Day 3

Guys. This country is really hot. Just sayin'

Today was lots of fun. We started off by heading to an ancient palace - the main one of Seoul back in the day. It was destroyed in 16-somehing or other and was in ruin for like 200 years and was rebuilt in 18-something and then was destroyed a little again and now there are just a couple chunks left of the 300 buildings that used to compose the thing as a whole.

Here's the rub: the leaders told us that we'd see a lot of Buddhist temples and other palaces that look just like it and then they mentioned we were very close to a common shopping/antiques/crafty etc. area - Insadon. So we walked across the city for about 15 mintues and had about 45 minutes to kill there before lunch.

LUNCH was in the COOLEST place ever - there is the food court of all food courts under this one hotel - the Lotte i think it was called. Yes, the Lotte hotel. Anywho there were just about a billion places you could choose from - it was a full blown food court with burger king rip-offs and specialized waffle counters PLUS a 100% decked out market with TONS of sea-food and candies and fruit. i just about died. Not to mention the decor was entirely hip and shiek in every way.

After that we waited around for this one girl to get to the bus - she got left behind. Funny enough her beau (Steve something from Rochester, NY, Mom. he was in pageant with us?) is in town because he had planned to come back here (where he served his mission) a while back, and they started dating about a month ago so they crossed paths. Needless to say they got separated from the group and so our trip to the Korean War Memorial was cut short. It was a lovely time, though, what we DID have. Sadly, we didn't really all meet together again when we should have to get to the University on time because all of our leaders have a habit of talking VERY very VERY VERY quietly so we all sort of guess at what they're saying and expecting of us.

We got to KNUA (Korean National University of the Arts) a half hour late. We were informed very poigniently that this is a lethal move in Japan - because no one in japan is late. Ever. In Korea it's not as bad, but still touchy. So it was a little bad. We didn't realize HOW bad "a little bad" was until we were informed that KNUA is like the Juilliard of Korea. Awesome, guys. Awesome.

The concert hall was small, but beautiful! It only would have sat about 600 people, but was only half way full as it was. I saw Mitch Palmer - from THS back in the day. I totally forgot he was serving here.

The concert went really well - we played our more "legit" stuff and there were pretty little balconies for those of us playing the antiphonal brass parts in the Pines of the Appian Way. It was pretty cool. And their school wasn't too shabby either. I wouldn't go so far as to say they put us all to shame - but...well....it was pretty close to that :) But hey, they're PRO pros, right?

I sort of hit a wall, myself, around 4 o' clock-ish and it didn't really go away. Food helped, but MAN i'm exhausted so i'm gonna call it a night.

Tomorrow we're taking a trip to the Seoul temple and...then doing some more stuff that i can't remember. :)

Hope you're all doing well! I'd love to hear about what YOU'RE all up to as well, so keep me posted. Leave comments or send me emails or something...or at least let me know if you're reading this blog because if no one is i'd rather...be sleeping :)

Love you all!

Chillin at the playground in a park across from our hotel!

The coolest food court ever.
Pretty pretty...

Changing of the guard. Aw yeah. I sort of miss those big, British, puffy hats, though the goatee is quite flattering...

Palace thinger. This is actually the "Throne Room."
View from the roof of my hotel. I just took this one like 20 minutes ago...

They make cartoons for EVERYTHING here. It rocks. let me tell you, though, that potato man REALLY makes me wanna eat dem chips.

Me eating said "potato chips."

Pretty hall at KNUA.

Korean War memorial.