The day started with a short breakfast, only about 10 minutes because we had to leave early for our Samsung biologics visit. This visit was amazing, it began with a small presentation about the history of the plant. The plant had a very impressive history to it, a single plant was built in 2 years which is significantly faster than the other competitors (with the other competitors’ plants being built in about 5 years per plant. After the presentation was a slight tour of the facility. This tour was conducted in what was called the VIP room, which was a large hallway that led into a VR area in which we were able to gain more information about that company.

We then had a slight break back at the hotel in which I was able to put my passport back in the safe. The break lasted for about an hour, then after the hour we had gone to lunch. At lunch we had a choice of bibimbap or a tofu stew. I chose the stew at first but then changed my mind to get the bibimbap. It was good, as always. Lunch was quite short today to be honest, I think it had to do with us having to go to city hall quite soon afterwards.

This brings me to the next topic: city hall. At city hall we were given tours of the hall. The entire group of 24 was split into two groups of 12 in order to get the city hall tour done in time to get to the next location. The city hall tour was very well put together. There was at first a tour of the old city hall which was almost entirely torn down but then something happened, someone had stated that the old city hall was a cultural relic. This statement is the reason as to why the old city hall is still standing today. The new city hall itself looks like a tidal wave about to crash into the old city hall. This most likely had to do with the old city hall being built under Japanese rule (the Japanese aren’t favored in Korea because the Japanese invaded Korea twice). Then we went on a tour of the new city hall which was gorgeous, inside the new city hall there used to be the largest vertical garden in the world, but then another country took that spot.

After the tour, we had gone to a startup company company. This is where startup companies would go after they pitch their idea to the government and receive their funding. There are about 27 of these companies in Seoul. It was neat to see all these companies in the same floor of the same building. We then took a group picture and just like that our final visit of the day was over.

I then went to the Seoul Tower. We did not stay here too long, we simply took some pictures and then left. But it was still a very cool experience, there was a 3D glasses station that gave me one of the best 3D glasses experiences I’ve ever had. It took about a 20 minute bus ride to get to the top of this hill that the tower was located on, but I’d say that it was worth the wait to see the amazing view of all of Seoul. Then we had gone out to eat dinner at a Korean restaurant that allows you to make your own bibimbap like station. I chose to put squid, crab, and pork in the bowl as my meats and then chose three different types of noodles. I was surprised with how well it all turned out to taste because I had no idea what kind of concoction I was making (especially with the squid).