Today we needed to get going early, and it was business casual dress because we were going on a site visit later in the afternoon to a water plant. We started the day at Seoul city hall, and we had some free time to split into small groups and explore. Mine went down the stairs to this gallery where there were a gift shop (I bought a postcard) and some exhibits. They had a lot of photo opportunities where your photo would be edited in some way like you would get a hat or a different background. After exploring we met back up with the group and went on the tour of city hall. Our guide Mr. Kim was amazing. He made jokes the whole tour and I learned a lot about the history of the building and just of Seoul in general. He took us to the mayor’s office area and let some of us sit in the chair to pretend to be mayors! Then he took us back down to the gift shop area that we were just at. Which meant that I bought more stuff, it was very cute and I got a free balloon with the purchase, which I had to then carry around the rest of the day but a lot of other people had it too.  

Then we went to lunch. Because we won an award earlier, we got a free lunch, so we went to this hot pot place. And I ate so much food! We had three rounds, one with meat, one with noodles and then one with rice. My favorite was the meat round. It was cool to see it cook and change from red to brown so quickly. The adults paid and then we were out to the water plant.  

Now the water plant for security reasons you cannot take pictures. We learned about how the water is taken from the river to the plant filtered with sand charcoal and more then sent to the houses of Seoul. The water is so clean here you can drink the tap water safely. Anyway, after that they took us to the roof of the building. And here you could see everything as far as the horizon went. It was Seoul’s skyscraper in all directions! Everything the light touches is Seoul as Jake said. Then we stopped at the water museum and learned about the first water filtration plant made in 1908. We thanked them and then left for dinner.

The dinner was our welcome dinner which was supposed to be the first day but got moved. It was pork and a bunch of other dishes and most importantly a kimchi pancake! But I was so full from lunch that I couldn’t eat a lot. I also learned from Chris that the oldest person at the table pours the water. All this time I’ve been doing it, I’ll hand off that job. From there we were given free time. 

For the rest of the night, we went shopping. They have a Lego store! And it is 100 dollars cheaper, but I don’t have the space in my bag! The horror! I was able to grab more gifts for family members. And this really cute seahorse clip! It’s so small and cute!