Today was a relaxing day spent at home reading and writing. The only thing missing was coffee from the ugly mug! ^_^ It was nice to not do much as this past weekend was a lot of fun.
Yesterday, I met Alex in Dongnimmun, a small city about an hour and a half away from here. The day before, as I was writing down directions to the city (on my hand, at that) I misspelled Dongnimmun and so I missed my stop on the subway when I attempted to go there. Thankfully Alex called about two or three stops past so I was able to quickly fix that mistake. Anyway, I eventually made it there and so our adventure of the day started.
We decided to eat first and so a cute little "diner" was chosen. The food was absolutely amazing. I need to start eating more Korean food! Also, I tried this side dish which were these little tiny fish-things that were salted. It was pretty good, despite being fish.
After lunch we headed over to the Seodaemun Prison History Hall. An except from the brochure reads that "The Museum preserves and displays Seodaemun Prison signifying the suffering and pain of Koreans during the modern period. Here, independence activists and pro-democracy activities were jailed and martyred."
Inside the museum it was completely fascinating and depressing at the same time. I don't know much about Korean history and so it was interesting to learn more about the Japanese occupancy and their control over the country. Inside the Underground Torture Chamber it was particularly disturbing just to read about the different methods of torture they would use. Just like at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be imprisoned in such a place with such conditions and I couldn't even begin to fathom what it would be like. A lot of different things I have encountered since entering this country now makes a lot more sense to me that I know a little bit more of the history. I am hoping to make it to a few more museums this week since I have it off.
Yesterday, I met Alex in Dongnimmun, a small city about an hour and a half away from here. The day before, as I was writing down directions to the city (on my hand, at that) I misspelled Dongnimmun and so I missed my stop on the subway when I attempted to go there. Thankfully Alex called about two or three stops past so I was able to quickly fix that mistake. Anyway, I eventually made it there and so our adventure of the day started.
We decided to eat first and so a cute little "diner" was chosen. The food was absolutely amazing. I need to start eating more Korean food! Also, I tried this side dish which were these little tiny fish-things that were salted. It was pretty good, despite being fish.
After lunch we headed over to the Seodaemun Prison History Hall. An except from the brochure reads that "The Museum preserves and displays Seodaemun Prison signifying the suffering and pain of Koreans during the modern period. Here, independence activists and pro-democracy activities were jailed and martyred."
Inside the museum it was completely fascinating and depressing at the same time. I don't know much about Korean history and so it was interesting to learn more about the Japanese occupancy and their control over the country. Inside the Underground Torture Chamber it was particularly disturbing just to read about the different methods of torture they would use. Just like at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be imprisoned in such a place with such conditions and I couldn't even begin to fathom what it would be like. A lot of different things I have encountered since entering this country now makes a lot more sense to me that I know a little bit more of the history. I am hoping to make it to a few more museums this week since I have it off.
Here is a picture of the Central Prison building.
The Central prison building and original prison building
After the tour of the prison, we decided to hop on the metro to a random city and get coffee. Apparently our city choice wasn't the greatest, despite having "university" in its name, as we couldn't find a coffee shop anywhere! We finally stumbled upon this Italian restaurant that claimed to have coffee so we went in there to get out of the bitter cold.
The Italian restaurant was very cute but of course it was also very expensive. My Americano was 5000 won and my chocolate mousse was 7000 won! So for the two my bill came up to be around $12 usd. It was definitely worth getting out of the cold for a little bit though--and the chocolate mousse was amazing.
On the way back to the metro, Alex spotted this gem of a place. The "exciting beer" restaurant. A little bit further it boasted at being a "happy place." Love it.
The only downside to yesterday occurred when I received a text from my co-teacher telling me not to use my sink or washing machine for two days. Um...ok. So I have a pile of dirty dishes and some articles of clothing I would like to wash so it will be dry by Wednesday...but I can't use the water? Annoying. But whatever. I suppose it gives me an excuse to be lazy and not do the dishes/laundry.
Later this week (Wednesday, specifically) I get to see Corrie! We are meeting in Seoul. For those of you who don't know Corrie, she is a friend from my Uni. The last time we saw each other was at a dollar theater movie (we believe it was Star Trek) so it's been a while! I am excited to see her again! Who knew then that we would be meeting up in Seoul. I love life. :)
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