!!

That was a lot for one day!  But I feel I have to make the most of each day here…!