Adventures in South Korea

Day 326: Well, we've actually been in Korea for one year and two days- and somehow our blog is only on day 326, not sure how that happened...Anyways, we have been terrible bloggers lately and we apologize. Now that we're getting ready to leave, sitting at home and blogging is the last thing on our minds. Having said that, we know you still want updates, so here's the last few weeks in a nutshell.
Two weekends ago, we headed back to the zoo for our final visit since it is one of our favorite places. Seoul Grand park is rated one of the 10 best zoos in the world and it's a beautiful place to spend the day. As always, it was very entertaining and made for awesome photo ops. We made sure to try and watch the feedings since that always ensures the animals will be up and about. These our some of our favorites from the day, especially the 100+ year old turtle eating a banana and the baby giraffe. And check out the crazy ostrich with the huge neck! We heard a really loud alarm sound and realized it was coming from the bird- we didn't know they could do that, it was really strange to see its neck get so huge!



This weekend, we went to an area of Seoul called Insa-dong that is known for its old meets new scenery and shops, with our friend Jenny. It was packed with people and we had a great time looking at art galleries and people watching. The first place we went had this interesting art exhibit by a Korean wood sculptor named Sang Ki Jung who has spent 6 years making all sorts of wooden sculptures by hand. Here's a photo of the artist in front of one of his pieces which we really liked.

We spent the whole day just walking around snapping photos of the people around us and of course some of ourselves as well :) Here's Jenny and I in front of some pretty graffiti we found.

There was a parade that was going through the area as well, not sure what it was for but apparently they have one each weekend...
We also tried to continue getting photos of interesting strangers like this man who Brandon stuck up a conversation with while we were walking. He was very happy to smile for the camera, as you can see, it's amazing to see how friendly some people are ...

As we continued down the main path, we ran into a photo shoot in progress in the middle of the big crowds. This man was covered in colorful paint and posing on a pedestal for a photographer. Without getting too much in their way, we grabbed a few shots of our own...

After that, we were walking around looking for a place to have lunch when I heard Brandon say, "Hey look, there's an escape artist!". So of course, I grab my camera to get a photo only to realize that the woman he saw with a black bag on her head tied up with ropes was not an escape artist at all. After laughing pretty hard, the woman running the event explained to Brandon that she was part of a protest for human rights abuse in North Korea, and there I was with my cameras wondering why it was taking so long for the lady to set her self free from the ropes. Oops!

We ended up having lunch at a Korean BBQ restaurant that did not sit well with me (Shayna). We had a long treck home and right as we got to the steps of our apartment building, I threw up in a coveniently placed pot hole :( I never get sick like that, so we assumed it was the food, but we spent that Sunday just resting and taking it easy since I wasn't feeling 100%.
This weekend, we will be doing some more fun things before we go since we don't have much time left. We're supposed to be getting some gorgeous weather, so we're crossing our fingers. Hope things back home are awesome and we'll be seeing you all soon enough :) And in true Korean fashion, here are some words of wisdom we found on one of our students journals, to get you through your weekend, enjoy:


With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo