북촌한옥마을 (Bukchon Hanok Village) Supporter Meeting Vlog

This was probably my favorite of the meetings our supporter group had! This meeting was fun from beginning to end. We met at Anguk Station (if I remember correctly), and it was such a beautiful station. 

While waiting for one of our members to arrive, we were able to admire everything about this station. With walls covered in art, this subway station almost felt like a museum; there were a couple of art installations and the architecture of the station was amazing! My favorite was a giant water color painting (수묵화); there was a lot of attention to detail in the painting, so I could have spent forever admiring it. This station is definitely a must see if you go to Seoul. I think back and wish I had set aside time to explore it more. After our last member arrived, we went above ground. Before exploring, we went to a cafe to study and do our lesson recordings, as usual. The cafe was Latteya Coffee (a great cafe!). We has a good laugh reading the cup sleeves that were covered in random English prose.

When we finished our lesson, we began to explore the area. I really enjoyed seeing the traditional "Han-ok jib" architecture and wandering around village. Everything was so beautiful! We were able to see the 복정터 (Bokjeong Well) which has a really cool story to it. 

During the Joseon Dynasty, it was the well that provided water for the royal palaces. (So basically, the water that the king drank!) Our supporter told us about how commoners were only allowed to drink water from this well once a year.

There were so many interesting stories that we learned about the history of Bukchon Village, and it was amazing to experience things that have been preserved for so long. We came across a time-line of people, and our supporter told us their stories and how/why they are important to Korea. It was also really fun to read the long chalk board with the statement "Before I die, I want to..." I could only understand the ones in English and Korean (and a few random Chinese characters haha), but it felt cool to see the things that other people want to do. 
For our lunch, we tried some delicious 라볶이 (Ramyeon+Ddeokbokki= Rabokki). This mix of spicy ramen and rice cakes really hit the spot. My camera was dying (I filmed a bunch of random stuff), so I didn't get to film it much, but we ended up coming across another supporter group! We still had some time, so we went to this really pretty area with one of the oldest schools that is now a library. The area around it had terraces with lots of cool plants and such. 

If I go to Korea again, I will definitely spend more time in Bukchon Village! There is so much see and explore in the area, so I definitely recommend going if you have the time.