Today we were finally able to sleep in a little before taking the subway to Taekwondo class. I was looking forward to the class a lot, and it did not disappoint. At the class, we went through some drills, got to do a form of sparring, and kicked through a wooden plank. Afterwards, I got some funny photos with my group members and friends, and re-enacted a scene with Nate from Napoleon Dynamite. He was Rex-kwando and I was Kip from the “bow to your sensei!” scene.

After taekwondo, we took the subway to the city center, where we went to the underground museum. At the underground museum, Jinny briefly taught us the basics of the Korean alphabet and showed us other historical relics. The real highlight came after the underground museum at lunch. We had all you can eat Korean BBQ for lunch, where my guys I was sitting with had so much pork. It was a delicious meal. Then came our city hall tour. Seoul City Hall was fascinating because the front, which is now the library, is the old city hall, and the back, the current city hall, is a super modern structure. Inside the city hall is what was once the largest vertical garden in the world. It was a beautiful building and we received a tour of the complex. Working at a building like that is a real joy. We also got a picture with the mascot of Seoul, which is these adorable animals that are the modernized representation of the creatures/statues that once protected the palace.

Lastly, after our tour, we spent some more time in the lawn area in front of the city hall and then made our way to Myeongdong again, where I did some shopping and got a lot of gifts for people in my life. Finally, our day concluded with another dinner where we ate Beef Bulgogi at a traditional Korean restaurant.