Friday, Gyeongbokgung Palace - Jake and I met a couple more of his students, Claire and Jemma, for lunch...we were going to try Mr. Pizza which is popular with Korean women, but there was a long wait, so we had more Korean food...spicy beef with noodles and all the fixings, of course.

Claire and Jemma are pre-speak which means they haven't actually taken English speaking classes yet...in fact, they are leaving for a year to learn in New Zealand.

After lunch, Jake and I headed to the area where the palace is...first we walked the streets surrounding it, which are of course, filled with shops. I really liked this area because it has the pace and feel of State Street...and it was a beautiful day. We stopped in a toy museum, Tokino, which was basically collections of American toys from Star Wars, The Simpsons, and so on...got some good pictures for all my geeky friends:)

Geongbokgung Palace is the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty and its gorgeous...most of it is reconstructed because the Japanese burned it down when they invaded. We walked around the palace grounds for a few hours and took lots and lots of pictures...Jake has been there several times and he still took 100 photos! The National Folk Museum shares the palace grounds, so we visited that as well...lots of history and recreations of daily Korean life back in the day.

We made sure to stop by Jake's favorite cafe in the area, the Book Cafe...which had me thinking about my friend Becca and Open Books...the cafe has shelves full of books for customers to read while sipping yummy coffee and eating delicious cookies.

All over the area there were lots of police in pairs standing guard in alleys close to the President's residence, the Blue House...which you can't see from the road because of all the trees...and in groups of 20-30 just sitting in formation...we surmised they were there to show their presence and discourage protests and activity.

Insadong, another shopping area, this one aimed at tourists, was close, so we walked through there...very cute area and lots of souvenirs, so we'll definitely return before I leave. The Ssamziegil Market is a multi-story building that surrounds a courtyard...very festive and lively.

For dinner, we checked out the nightlife in Yeondeungpo where Jake lives...we went to a restaurant that serves dongdongju, rice wine...we had octupus and vegetables with noodles and a seafood pancake of sorts.

Jake's girlfriend, Hyunok, came from Incheon after work and is spending the weekend with us...she is very sweet and I can't wait to hang out with her!