Alright, this is going to be a long post. A lot happened yesterday (May 4).
The Flights
Surprisingly, the 16 hour flight was not nearly as bad as I expected. The food was better than I expected, and I was thankfully able to get a good bit of sleep. I had a window seat, which was super nice except when I needed to use the bathroom. There wasn’t anyone in the middle seat, and Gabby was in the aisle seat. The person in front of her had their seat back pretty much the whole flight so it was harder to get out when I needed to get up. Other than that, the flight was good. They provided light blankets, little pillows, and slip on sandals so we could take our shoes off. I had brought my own neck pillow, but I ended up being more comfortable using the small pillow and leaning against the wall of the plane.
We landed in Korea a little after 4am. Once we got off the plane, going through customs and everything was fine. And, nobody lost any luggage! We met our tour guide, Esther, and then we headed to our hotel by bus. Our hotel room is kind of cramped, and there isn’t a lot of floor space for luggage. We also discovered that in order to use any form of electricity, we need to insert a room key into this thing on the wall. Otherwise, no lights or power outlets or anything will work. I think we’re still trying to get in the habit of putting the room key in.
Breakfast was pretty good. I got seconds since I knew we would be having a late lunch. I had some pasta, kimchi rice, a fried egg, French toast, potato wedges, chicken stew, and some kind of pastry that looked like a donut. After breakfast, my roommate Varnujah (V) and I saw the balcony and went out to take a look. It’s on the 21st floor, so it was a very good view. We saw some rooftop gardens and the Namsan Tower.
V also had a debacle with her hair dryer brush. I can’t remember what it’s actually called, so I’m just going to call it that. She brought two power converters (at least I think they’re both converters) instead of adapters, so when she tried to use her hair dryer, it ended up dying (and smoked a little too). Then, the hotel hairdryer also died for some reason. We had to go down to the front desk to ask for a new one. The person there said they would have another one sent up. At some point after that, V had left the room and I was taking a nap before our adventures of the day. Housekeeping came in with a hairdryer while I was asleep, and they apparently thought I looked sick and told Dr. Yun. When we all met up in the lobby later, he asked me if I was okay and I was very confused. I wasn’t sick (I’m still not), and I thought it was weird that I didn’t hear housekeeping come into the room.
Gyeongbuk Palace
Our first stop was Gyeongbuk Palace. We rode the metro to get there, and personally, I was not a huge fan. It was very crowded, and on some rides it was physically impossible to not be touching someone near you. I don’t like being in dense crowds like that, it makes me anxious and uncomfortable. Some of the rides I couldn’t even hold on to a handle or anything because I was right in the middle of a bunch of people. Thankfully, some of the rides later in the day were not crowded at all and I could even sit down.
The palace was really neat. I really liked the traditional architecture and all of the fine details. We also got to see the Changing of the Guards, which I could barely see but I took a video of. I kept my phone up above the crowd so for the most part it shows everything that happened.
Food and Shopping
After leaving the palace, we walked to Insa-dong, a little touristy spot in Seoul. We had about an hour to explore and get some (very late) lunch. I was walking with a group of at least 10 people. We couldn’t find the market that we had heard about, so we were trying to find a restaurant that looked like it would be fast as we were running low on time. Eventually, some people split off from the group, but 7 of us went into a restaurant hoping it would be quick. We tried asking how long it would take, but the hostess didn’t seem to quite understand and just sat us down at a table and gave us water and menus. I found it kind of interesting how for the water, they just have stacks of little paper cups on the table, and then they give you bottles of water to fill them. And for silverware, they just handed us a wooden box full of metal chopsticks and spoons.
We were given some kimchi as a free appetizer (like how American restaurants give you bread), which was good but a little spicier than I would’ve preferred. We were able to order pretty quickly, which was good. I just got an order of dumplings, which were very good but they were big, and I wasn’t actually that hungry. They also kept falling apart as I tried to eat them.
Thankfully, all of our food came out quickly, and we were able to pay quickly (and we even got to split the check). We got back to our meeting point on time with a few minutes to spare.
After Insa-dong, we all walked to Bukchon Hanok Village. I think I should preface this part of the story by saying that in the end, nothing bad happened. We all made it back eventually.
We got to walk up a steep hill to explore the village. All of the houses were really cool with their traditional architecture. There were some shops that we passed, and a few of us found a store with perfumes and other fragrance type things. It was a small store, and there was only one person working, and several customers, so it took a little longer than expected. I did splurge a little and buy a perfume I liked. It was neat because we were able to get text stamped on the bottle. When the lady asked if I wanted anything stamped, I said sure because why would I pass that up since it was free, but I kind of panicked and didn’t have time to think of anything cool to get stamped so I just got my name. I do really like the perfume though, which is good.
However, you may remember me saying that we were at the perfume store longer than expected. We were supposed to meet back at the bottom of the hill at 5:20. V and I left the perfume store around 5:00. At that point, the main road that we knew was closed. A security guard wouldn’t let us through. So we had to figure out how to go around. On the way, we ran into Ben, Jake, and Manav, who were also trying to get back. Unfortunately, none of us had saved the location where we were supposed to meet, so we couldn’t easily put it into a map. I think we made a wrong turn (or a couple), and we got (temporarily) lost. Finally, someone else from the group shared their location with us, so we could follow that. In the end, we were about 15 minutes late (I think). I’m still upset about that and kind of blame myself because if I hadn’t gotten perfume then V and I might have made it on time, but at least we all made it back safely.
After that whole incident, we went to a market where we got to try live octopus. Honestly, was not nearly as bad as I expected but it still was not pleasant. I did not like the texture of it, but I think I chewed quickly enough that I didn’t have to feel it move around, which was good. After that, we got some dinner there. I got a chicken skewer, but I forgot to take a picture.
There was an Olive Young there next to the market, so Sophie, Jacqueline, V, and I went there. By that point, I was super tired, and quickly got overwhelmed. I sometimes get really overwhelmed in big, unfamiliar stores, which is exactly what happened in Olive Young. I’m also not super familiar with skincare type things, which did not help matters at all. I was hoping to buy something there, but between being so overwhelmed and my social battery being way too low to ask an employee for help, I just walked around and didn’t buy anything. Thankfully, we ran into Kali and Madeleine there, and I knew they were planning to go to the hotel right after Olive Young. Sophie, Jacqueline, and V were planning on walking around some more, so I just went back with Kali and Madeleine. We rode the metro back to the hotel, and thankfully managed to not go to the wrong place. We didn’t get off at the exit closest to the hotel, but it was only an 8 minute walk. We stopped at 7-Eleven on the way to get some Korean snacks. I ate the snack I bought last night, and I can’t remember what they were called (I was too exhausted to think), but they were like a cookie type thing, and they were good. After that, I just got a shower and planned to write this blog post, but I was too tired. I decided I would take a little nap and then write this, then go to sleep, but I slept through my alarm. So that’s why I’m writing this a day late.
Today, we’re going sightseeing and then have a K-Pop dance class in the evening. I cannot dance for the life of me, so we’ll see how that goes!
Here’s a bunch of photos (in no particular order).
