1st Week of South Korea: January 3-9

Tuesday 1/03

Early this morning we drove to the airport to catch our flight to Seoul. A bus picked us up at the airport and brought us to the Yonsei University campus. After we put our things in our dorms, we had an orientation where we learned a little about what we’d be doing and we met our Yonsei buddies! We then went on a campus tour and our buddies showed us around. After the tour, we all met back up for dinner at a nice restaurant for Bibimbop, which was very yummy (the first of many Bibimbops of our time in Korea haha).

Wednesday 1/04

Today we had a Seoul city tour. First we went to the Emperor Palace and toured every building. As we were leaving, there was a “changing of the guard” ceremony where there was a lot of drumming, horns, and marching. After that we drove to a restaurant for lunch and we had some bulgogi stew that was delicious. I also really liked the appetizer of kimchi egg patties. After lunch we had some free time to walk around the Insadong shopping area to shop for souvenirs. After our short free time we went to MBC, which is a TV network in Seoul. The tour was really cool because they had all of this high tech projection stuff so we took pictures “with” K-pop singers. They even had a fake performance by Big Bang (a boy’s K-pop group). It was a lot of fun. We then went back to campus and had free time the rest of the day, so we just got dinner on campus. For dessert, a few of us found an ice cream spot nearby, Pop Container, which sold a large tower of flavored shaved ice.

Thursday 1/05

This morning we had our first lecture on the “Historical Overview of Korean Society.” For lunch, we had a “Welcome Lunch” with other workers at Yonsei who helped with our program. We went to a very nice restaurant and had a 10-course meal with many different types of Korean food. After both of our lectures we had a Korean Culture and Traditions event where we learned a little about the history of Korea, we tried on their traditional clothing, practice bowing to each other, and learned a bit more about important cultural elements of the country.

Friday 1/06

This morning we had our first Korean language class where we learned some basic phrases. After that we had another 4 hour lecture, broken up by a 1.5-hour lunch. We always go to Crazy Brown (a restaurant in our dorm) for lunch. That evening, a few of us hung out with our Yonsei buddies and they showed us some fun places in the city.

Saturday 1/07

Today a couple of us went to the Leeum Samsung Art Museum. This was a really cool museum where we were able to interact with some of the exhibits. My favorite exhibit was the “Rainbow Assembly” where there was a mist falling from the ceiling, and light shining on it which made rainbow designs. Alex, Siri, and I (Becca) took some pictures with umbrellas. After this we got some dinner at a falafel place nearby which was really yummy and made us nostalgic for Israel. We then found a freakshake (extravagant milkshake) place and split oreo and nutella milkshakes! We then headed to see the political demonstrations near the city hall where many Koreans were gathering to protest the president Park and get her impeached. This was a really cool thing to see and I was amazed at the power of the people. When we got back to the university, a few of us all hung out in Laura and Katherine’s room to watch “The Bachelor” and have some snacks.

Sunday 1/08

Since all of the restaurants in the dorm were closed, we found a spot nearby that had some good, inexpensive Korean food. I had bibimbap and gimbap (Korean Sushi). After brunch, Laura, Alex, Sydney, Siri and I went to “Common Ground” which is a pop-up mall made out of truck containers. It was super cool looking and had some cute stores. It even had some food trucks in the parking lot, but we were too full. We shopped around a bit and found a spot that sold some waffles so a couple of the girls got some. We then went back to Yonsei to get some studying done and to watch another episode of the Bachelor.

Monday 1/09

This morning we had another Korean language class, then a 4-hour lecture on the political economy of Korean development with a break for lunch. After class we relaxed for a little bit and then Laura, Alex, Sophie, Katherine, Siri and I got sandwiches at a restaurant near our dorms. We were all craving something sweet so we got dunken donuts for dessert! Alex made a “pleasing videos” instagram and we had fun making silly videos.

And here's a sneak peak of our time in South Korea (ranging from the beginning of our stay to the end)!