11/20/2023 

Pomp & Circumstance,Guard Changing Ceremony

Waiting inside the Gwanghwamun Gate, 

the main entrance to the palace. 

Outside the Gwanghwamun Gate.

National Palace Museum of Korea

During the Joseon dynasty, the royal guards of the palace were gatekeepers responsible for guarding the main gates of Gyeongbokgung Palace as well as the main gates of the city, such as Heunginjimun Gate and Sungnyemun Gate. They also opened and closed the Gwanghwamun Gate. 

The ceremony is free of charge and similar to the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. It is held three times a day, lasts for forty minutes to an hour, and follows the same procedure, beginning with the booming of an oversized drum, traditional musical instruments, and an eight-minute guard ceremony followed by a seven-minute change ceremony, and a patrol of 18 guards in six official positions beating a drum and bellowing some orders. 

https://clipchamp.com/watch/zORkTBkbrpK

 

11/19/2023 High Tech?

We all know misery loves company, but there's nothing worse than arriving in darkness in a foreign hotel room after more than 10-15 hours of flying, with no earthly clue as to what the hieroglyphics mean on a box alongside a tankless toilet without a visible flush valve. 

Add to that the anxiety of a room key card that doesn't work and a potential emergency release pressing on your bladder that has struggled against bursting for hours.

You enter the inner sanctum and are greeted with...

And yes, dear readers, that phone is there for one reason: a call to the front desk for HELP! Where is the flush valve? How do I turn on the toilet? Their response? Read the hieroglyphics...

As if we know Korean. (OK, we fully understood the butt illustrations, but that's another topic for later conversation.) The solution to our conundrum was pressing the left white long button on the top of the "bathroom magic box." After that, the rest was a breeze. All you had to do was sit on the toilet seat, and the toilet did the rest. 

Next was the bathroom sink, which was permanently closed no matter what country you visited.

Good luck trying to find and release the hidden lever behind this faucet...

My room, on the 7th floor, had an intriguing message on the rear wall below the window...

There was nothing under the arrow. It was 2 days later before I realized the strange item I kept kicking beneath the desk I used for working on my blog and checking email was the elusive descending life line...

Undoubtedly, I would have died before understanding these instructions and illustrations in an emergency.

But all these "technology advances" paled compared to THE MAGIC BOX, surreptitiously masquerading as a radio... 

Most of us had experience inserting the keycard into the slot nearest the door to control the room lights, but these hotel rooms had few outlets that existed or were accessible. 

I was exhausted and flummoxed, and once again, I called the front desk for help. The operator kept telling me to press master, which, coming from her, sounded like she was saying "monster." I finally understood her when she spelled it.

Interestingly, these struggles were effective icebreakers for intriguing conversation and much laughter the following day during breakfast, as we confessed our individual stupidity and meshed immediately as a group. 

FYI...we mastered the toilet by the end of our 2-week vacation. Some of us, myself included,  even tried out the bidet butt instructions. But the clear winner, no buts, ifs, or ands (no pun intended), was the toilet seat warmer.