I'd tap that...korean drum.

Dear Blog,

Today Nami and I were determined to walk the whole length of the Cheonggye Stream (an artificial stream that runs through 6k of downtown Seoul) from the pumps to the river. Long story short: we didn't.

Long story long:
We got off the subway in an unfamiliar part of the city and were walking towards the stream when we came across Deoksugung Palace. As we contemplated whether or not we should check it out, we approached a large, decorated drum in front of the entrance. The moment we reached it, a woman holding a clipboard popped out of nowhere and started talking to me. I was about to tell her I wasn't interested in signing her petition when she asked me if I wanted to hit the drum. "Sure?" I replied. She quickly mentioned something about a ceremony, changing of the guards, hit the drum three times, foreigners...i missed a bunch of the words. "Um, when?" I asked. "Right now." and then she quickly disappeared. Suddenly, trumpets started and men in traditional Korean costume began filing towards where Nami and I were standing. Crap, where did that lady go! What do i hit the drum with...my fist, an open palm even though it's not a bongo? We had only been here for 2 minutes and now we were part of some random ceremony.

Right when I began to worry that I was going to accidentally punch a hole in this fancy drum, the lady appeared again with a stick (or drum bat..whatever). Then this other dude instructed me in how to bang the drum (essentially give it a good whack).
At this point, spectators had gathered to watch this display of korean pomp and circumstance...and some pasty and confused American girl awkwardly participate. When I was given the cue, I did my thing and swung. I'd say I did a pretty good job. I didn't screw up the ceremony (or the drum) which was pretty much my main concern.

The changing of the palace guard wrapped up and the lady handed me the clip board with a list of other foreigners' names. Apparently, they always single out a non-korean in the crowd and make him/her hit the drum. I had to give them my email address so I assume I'm going to be put on some special and exclusive "foreigner-cum-palace percussionist" email list where we'll share our experiences and receive updates on other opportunities to hit fancy korean drums.

Anyway, at this point Nami and I felt obligated to check out this palace so we paid the admission fee (you would think an important person like myself would've gotten a complimentary ticket) and went inside. As per usual, I pressured Nami into posing for ridiculous photos:

We had just finished shooting that last little gem when this cute little man asked us to pose again so that he could take a photo of us acting idiotic at one of Korea's most historic landmarks. So Nami re-mounted the statue and I pretended to take another photo while this guy took a photo of us...meta. After that, he wanted to take pictures with us. He held Nami's hand and stepped away from her. Awkward but adorable.

Then he took a picture with the giant white girl.

He told us he was an amateur photographer taking photos for a competition for which the theme was foreigners visiting Korean monuments. We were the perfect subjects. He took some more pictures of us walking and bid us ado. But then he found us again 15 minutes later and took more pictures of us being foreign but this time we weren't doing stupid things with stone objects.

However, 5 minutes after he left us again, we were back at it. Found this little dude as we were leaving:

It started to rain just as we exited the palace so Cheonggye Stream is saved for another day.