Deoksugung Palace Korea Part 1

May 3, 2016May 4, 20162 Comments

I’ve been in Korea more than a year and only recently had the opportunity to visit one of the Palaces. Contrary to popular belief, as a teacher in Korea, you do not have all the time in the world to do the touristy thing. But we had some time to spare on Sunday and decided to walk to one of the Palaces. Deoksugung Palace is situated in the Myeongdong district in Seoul.

History

Deoksugung Palace served as the king’s residence twice during the Joseon Dynasty. It was originally the home of King Seonjo and Prince Wolson who temporarily lived there after the Japanese forces withdrew from Korea in 1593. He lived here because all the main palaces where destroyed during the war. Prince Gwanghae renamed the Palace Gyeongungung Palace after rebuilding the palace and making it his main resident. The palace was used as a main residence by Gojong again during 1897. During the Joseon Dynasty the state was proclaimed an empire. The palace halls were rebuild and the compound was expanded to some three times its present size. Unfortunately Gojong was forced to hand his empire over to his son who became Emporor Sunjong in 1907. Emperor Sunjong Moved into Changdeokgung Palace and bestowed the title of Deoksu (virtue and long life) on his father, wishing him a long life. The compound came to be called Deoksugung Palace and the former emperor remained here until his death in 1919

Both Korean and Western architecture dominate the site. While walking amongst the Korean style buildings it feels like you’re walking in a different time. Almost like you’re part of a different era. It was quite an amazing feeling.

To get there you can take the dark blue line (line 1) and get off at the City Hall, across from Seoul Plaza. Alternatively if you get off at Myongdong (light blue line) you can walk about 2 blocks down Eulji-ro, past Lotte Duty Free to get there. Its right across from Seoul Plaza.

Next week I will feature the western style architecture at Deoksugung Palace.

Interesting reads to help save money in Korea

The Wealthy English teacher

Geeky Fridays

April 29, 2016April 28, 2016Leave a comment

NEVERWINTER ONLINE

I fell in love with on-line gaming and Player versus Player (PVP) games because of Neverwinter. Its a Dungeons and Dragons game. Its a free to play MMORPG developed by cryptic and published by Perfect world entertainment.

You can create your own character by choosing from 8 different races. You start of without any gear or weapons on a deserted beach and you have to then collect gear and fight your way to Protectors Enclave. You can level your character up to level 70. Your gear also improves as you level. I love this game because its quite competitive if you battle against other players and playing with other players can be fun too especially if you’r in a guild.

The game has however changed over the last year and it seems that some players buy better gear to become better players which is disadvantageous to those who choose not to spend hundreds of dollars a month on a game.

My favourite character is the Trickster Rogue. I am sharing this video with you because this is one of the best Trickster Rogues I’ve come across on the net. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Video by DesoloGaming.

Stying fit in a Foreign country

April 26, 2016April 27, 2016Leave a comment

Staying fit is pretty hard. You have work, family and other daily occurrences that makes it hard to stay fit. When moving to a new country you have other factors at work like not knowing where any gyms are and not being able to communicate with the locals to find the right price for gym membership among many others.

When we first arrived in Korea we were like Hansel and Gretel at the gingerbread house. We ate everything we could find. We were in food heaven, but as it turns out it wasn’t really heaven. :p

To get my mind in the game again took me a very long time, I must confess. Luckily because we don’t have a need for a car in Korea, we walk everywhere. We can walk for hours on end. We tried joining a few gyms but our first gym ($45 per month) was very uninspiring so we didn’t go everyday and then later we joined a “fancy” gym ($80 per month)It went well for a few months but we started going less and less until we skipped weeks on end. We eventually cancelled our membership but decided that we still have to keep going, so we started going to gym at the park and now that it’s warmer its becoming easier to go everyday. We do a variety of things. Sometimes we jump rope and sometimes we do pull-ups on the bar equipment.

In addition we generally do bodyweight type exercises. My husband goes to the Gym once or twice a week (we pay $2.50 per day) to exercise the muscles he can’t exercise at the park. We also ride our bikes ever so often.

On the days that we don’t go to the park or ride our bikes we try and walk for 20-30 minutes so as to keep moving. I’ll keep you updated on our quest for health and fitness.

Fun Beaches in Korea

April 21, 2016April 21, 20167 Comments

In the Summer Korea has a very popular festival that gathers thousands of people on the beach, its the Boryeong Mud Festival. The mud is said to ex-foliate your skin and those who ought to know say that your skin feels really soft after you wash all the mud off your body. My husband and I decided to go to Boryeong a few weeks in advance to look at the sites before the actual festival and this is what we found.

We took the local city bus to Boryeon and got off at what looked like a summer wonderland. It turns out it is a water park with all various fun activities like slides, pools and one of the only flow-riders in Korea.

We also discovered a very cute park to take pictures and where some boys were riding bikes and skate boards

Boryeong isn’t just for those who want to visit the mud festival, it has a variety of activities like zip lining and paint balling along with many eateries and hotels for those who want to stay for the weekend. There is also a camping site and a lovely spa that sells mud beauty products at affordable prices.

To get to Boryeong from Seoul you can take a bus from Seoul Central City Bus Terminal, to Boryeong (보령). From Boryeong Bus Terminal, take a bus bound for Daecheon Beach. There is a bus every 10 minutes. alternatively you can take a train from Yongsan Station or Yeongdeungpo Station, to Daecheon Station. From Daecheon Station, take a local bus bound for Daecheon Beach.

From our humble city Seosan you can take a bus (40 minutes) to Boryeong bus terminal and then from there a bus to Deacheon Beach. Getting back to Seosan takes some planning though because there is only a bus every 2 hours and the last bus leaves at 7 pm

The 2016 mud-festival this year will take place during the weekend of 15 July.

Living in a Shoe box (Korean Apartments)

April 19, 2016July 19, 20163 Comments

Korea has a population of around 50 million people and a land mass of around 100,000 square meters. therefore Koreans are the king and queens of stacking stuff. They stack their houses, their dishes, everything. Everywhere in Korea you’ll see tall apartment buildings. Even in smaller cities, 4 story apartment buildings are very common. In addition these apartments are around 25 square meters. Huge upmarket apartments are more in the range of 60-80 square meters. So how do we survive living in an apartment the size of a “shoe box”

Most Koreans don’t spend a lot of time in their apartments. They don’t invite people to their homes either. Korea has an amazing night culture and whenever you walk around you will see families, couples or friends in coffee shops and restaurants. There are always people on the streets during warmer months. Social gatherings happen outside the home, therefore you do not need a huge apartment or house to entertain your friends like you do in western countries.

In conclusion living in a shoe box is not as bad as I thought, at first I thought I might get annoyed with my husband because its just the two of us in this small apartment but I enjoyed the closeness we shared. In the Winter months we stayed in bed together and watched movies until late. When it became warmer, we started playing PC games against each other. When Spring came along we spent increasingly more time outside. Walking around our city and exploring areas we didn’t know. By the time winter came along again it was fun spending time with my husband indoors.