On Friday I headed out to WaBar to wish Jill and happy b-day again. I knew some of the guys were going on a pub crawl, but with a doctor's appointment in the morning that was not an option for me.
On Saturday I headed into the city to see a travel doctor. My appointment was at 10:30 and I went to the International Clinic in Itaewon. I arrived at 10:00 and checked in, they did not have my appointment written down. Apparently there are 2 International Clinics in Itaewon (Why did this surprise me?) thankfully I was early. They gave me directions and I headed to the other one. I got there and handed them all my stuff. I need to talk to the doctor about my trip to South America, but I also needed a basic checkup that all foreigners who stay longer than 18 months or so need. I really did not want to go to the doctor with my boss, so I had my boss call the clinic to make sure I could go there. But at this point the woman behind the desk says they don't do these checkups -- How to Frustrate Foreigners 101! I say my boss called to check. She says they must have miss understood, I said -- My boss is Korean, you spoke in Korean!!!!!! I never will understand how easy it is for people to have miss understandings about something that is soooooo freaking common!!! argh!
I did see the doctor about shots -- turns out I have all I need. And the doc speaks Spanish, so we did half our meeting in Spanish -- fun fun. Then he gave me a prescription for larium (the crazy malaria med) and antibiotics. They are much cheaper in Korea so that was great.
After that I hit Insadong for some quick shopping then back to Osan for Jill's party. It was a great time. Lots of people some drinking games, sorry I forgot my camera was in my bag -- I have a bad tendency to do that. I switched to water early on so that I would be ok the next day.
It worked like a charm and I woke up at about 10 and headed into the city to Deoksugung. It is a palace in central Seoul. I have never been there before (why? Well probably because it is so close I kept putting it off). They have a changing of the guard ceremony. It was fun to watch. I love Korean traditional clothes. They are so bright and colourful. I also always like looking at the photos after, 'cause then you can see that all the facial hair is stick on (he he:)
Inside the palace was really nice. Some of the buildings are quite old. This is the only palace in Seoul that survived the first Japanese invasion in the late 1500s. And some of the buildings even survived the other invasion and the Korean war! So they are pretty old. One is not painted, which is shocking in Korea.
Like usual the buildings are absolutely beautiful. The painting on them is just fantastic.
There were also some really nice gates and walls in the complex. They have great brick work and carvings.
This is an incense burner. It is very large, it could hold about 100 incense sticks at once.
Just inside the main gate is a large statue to Kong Sejong.
He is the most famous Korean king. He developed hangeul (the Korean alphabet) among other things. The amazing thing about hangeul is that it was specifically developed to create an educated populace, when the wealthy could already read and write in Chinese. He developed it to allow the poor to become educated and it was specifically made easy to learn. That is why the UN has named their literacy award after him.
Aside from all of that, the park on the palace grounds also includes a beautiful treed arbor, and some displays of ancient Korean technology.
The treed arbor was great because while I was taking pictures of it I started watch a little boy, being a little boy. I love how similar kids are from one country to the next. I did not get the picture I wanted of this boy, but check out these 2 the before and after, notice the birds in the first and the posture of the boy in the second.
Of the ancient technology they had this water clock. The cravings on it are beautiful.
The rocket launcher was also cool.
So Sunday was a great day, and much more relaxing, which is good.
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