Seoul Day 2

Hello All and Happy Thanksgiving
I am so thankful for my friends and family back home as well as my new friends here. It has been such an amazing journey this last year and I am so thankful and privileged to be able to life this life. Today was a very busy day!
First, I navigated my way by metro to Gyeong bok palace. It reminded me a lot of the palaces I visited in Beijing, but this one was interestingly positioned between very tall sky scrapers and the prettiest mountains I've ever seen. Inside the palace, you were able to walk the palace grounds and it had beautiful trails and a nice pond. While I was walking I was stopped by a Korean woman who was taking english lessons and had to interview a foreigner, so I obliged. She was so sweet and even told me how to get to some good Korean restaurants, all in perfect english.  I think she was completely confused by the fact that I went to school in China, even to Koreans China seems like this very far off and distant land.
After the Palace I went to a folk museum. I typically hate museums but as John Sexton says, "If it's moral and legal, do it once"... I walked into the museum and it was literally an entire floor dedicated to the history of Blue Jeans. I've never laughed so hard in my entire life... only in Korea, I guess. I then went to a contemporary art museum that was holding a new exhibit that depicted humans as machines. It went interestingly with my Media class, so I thought I would take a look. It turned out to be very cool, and the spaces that they created using T.Vs and other technologies was awesome.
After that, I walked along the main strip that followed out of the palace and museum area, there were two main statues in the middle of the boulevard and you could go inside them and they were also museums. I thought that was pretty fun, and it was free!
From my little cultural tour I decided to hit the market. I went to one of the largest markets in Seoul called Namdaemun. I've never seen so many different shops, clothing, souvenirs, and trinkets concentrated to one area in my entire life. The place was a little town by itself. I bought myself a knitted hat, because 1)it was cold and 2) it felt right (Paige-- I hope you're laughing) While I was there I heard some Chinese women talking and so I just went up to them and started talking to them and I asked where they were from and why they were visiting.
They said that they were from Beijing and that they came here to sight see. It was nice to talk to them because I just recently learned all the vocab for traveling so I could actually carry on a conversation. Afterwards, of course, they had to take a photo with me.
Sidenote--I don't know if selfie sticks are becoming a thing in America, but Asians here use them all the time...
Have an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving... I'm really missing the pie right about now

Love
Maddie
Also I am waiting to post pictures until I get back to Shanghai just so you know--they are coming