My scavenger hunt group: Kayla, Callie, Maimay, and Dianna
Today, we met in the lobby of the hotel we are staying in at 10:00 AM and split up into groups of 5 in order to do a scavenger hunt around Seoul.
Statue of King Sejong in Gwanghwamun Square. He's famous for many things, including inventing Hangul, the Korean writing system.
Another photo of Gwanghwamun Square
Facing the opposite direction in Gwanghwamun Square
First, we headed toward the Insadong (인사동) district but quickly realized we were headed in the wrong direction! We turned around and went to Gwanghwamun Square (광화문) to get a picture of the US embassy and the Seoul city hall. We then headed east and saw Cheonggyecheon (청겨천) Stream, which is a beautiful park that runs through the area near Gwanghwamun Square. We put our feet in the water (it was ice cold!) and walked across a cool stone bridge.
Statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin in Gwanghwamun Square
Korean War Memorial in Gwanghwamun Square
Cheonggyecheon Stream
Another shot of Cheonggyecheon Stream
Next, we went to the Korean National Tourism Organization as one of our stops for the scavenger hunt and took pictures with cardboard cutouts of Korean pop idols.
A picture of me with cardboard cutouts of Girls' Generation (Korean pop group)
We then hopped on a bus and rode to Severance Hospital, which is on the Yonsei University campus. We took a picture near the international health clinic in Severance (part of the scavenger hunt) and then went on a trek to find lunch!
The seollongtang I ate for lunch
We ended up eating a place that served different types of soup. I ate seollongtang (설렁탕), which is translated as ox bone soup. It was rather plain compared to the other Korean foods I have eaten.
After lunch, we took an hour long subway ride to the Gangnam (강남) district and saw a bunch of street cafes and a giant underground bookstore called 교보문고, which means Kyobo Book Center.
Traveling via subway to Gangnam
We returned from Gangnam back to Cheonggyecheon (the place with the pretty stream) in order to see a musical called Bibap, which was actually really entertaining. It was a comedic musical with a lot of loud dance music and a Capella singing. Even though I didn't understand the Korean words, I still thought it was very funny!
Me with the cast of the musical, Bibap
After the musical, some of our group went back to our hotel via train, but the rest of us walked back a couple miles eating various types of food from street vendors along the way. I couldn't eat a lot of it because it wasn't gluten free, but I did have boiled potatoes, extremely spicy kabobs, roasted chestnuts, and shredded squid (all of which I forgot the Korean names of, haha).
Tomorrow morning we are leaving on a three day excursion to some other cities in the southern part of the country. I won't have my laptop and probably won't have internet access for those days so I won't be able to update again for the next three days.
That's all for now!
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