Today was another long but entertaining day. After waking up at 7am, which was a little easier than expected, I had breakfast at the hotel. It was delicious and had so many options that it was hard to choose. Eventually we got on a bus to Hwaseong Fortress and walked around for a while there. It was super interesting to see the different ways that the Korean soldiers protected their land. Some of the peep holes on the walls were for cannons and archers, but there were also some that were for dumping boiling water or oil. Another thing to mention was the view, the area was surrounded by some towns and tall buildings, but beyond that was the beautiful mountains. They are fascinating to look at. After walking and learning about the ancient defense tactics that were used, we were able to test our own skills. We had the opportunity to shoot arrows at targets which was very fun to try. I was able to hit the target twice out of ten tries. After our little archery lesson, we walked a little more and saw more of the gorgeous landscape and architecture before splitting up and getting lunch. A small group of us went to a place called Isaacs Toast, which is a small place where you get some egg sandwiches on toast. It was nice to try a little chain “fast food” place here. A few of us decided to take a small walk around the area while we still had time. Our tour guide, Jinny, suggested we try to find this small area where there were murals along the walls. We found it and walked around for a bit, we even saw a cat sleeping, before heading back to our meeting area.

Our next stop was the Samsung Museum which was much more interesting than I expected. My favorite part was the TV that could spin to become vertical and the washing and drying was one machine. After our tour, I was already exhausted, but we had to push through. We went to Myeongdong, which is in the center of Seoul, for our dinner with the alums and shopping. Before dinner I was able to try on traditional clothing that the queen would wear. It was very different from normal clothes, but it was nice to try. At our dinner we had multiple sides, I was able to try the majority of them. Unfortunately, I don’t enjoy seafood, but other than that, it was amazing. At the end of dinner, Dr. Yun told us there was another competition to get to a desert place near the restaurant. My group came in third, which is unfortunate, but we did better than last time so I’ll count that as a win. At the dessert place, Susu and I were chatting with the alums, Will and Grace, for a while before heading on our own around the shopping area. We were there for hours before heading back to the hotel around 10pm. I’m completely drained again, but I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow!