Dongdaemun and the National Museum of Korea

<Ellen posting>

Today was a lot of fun too! Saturdays aren’t very consistent for me as of yet because I’ve been meeting different people each weekend and doing different things. I met my friend Young Soo today and we went shopping at Dongdaemun before taking the subway to the National Museum of Korea.

 I went to Dongdaemun once last summer, but didn’t have very much time to spend there, so I didn’t experience the haggling culture. Young Soo haggled for a jacket he bought, though, which was fun to watch. I didn’t need to, though, because I found really good deals on a few shirts that I wanted. Yay!

The National Museum of Korea is really, really amazing. I’m glad that I went! There’s a large exhibit taking up the entire first floor which walks visitors through a complete summary of Korean history, from Pre-History to the 1900s. The second floor had a set of private collections, all of which are worth visiting, and the third floor has statues and exhibits from other parts of Asia. My favorite exhibit was 금관 및 수하식, an ancient crown from the Silla Dynasty. I read a lot about Korean history and Korean history before I came here, so it was really amazing to see first-hand the artifacts which I’d already learned about.

While there, Young Soo and I tried Persimmon 팥빙수 and it tasted delicious! Last week, my host family pulled a persimmon out of the freezer and we ate it like icecream, which also was really good. 팥빙수 is one of my favorite foods here~ J

In the future, I’ll look forward to spending more time in Incheon so I can tell you all more about Incheon-specific tourist destinations and activities!