May 11th, 2025
Today felt simultaneously very long and very short. We arrived to Korea at 4am after a nearly 20 hour travel day, and arrived at the hotel at 6am. We had the option of finding our own breakfast, but we as a whole group we went to enjoy a traditional Korean breakfast assortment near the hotel. Variety of soups and bibibop were provided. I opted for the traditional spicy soup, which had pork, Korean sausage, spring onion, and a very delicious spicy broth.
Following breakfast we made our way to the Royal Palace and the Blue House. As a group we took the metro and walked to our destination. The metro was very fascinating and surprisingly not as difficult as I expected it to be to navigate. The metro etiquette is very precise with certain method to properly enter the car and how to behave. Additionally, the metro stations were all very clean and quite, something I am not used to from the DC metro. Once we arrived at the Royal Palace out tour guide, Jinny, provided us with ample information about the guard change ceremony (which we watched and took 15 minutes) and about the entire palace itself. We took about 45 minutes to walk through a good part of the palace grounds. Throughout all the activities Jinny provided a wide variety of information, facts, and insider tips about anything. Once we reached the north gate of the Royal Palace (our exit) we headed towards the Blue House which was adjacent to the palace. Here we explored the presidential grounds where the president is to reside at. What I found most interesting and fascinating was the use of colour and imaginary animals to highlight the depth and thoughtful meaning that was put into each of the buildings.
After we finished exploring the Royal Palace and the Blue House we made our way to a local food market to enjoy lunch. Before stopping at the food market we made a stop at a nearby small art instillation where we briefly saw different interactive art exhibitions which also had a small cafe and quaint store. Once we made it to the food market, which was about 100m long alley with food stalls lining both sides, we split into small groups trying the different stalls. Dr. Yun treated us to ice cream, where I suggested we all try the corn one (which was just vanilla ice cream). The food market was very fun and interesting to see the local surrounding area as well.
Dr. Yun tasked us with a last challenge of which two teams could make it back to the hotel first from the food market. To me it felt like the Amazing Race as we all rushed to the metro to see who could get there first. Whilst my team was not first, we were second which meant we still won and are able to redeem it by having dinner with Dr. Yun. This was one of my favourite activities as it was a very last minute call that got each team very excited and working close together.
Overall today started at 4am, was jammed with very fun and interesting activities, yet it was all so enjoyable that I can overlook the exhaustion. Cannot wait for my team to redeem our victory by having dinner with Dr. Yun.
