An alarm waking me up at 7:00 am was how I started today. I showered got ready and headed down to breakfast. Breakfast was interesting considering that there were contemporary dishes served back in the U.S. along with traditional Korean breakfast dishes. Our first visit of the day was to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest palace in Seoul. We watched the Changing of the Guards ceremony, a reenactment of the ancient ceremony that occurred twice daily, which lasted about 20 minutes. Our group spent a lot of time at this palace walking around and seeing all of the famous buildings like the Emperor’s throne and the Emperor’s chambers as well as the Queen’s chambers. The architecture and planning of all the buildings in the palace truly fascinated me because everything that they built had a true purpose and meaning with Feng Shui, the gods, and weather and temperature trends during their time periods. After the palace, we traveled to the Jogyesa Temple, one of the few Buddhist temples located in Seoul. This temple was spectacular with all of the connected paper lamps hanging above it creating a sea of colors. Inside the temple, there were large shrines of the Buddha that were amazing to see. Linus, Cal, and I walked up and down the steep and confusing streets of the Cheongwadae village that was a cool neighborhood consisting of ancient styled Korean houses. The Cheonggyecheon Stream was the last place we went to before lunch. This beautiful stream runs for 6 kilometers through the City of Seoul and is very symbolic to the people. It seems like a great place to go for a nice walk and enjoy some sunlight. Our lunch was at a traditional style Korean restaurant where we were served delicious Bulgogi.

We ended our tourism charged day going to the Namdaemun Market in the heart of Seoul. Walking around this market with a few members from my group was truly a fascinating experience. The market was full of hungry shoppers and was filled with vendor’s selling knock-off designer clothing accessories. It was truly a sight to see how different Korean culture is from American culture in the sense of the “hurry hurry” mentality. Our night consisted of eating some really good Fried Chicken and going to a trending Karaoke bar to top it off. The first real day traveling the city was a success and I am looking forward to the coming days.