Day 5 was quite an exciting day with everyone ready to go with the taekwondo lesson. I was curious to see what awaited us on the way there, expecting probably a lot of people trying to do some crazy punches or kicks, and others trying to spar each other. Upon arrival, we changed out of our normal clothes and put on our uniforms, complete with a belt. I had never done any sort of martial arts except for when I was very young and did something (I can’t even remember what it was) for at most a year, so I wasn’t feeling very prepared for what was coming. It was actually very pleasant, we learned some breathing techniques and punching/kicking, but the more interesting part to me was the philosophical side of it. We learned about how it is very closely tied to Korea’s flag with the yin yang and the harmony of the two sides of it, and a lot about how it is focused with being mentally strong.
After taekwando, we traveled to where the city hall is located for a tour. Before however, me and my group went to get lunch in the area. We ended up finding a small restaurant in a pretty busy urban area, and we ordered some chicken. To our surprise what arrived was something that looked like it came from KFC, nonetheless it was still very good. I’ve taken note of something rather random, but in Korea I realized that it is really hard to find knives. From a different day, I was eating dinner and we were trying to cut something using a combination of chopsticks and a spoon, but the waiter ended up coming with a pair of scissors which gave us a good laugh. That was from a different time, but the reason I realized how peculiar it is to rarely see knives is because food usually comes pre cut like one of my groupmate’s dishes.
After a large lunch, we got to the city hall where we first walked around a small museum. It showed a lot of history of things pertaining to the Korean War, general culture, things of that nature. Afterwards, we had the tour, which put into perspective how large the building was. From the outside it already looked big, but the inside was so open that it made it feel even bigger. Our tour guide showed us around where some government officials used to have offices, as well as the current Mayor’s office. He also taught our group some Korean sayings we could try at the markets to get a discount, as well as some cultural behaviors which reflect the respect towards elders in Korea. One thing specifically he told us was that if you ever hand someone elder to you something, you always do it with two hands rather than one. Small things of that nature to show your respect.
After the city hall tour, Dr. Yun tasked us with a scavenger hunt to find a building around Seoul. He handed us a photo of a building and said absolutely nothing afterwards. My group, being the best, found the building first in at most 20 minutes, so fast that I believe we got back to the hotel before other groups even found their building. So fast, that Dr. Yun gave us another building to find, which he told us about right when we got to the hotel ready to take a nap. However, this was a blessing in disguise, which I will explain later. We had to go find a church within walking distance to the hotel, no difficulties there, but we passed by something that piqued our interest. Walking through the streets by our hotel, we saw a large cat mascot. Next to the mascot was a sign that said Cat Cafe. Upon seeing this, we were on our way to the church, so we could not go quite yet. However, almost everyone in our group got very excited, including me (unfortunately someone in our group for some reason hates cats, they know who they are).
The cat cafe was just what I expected, maybe better even. You ring a doorbell, and a worker comes and has to open the gate to let you in, without letting any cats escape, We then turn the corner and it was already quite full, some people even napping in the cafe with cats all around them. All of the cats were so nice and well behaved, and came up to greet you if you stuck your hand out.
After the Cat Cafe, we had a dinner which mainly consisted of bulgogi. I tried some anchovies and some other dishes, and they weren’t terrible, but they were definitely interesting, as has been a lot of food here. After dinner, we had some free time which mainly consisted of just relaxing after another long day and having to catch up with jet lag, and finally going to bed, excited for what awaited us in the next day.