I went to the Namsan Hanok Village today. I learned that there were three types of houses during the Joseon dynasty, the palace, the tiled roof house and the thatched roof house, but I only saw the tiled roof houses in the village which is where the noblemen lived. The palace was for the king, and the thatched roof houses were for the middle and lower class people.

In the tiled roof houses there are two main buildings called Sarangchae, the men's living quarters, and Anchae, the women's living quarters. The Sarangchae is closer to the gate, because the noblemen often had important guests, and the Anchae is at the farther back. There is the kitchen inside the Anchae, though there is none in the Sarangchae, because the latter is the men's quarters. People used to think that cooking and the housework were for women only.

People were heavily influenced by confucianism -which I also learned more about today- during the Joseon Dynasty. Confucianism says that men and women are different and should do different things and even live seperately. Although there are many other good things, I think this religion is rather unfair to the women and I feel a bit livid as a girl. The kings were only men. People only wanted sons, and the daughters were not deemed important to most. The men could work with the king and such, and study, while the women were expected to sit at home quietly and cook and sew and tend to the children. There are still some old fashioned people who think this nowdays, even though a lot of time has passed. I don't like it very much, and I'm glad that those confucian thoughts are disappearing.

It was very VERY cold, but I enjoyed seeing the Hanok, the Korean traditional houses today and hopefully tomorrow it will be even more interesting! (It will definitely be warmer, as it's indoors.)

Thank you for reading^^