Today marks the first day of my journey in South Korea with the Plus3 program. The first hurdle was the flights to get here. We had some trouble with our first flight being delayed by an hour leading to a very tight connection in Atlanta. Luckily, we were able to reach our gate in time and board the flight to Incheon. The flight to Incheon was fairly arduous, since it was almost 16 hours long. I was able to sneak some sleep in, but I was still exhausted by the time we landed.
We arrived at Incheon at 4:00 am local time and we started our day full of activities right away. We grabbed some snacks from the airport convenience store before getting on the bus to Seoul. On the bus trip the tour guide gave us some background information on the city and the palace we were visiting later. We quickly dropped off our bags at the hotel before heading to the subway. We were heading to Gyeongbok Palace for the changing of the guards ceremony. When we left the subway terminal I was amazed by the statue of king Seongjong, it was a very impressive piece of artwork. The changing of the guards was a very captivating experience; the actors did a good job of immersing the audience in the spectacle.
After the ceremony we toured the rest of the palace grounds. Something interesting that the tour guide told us, was that the number of animals on the roofs of the buildings indicated the level of importance the king held for them, with more animals meaning, more important. We also learned that they used fireplaces beneath the buildings to produce a heated flooring for climate control during winter months. Afterwards we headed uphill to the Blue House and walked around the grounds. It was very interesting to see how it compared to the White House back home since they fulfill the same purpose.
It feels like we’ve already done so much and it’s only the first day, so I’m excited to see what the rest of the trip holds.
