It was our first full day in Seoul and they had a lot of visits and tours planned for us throughout the day. After waking up from a good night of sleep we got ready and had breakfast in the hotel before going out to begin our first day of cultural visits. The first place that we got to go see was the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Shortly after arriving at one of the many gates, we got to experience watching the changing of the guards. Gyeongbok means “greatly blessed by heaven” and the Gyeongbokgung Palace was the home of the King and Queen during the Joseon Dynasty. The grounds and all of the buildings around the Palace are amazing and there is such an amazing view as there is a mountain behind it and the city of Seoul is in front of it. After we finished touring around the Palace we went to lunch where we got to try another popular Korean dish that was like a beef soup. It was really good even though I am still working on my skill of using chopsticks to eat everything. After lunch we went onto our Seoul Symbolic Tour as we went to visit many places including a Jogyesa Buddhist Temple, Bukchon Hanok Village, Namdaemun Market, and the Cheonggyecheon Stream. Jogyesa Temple was beautiful as they had thousands of colorful lanterns set up in the area.

At Bukchon Hanok Village we had time to walk around and got the opportunity to see the city of Seoul from a new view and experience what some nice homes and shops are like. Then we went to Namdaemun, which was perhaps my favorite experience of the day when we got to walk throughout the largest traditional market in Korea where there are so many shops and street vendors selling anything and everything including cloths, jewelry, bags, shoes, food, art, kitchenware, etc. After we went to the market we walked along the Cheonggyecheon Stream before we went back to the hotel for the end of the day and some free time at night.