Hello all,

Today was our first full day in Korea. There is much to write about as there was very little free time today, we were doing so much! First, we toured the palaces and president’s residences in the morning. It was raining for the first part of the day and there were low clouds everywhere, but that was okay because it covered the mountain behind the palaces in fog and made it look like it was out of a painting. Once we arrived at Gyeongbokgung palace we watched the changing of the guard, and I saw that many people outside of the performers were wearing historical dress, called hanbok. It turned out that Gyeongbokgung palace allows free admission if you are in traditional dress, so many people were dressed like they belonged in the palace as they walked through it. Hanbok isn’t hard to find outside of the palace either, as we later passed many hanbok stores and rentals, as well as many people dressed up on the streets.

After we were done touring the palaces, we moved on to the former presidential quarters and hall for receiving state officials, called Cheongwadae, the blue house, because of its blue roof. Afterwards, we split up for lunch and I ate dough soup with potato and kimbap, which was very good. We took the metro to get around today, which is a very organized place, complete with designated exit numbers and lines for entering and exiting the train.

The final tour we took today was at Jogyesa temple, which is one of the main Buddhist temples in Korea. It was covered in lanterns in preparation for Buddha’s birthday and had a 200-year-old white pine tree, which very impressive. The temple itself was filled with Buddhist monks chanting and other Buddhists praying, and the outside was covered in depictions of the Buddha’s life. It was a very beautiful place.

After the tours were finished, we visited a street market and had a large family-style dinner, with all sorts of traditional Korean food like glass noodles and plum juice. The dishes were brought out one at a time, so we got to eat something from every plate. Altogether, it was a very fun and busy day, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.