Vacation Day 2: 30 December 2012

--Hit Gwanghwamun Jip (house) for some excellent kimchi jjigae. Seoul Magazine recommended it. The place defines small: it's barely big enough for a kitchen, let alone a restaurant. You actually walk past the stove to get upstairs. Narrow stairway, too! We made our way upstairs and got seated next to a group of ajoshis and ended up conversing a bit with them when we asked to have our picture taken. One of them spoke excellent English and informed us that the restaurant has been around for 30 years and that we were the first foreigners he's seen there. I found that interesting in light of the restaurant's history.

--National Museum of Contemporary History
This free--yes, free--museum has an excellent overview of Korean history from the 1876 until today. We didn't take as many pictures here because the halls weren't very big and the place was packed with families enjoying the weekend. We took heart in all the kids looking at the exhibits. At one point Rochelle and I got to talking with two little boys who were looking at LPs and calling them CDs. I corrected them and they started talking to us and saying their names. They were cute.

We enjoyed seeing Korea's progression from a rural agrarian country to a modern industrialized one. It's notable that Korea's last kingdom, the Joseon Dynasty ended in 1910 and it's only been a functioning republic since the 1980s. As we were walking out, Rochelle observed that the 3 floors of exhibits went from dark to light as though Korea was emerging from the dark past into a bright future.

Words of the day

정부 government
애국가 National anthem
군사정변 Coup d'Etat
공화국과 republic
통깉타 acoustic guitar
혁명 revolution

Note: Pictures will come soon.

Also, we checked out the Korean movie Architecture 101 and we liked it. It sparked a few discussions. The review will come later.