I woke up at 7:45 am and went down to breakfast. I met with some of my group mates. I didn’t eat much for breakfast, I’ve never been the biggest breakfast person. I ate an egg and some bacon. I also got some orange juice and a probiotic drink. After that, I met with the rest of the group and we took the subway to Gwanghwamun Square and Cheonggyecheon River. They gave us time to walk down by the river and there were these cool stones that you could cross the river on.

We made our way to the Gyeoungbuk Palace after and got to see the changing of the guards ceremony held in front of the Gwanghwamun gate. It was really cool. There were musicians and a whole bunch of big flags held by the male reenactors. We then got to tour the palace and see some of the different buildings. After we exited through the north gate and made our way to Cheong Wa Dae or the Blue House.

Cheong Wa Dae means blue-tiled pavilion. The blue tiles were so pretty. It is where the president of South Korea used to live. There were a whole bunch of trees. Some of which were apparently planted by past presidents. I got a drink at the guest center that was peach-flavored with little jelly cubes inside. We got to visit three different buildings in Cheong Wa Dae. I know the one was the house for the first lady where she would help greet guests.

We were then let go to find a place to eat lunch. I ended up eating with the other girls from my group along with 2 girls from other groups. I got kimchi fried rice and it was so good. It wasn’t overly spicy and the seaweed and egg complemented it well. After everyone finished with their main dish, Dr. Yun joined us and we ordered some gimbap to share. Dr. Yun paid for the gimbap and we each paid for our main dish. The lady in the restaurant showed us how to properly eat our food since I tried eating the rice with chopsticks instead of a spoon. I think she was amused by us and she asked where we were from.

After lunch, we visited Jogyessa, a Buddhist temple. Since it is close to Buddha Day in Korea, there were lanterns strung up everywhere. The monks were in the temple with the three giant Buddha statues chanting prayers. After Jogyessa, we took the subway to Namdaemun market. I looked around with a bigger group of girls at some of the different shops. In the end I ended up buying a folding fan and exchanging some more of my cash. I think I got slightly gypped on the price of the fan. It kept giving me splinters.

We then returned to the hotel for an hour before Dinner. Dinner was really cool. It was an authentic Korean dinner with over 10 different plates of food. Dinner included a jellyfish salad, bulgogi, squash soup, tempura shrimp, and beef tartar. Dinner was amazing and there was so much food. In the restaurant, they also had some hanboks, or traditional Korean wear for us to try on. None of the hanboks fit me particularly well, I had too big of a bust. I then returned to the hotel for a short while before going back out with a large group to explore the city more.