Wandering Browns

Wonder of wonders, Austin has from Monday morning until Saturday morning off! That means lots of exploring for our family this week. Next time he has a "long-off" we are going to the famous honeymooners locale Jeju Island off the southern coast of Korea. It has been compared to Hawaii and I'm ready for the beach! Anyway, we started off our explorations with a day in downtown Seoul's business district. There was a palace there that offered free English tours, so we took them up on it! The palace of Deoksugung was right across from city hall! It was originally not a palace complex, but after the Japanese invasion in the 1500s the royals decided to make it a palace after theirs burnt down. There were several buildings along with the gates. I forget what this building was for- I think it might be living quarters Many of the buildings had been destroyed or burned, so they were refurbished and painted the way they were before- in lovely bright colors Gat

In India, I found myself saying, "Come on, India, it's 2014, get with the picture!" In Seoul, I find myself saying, "Come on, US, it's 2014, get with it!" It is lovely, clean, safe (except for their pesky neighbors to the north), and very technologically advanced. Our touch screen phone in our hotel controls all of the lights, the thermostat, and can tell the hotel to not disturb us. It also gives information about the hotel and surrounding areas. The lights for the bathroom are a touch panel as well, as are the buttons that indicate whether we would like our room cleaned or do not disturb. These buttons illuminate lights on the outside of the door so the maids can see when rooms need to be cleaned. Not that they actually have to walk down the hall to see, because they have a computer in their room that has a map of all the rooms that are occupied and which ones are ready to be cleaned and which ones are do not disturb. The elevators are slow but also cool.