another seoul weekend

some fellow teachers and I went to seoul this weekend. the goal of this outing was to go on a palace tour and to eat our body weights in western food. both of these missions were accomplished.

we went to changdeokgung, a chosun palace. we took an english guided tour. during the course of the tour we took in some of the palace’s 110 acres of buildings and gardens in addition to hearing of the seemingly countless number of times that the palace had burned to the ground. it seems that korean palace builders had a knack for beautiful structures and tranquil gardens while lacking in the fire management skills.

my camera was shipped to me a month back and I haven’t taken it out since, so this was a great chance to put it to use.

additionally, I made a pilgrimage to a massive musical instrument complex in insadong. I had heard that this place had everything, and if this was true, I hoped to buy a guitar. it turns out that they do have many things, but none of any merit. the products there were either incredibly cheap knock-offs of american guitars or actual american guitars that cost more than their purchasing price in a america + shipping expense. I am pretty certain that I am going to buy a guitar from a japanese shop and have it sent over.

my rock lottery group has met once now, having figured out what everyone can play (we lucked out and got a bassist, drummer, singer and guitarist) and what kinds of songs we would like to play. we are going to meet sometime this week to hammer out a set list, then begin working on getting a set together. apparently there are rock band karaoke rooms here in town, where a group of musicians can go and play with provided equipment, so this should work pretty well for our rehearsals.