When we landed in Korea, it was around 3:00pm. Once out of the airport we meet up with local students from the Asia Institute and Rob, our tour guide. We took an hour bus ride from the Seoul International Airport to Seoul. The first thing that stood out to me was the lack of suburban areas. Instead of having houses scatter a cross the land, there are large clusters of skyscrapers every so often. Rob told us that this is the way the Koreans prefer to live. Everyone would rather live in a complex than have an individual home. Another cool thing we saw was “glampling”, along the side of the Han river. “Glamping” is basically camping, but all the hard work is prepaid for. Someone will pitch your tent, make your fire and food, all you must do is relax.
We then arrived at our hotel, dropped off out bags, and went right to dinner a few blocks away. Our meal consisted of over ten small plates of authentic Korean food, most of which I cannot pronounce. I can say that there was kimchi, bulgogi, and some type of fish. It was all very delicious. We then had this desert that was like a marshmallow, but much chewier. Also do not know what that was called but it was very sweet.
After that, we decided to explore Seoul for the rest of the night. It just so happened that today was Buddhas birthday, so the city was throwing a large festival. The streets were all decorated with lanterns and large floats of Buddha. There was also a concert going on which me and some friends got sucked into by a conga line. Everyone was dancing and the guy on stage was shooting fire and yelling at the crowd. Not how I imagined my first eight hours in the country, but it was a blast, and a great welcome.
