City Tour Day

So today a volunteer with your Korean adoption agency met us in the hotel lobby to take us on a city tour.  Some tour guides arrive and just ask you where you want to go.  Not ours she arrived with a good friend and the two of them had researched things that are popular tourist attractions.  We discussed what we wanted to do for the day and then set out for the subway.

Our first stop Changdekgung, which is one of the palaces.  We wandered around taking lots of pictures and listened in to a bit of the English speaking tour.  These next few pictures are of Sam and his Mom and Jin being silly.  

After seeing the palace we went back to Insadong market where we stopped to have lunch with our tour guides.  Let me tell you if you aren't used to sitting on the floor the getting up is the hard part.  

Next we headed to Cheonggyecheon Stream to walk to our next destination. Sam's Mom remembers when this water was so dirty the just covered it over. Now the city has created a great place to walk.

Then we continued down to were the US Embassy is and a few statues.  The golden statue is of the King who invented the Korean alphabet and the bronze statue is of a famous general.  

Then we headed to Dongdaemun market to do a bit more shopping.  We wanted to buy Mia a Hanbok, a traditional Korean outfit.  She will also get one of these from the adoption agency but it was important to us to be able to buy one for her.  The photo looks a little red but it is dark pink.

After this we sent our tour guides on their way.  We were so lucky to have them from 9:30 - 3:00.  We then headed back to our hotel.  Jin went to meet an old friend from college for dinner and Sam's Mom and I went to Namdaemun market to do a little shopping.  We brought dinner back for the three of us.  Here is our spread of street food.

After Sam's Mom went back to her room Sam and I got all of the things together that we are taking tomorrow and packed Mia's diaper bag.  Now Sam is sleeping and I am finishing up the blog post. 

So our next post will be with Mia.  I can't believe that this day is finally here.  Now I just have to find a way to sleep.

Amy