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My flight out of Seoul was on Saturday at about 2 pm. I spent the morning packing my bags and left the hotel at about 10:30 after breakfast and saying my goodbyes to some really great new friends. I made it to the airport on time and got on the plane to go to Taiwan which I’ve been very excited to visit (largely because I LOVE Taiwanese food; anyone who knows me very well knows how I feel about Din Tai Fung).

I made it to Taiwan and was lucky that Joyce was also headed to Taiwan to visit her family, so her parents were able to get us to Taipei from the airport. After checking into my hostel, I joined Joyce and her parents to explore the area near the hostel which I’d heard was sort of like the Myeongdong of Taipei in that there is a lot of shopping and excitement in that area. We got dinner and bubble tea (which by the way was the best I’d ever tasted and only about $1 which is typical for Taiwan, so who can complain) and explored the area a bit before we parted ways for the evening.

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Friday was our last full day in Seoul. Our entire group had a banquet at Coex mall in Gangnam planned for that evening. Some of us hadn’t previously done much exploring in Gangnam so we decided to spend the whole day there even though the banquet wasn’t actually until the evening. We started off with some shopping in the Coex mall after discovering that the Kimchi museum that we were all ecstatic to go to had recently closed down. Most of the stores in that mall were pretty fancy and expensive but it was still really fun to look around and window shop.

I think I’m a pretty sentimental person and although I never really get homesick or feel emotional about missing a place, I do get really sad thinking about people and memories I’m going to miss when experiences like this come to an end. I spent most of the day trying really hard not to think about the fact that I had less than a day left in Korea and just trying to enjoy myself with my new and amazing friends.

About two hours before dinner, we decided to leave the mall and explore the area. I am so glad we did! Adam had pointed out that there was a temple in the area we could visit, so we ended up finding Bongeunsa temple and walking around there for a bit. Matt later told us that this temple was built before Gangnam was the center for night life that it now is, so the property it was built on was absolutely huge with many different buildings and statues scattered throughout. I was in complete awe at the fact that I was essentially in nature, but could still see out into Gangnam which is one of the most high class night life regions of Seoul.

Finally, it was almost 6:30 and time for our final banquet. We went to a buffet for this banquet, but it was quite unlike most buffets I’ve been to. It was a very nice buffet with almost every type of food I could imagine existing in Korea, including endless macaroons which were a huge hit for our group. The food was incredible and some of us stayed at the restaurant even after dinner had concluded until a waiter finally came in and told us we needed to leave. We went back to hotel Kukdo afterwards to bond over drinks and cards. It was an amazing final evening to this fantastic experience.

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On our last Thursday in Seoul, the group headed to the Dongdaemun area so I spent the early afternoon in the Dongdaemun and Nandaemun just walking around getting my last glimpses of a place that has recently become so familiar to me. Later, we decided to head to the Jongno district near the Gyeongbokgung palace, mostly because Ruth told us about a great dumpling place in that area that a few of us were really excited to try. I hadn’t yet seen the statue of King Sejong so I had a lot of motivation to go, especially knowing I would have many opportunities to finish up shopping for more traditional looking Korean souvenirs for me and my friends and family in that area.

On our way there, Sunny pointed out a sign advertising free tea tasting, so on a whim, the four of us decided to stop in and give it a try. It ended up being a Buddhist tea shop. There was a lot of really fancy tea, much of which was hundreds of dollars or more, but the people working there were incredibly kind and welcoming. They served us five or six little cups of tea in a serving style that was familiar to me because of my templestay experience a few weeks prior in which I’d participated a similar tea ceremony. The tea was delicious and I loved chatting with one of the girls who worked there about what the act of drinking tea means to Buddhists and Koreans. Rather than being about health or taste, for them drinking tea is an opportunity for self reflection and meditation. After the tea tasting, I purchased a few tea accessories to remember this amazing experience.

We then made our way down to the palace area and visited King Sejong’s statue. After this, we followed a map Ruth wrote up for us to find the dumpling place Ali and I were incredibly excited to visit. We found it, yay! The dumplings were delicious and incredibly cheap. By this point, we’d found ourselves in Insadong, so we decided to shop for traditional souvenirs and stop for shaved ice with red bean on the way home.

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It’s been a while since I’ve made an update on my travels! I’m currently in Japan and going to do my best to fill in the gaps so I can keep this blog as a journal of how amazing this journey has been.

The Wednesday evening preceding my departure from Seoul was really fantastic. We started the night by going to Nanta which is a very famous Korean comedy show that is set in a Korean restaurant’s kitchen. It’s been compared to the Blue Man Group in Vegas due to the fact that it is primarily non-verbal and involves a lot of audience interaction. I’ve personally been to both shows now and have to say that Nanta completely blows the Blue Man Group out of the water. I could not stop laughing for the entire duration of the show. I actually got invited on stage for a short bit which was really fun and embarrassing, making for a wonderful memory.

Afterwards, we all got dinner together. A group of us decided to hang out by the river after that, which was amazing. I’ve loved all the time I’ve spent near the water in Korea and that night was no exception. On our way to the subway after this, we encountered a multitude of statues of a character which I am ashamed to say I still do not know the name of. But we still had a great time taking pictures with all the different variations of the same character!

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On Wednesday morning, a lot of us had different plans for what we wanted to do for the day, so most of us ended up splitting up and doing our own thing for the morning and afternoon. As a result, I took the subway by myself for the very first time in Seoul. The subway system here is absolutely fantastic, so it was no issue at all to figure out how to get to where I was going, and it was nice to have a chance to explore a little bit on my own.

I generally consider myself a pretty independent and introverted person, so I’ve been pretty shocked with how content I’ve been spending almost all of my time in Korea with other people rather than exploring on my own. The people I’ve met here are obviously pretty fantastic, so that part makes sense, but I’ve had surprisingly little desire to go out by myself and pave my own path because it seems like there is generally always someone who wants to do the same thing as me, and it can be nice to have someone to explore and talk about how incredible the city is with. So Wednesday morning was my chance to see what it would be like to take things completely at my own pace.

I decided to head to Dongdaemun, which I’ve learned is surprisingly close to where I’m staying. I feel like I’m finally getting to the place in this trip where Seoul is becoming really familiar and starting to make a lot of sense geographically. I spent a few hours shopping in some of the malls they have in Dongdaemun, which allow you to haggle for your purchases. At first I felt shy about it, but once I got a little practice, it actually got really fun and was almost like a game to figure out how low I could get the salespeople to go with their prices. It was very psychological; walking a few steps away would cause them to drop their prices immediately.

I got most of my souvenirs that I’m bringing back for friends and family in Dongdaemun that day. After shopping for a while, I decided to walk back to the hotel, passing through a fish market on the way, and purchasing street food near the hotel. I had a great morning, but I think it confirmed that I enjoy exploring Seoul with my friends more than I do on my own.

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I spent Tuesday afternoon after SKKU finishing up my infographic, which is the main final project for my study abroad class. I had a lot of fun putting it together, even though it was quite a bit of work. I’m thinking about posting it here some time. After enjoying a cup of coffee and a few hours of focused work, we went and got ramen for a quick dinner. After dinner, we went to Seoul forest, which I’ve heard is kind of like the Central Park of Seoul. It was a really beautiful park even though I couldn’t see anything because it was dark by that time. It was really cool to see this side of Seoul and to enjoy another view of the river.

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On Tuesday morning, we visited Sungkyunkwan University. We got to listen to a lecture presented by Sam Oh, who is very important in the world of libraries and iSchools, so it was really cool to hear him speak and I was stunned to see how down to earth he was considering how incredibly intelligent and successful he is. We then split into teams to participate in an exercise that required us to come up with an app idea that could either help UW students get around Seoul or Korean students get around Seattle; we got to collaborate with one another as well as Korean students to come up with what I thought turned out to be a pretty useful idea.

After presenting our app ideas, we had pizza for lunch and got to hang out with the Korean students a bit more. The pizza and conversation were awesome. We then were taken on a tour to see the SKKU library and the rest of the SKKU campus. This was our last visit to a Korean university for the study abroad trip, which was really sad since it points to the fact that my time in Korea is coming to an end. I’m going to miss everything about my experience here and hope that I can come back one day.

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After visiting Ewha on Monday, a group of us took the short subway ride to Hongdae to spend the evening there. Hongdae is one of the most lively places in Seoul, particularly for college-aged Koreans, which makes it a really fun place to be. We started off getting dinner at a Chinese restaurant and then spent the majority of the rest of the evening shopping in the area. I bought a few souvenirs for friends back home as well as some clothing for myself.

I’ve kind of been on the quest for reasonably priced macaroons here in Seoul, and I found something that may have been even better. We stumbled upon a little ice cream shop that basically makes a giant macaroon ice cream sandwich. Mine had green tea ice cream and a blueberry macaroon and was absolutely delicious. Oh, the things you’ll find in Seoul!

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On Monday morning, we set out to visit Ewha Womans University (yes, it is actually “womans”). We started off with a lecture about the library system used at this university and then got a chance to tour their library. After this, we had lunch. I ordered “potato and bacon” pizza which is my favorite Korean style pizza and was surprised when I ended up getting what was basically a cheese pizza with french fries on top. After this meal, we got to listen to a lecture presented by Matt and meet some of the Korean students that were there.

The final part of our day was a tour around the campus. Of all the campuses we’ve had the honor of visiting during this trip, I have to say that I was most stunned by Ewha’s campus; it was absolutely beautiful in its landscaping, architecture, and ability to both blend with and enhance the nature of Seoul. As a woman, I felt especially empowered by this tour as we got to hear the stories of the women who opened this university in a time when women could not attend a university with men. It was apparent that it took a lot of diligence to keep the university open and thriving and I was pleased to hear what a competitive and wonderful university Ewha is today.

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On Sunday night after the hike, I got to try one of the only North Korean things that was sold at the DMZ gift shop, which happened to be an alcoholic drink manufactured in North Korea. Although the bottle called it “grape wine,” Matt informed us that it was actually more like a blueberry brandy. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m an inexperienced drinker, if there’s something wrong with my taste buds, or if brandy is just my kind of drink, but I seemed to be the only one in the group to try the drink who wasn’t absolutely appalled by its flavor. The drink wasn’t what I would call “good” but it could have been much worse.

After this, some of us joined Matt for chicken and hof. The jug of beer they brought us turned out to be hilariously enormous. The chicken was delicious and it was really cool going to a chicken and hof place that was more focused on catering to adults in the workforce rather than college aged young adults as these sorts of restaurants often do.

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On Sunday morning, a small group of us joined Matt for a hike on the Seoul Trail. The entire trail is 157 km and wraps around all of Seoul, but the portion of the trail we hiked was 13 km (about 8 miles). Since Seoul is surrounded by mountains and this trail surrounds Seoul, the trail was--you guessed it--alongside mountains. As a result, we walked along a lot of mountain ridges and would hike pretty high up only to come right back down again. Once in a while, we’d even have to cross a road just to continue along the trail, which I hadn’t done in my previous hiking experiences.

The up and down nature of this hike definitely added to the difficulty, but it also made for a really awesome journey. Rather than spending the entire hike inside of a forest surrounded by trees and the occasional hiker, we actually got to see a lot of the city. There were several spots along the trail dedicated to the practice of various religions. We saw a statue of Mary, a shrine, and a statue of Buddha in different spots along the trail which was really cool because I felt that it demonstrates the diversity within Korea and made me think about some of the things that have happened throughout Korea’s history to lead to this much diversity encountered in the relatively small physical area that was my hike.

There was a really cool spot within the forest that was basically an enclosed bookshelf with a fair number of books that hikers can take out and read if they want to rest during their hike. I love the idea behind the trust that goes into this sort of library since there isn’t a structured system of checking books out to guarantee their return. There is a trust within the hiker community that no one will take a book without returning it or contributing something of their own which I think demonstrates that really healthy relationships can be built between people who don’t even know each other. It’s a beautiful sense of community where no one takes more than they intend to give back in some form.

I could feel this community throughout the entire hike as there were many groups of people that chose to stop and picnic along the trail, ranging from families to groups of experience hikers. Everyone had a friendly face and seemed to be striving for the same goal--finishing the hike and enjoying the journey along the way.

It was really awesome to actually walk by the SNU campus that we’d visited just two weeks previously. I carried a backpack both times I visited this campus, although the first time, my backpack carried my notebook and laptop while the second time visiting this campus my backpack was mostly used to carry my water bottle, umbrella, and sweat shirt in case they were needed along my hike.

One of my favorite things about Seoul is the fact that no matter how chaotic the city gets, you’re always a short walk away from nature and there is always a mountain in sight. This hike really brought this to life and was a chance for me to experience one of my favorite activities in Korea.

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On Saturday evening, a sizable group of us went out to dinner with Matt to what he regards as his “second favorite place for bibimbap.” Bibimbap has been one of my favorite Korean dishes since arriving here, so this obviously sounded pretty enticing to me and I turned out to be very glad I went! The bibimbap was delicious and I got to finally try makkoli, which is a drink native to Korea often described as a rice wine.

After dinner, we explored the Avenue of Youth in Myeongdong, which is one of my favorite places in all of Seoul. It’s so full of life and culture with plenty of places to shop and dine, both indoors and from small booths on the street. Our current hotel is within reasonable walking distance of this area which has been great since visiting this area almost every day has become a part of my routine.

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Saturday was a relaxed day of recuperation following our action filled Friday at the DMZ and the KPop festival, and in preparation for a long hike scheduled for Sunday. Ali and I have spent the entirety of this experience keeping an eye out for cute cafes to hang out or study at, and Ali had noticed this one in particular that wasn’t too far from the hotel we’re staying at so we set out to spend our afternoon studying there.

We planned on stopping for lunch on the way there and found a great little Japanese restaurant right across the street from the cafe we had our sights set on. I know my dining experience will be significantly simplified any time I can find a restaurant that has a menu with lots of pictures considering that my Korean is not just limited: it’s nonexistent. So this restaurant turned out to be a Godsend because it was plastered with images of their, food and even some English translations for the names of many of the dishes available. We couldn’t believe our ears when the waiter could speak pretty good English, and the food turned out to be fantastic.

Afterwards, we spent a few hours working in the nearby cafe which turned out to be shockingly reasonably priced for how upscale it looked. No complaints here! The delicious coffee and happy ambiance made it the perfect place to spend a relaxing Saturday afternoon.

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Like I briefly mentioned in my last post, after spending the morning and early afternoon visiting the DMZ on Friday, almost everyone in my study abroad group went to the Grand KPop Festival taking place at the Seoul Olympic stadium. We had all been talking about going to a KPop concert at some point during this trip so the timing worked out pretty perfectly since we were able to discover a concert with eight Korean musical groups that are among the most popular in Korea and the concert was completely FREE to foreigners! Needless to say, we were all pretty pumped.

We arrived to pick up our tickets somewhat early as we wanted to make sure to get decent seats. Unfortunately, most of us didn’t get to sit together since we registered as pairs rather than as a group, but everyone still had someone to sit with, so it was still a lot of fun.

Something I thought was funny as I was walking into the stadium was that there was a sign near the entrance discussing all the things that weren’t allowed in the stadium (drugs, firearms, knives, umbrellas, etc.) and that alcohol wasn’t one of them. I think it would be tough to find a stadium or arena in the United States that is as lax about food and alcohol as the average Korean stadium is.

The concert itself was so much fun. Even though, as a non-Korean speaker, I didn’t know many words to the songs that were being sung, many of the songs were still really familiar from what I’d been hearing on the radio or in the noraebang so it was really cool to get a combination of new music and familiar music and appreciate the music as an art form and a corner stone to pop culture in Korea. Sometimes there can be value in simply appreciating another culture rather than overexerting yourself to understanding every single bit of it, so this concert was definitely a chance to do that.

It was awesome just to be a part of the crowd and hear the reactions of the audience members who were big KPop fans and try to guess which of the performers were the crown favorites and the heartthrobs just from the sheer volume of the screams that would occur when a particular individual was being shown on the big screen. I had a lot of fun immersing myself in this side of the Korean lifestyle for an evening.

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Yesterday (Friday) was a very, very interesting day. I spent the first half of my day at the DMZ and then the second half of the day at a KPop music festival. I don’t think I could have possibly picked any two more contrasting activities to experience in a single day, so it was amazing to have both events take place in one 24 hour period.

My experience at the DMZ was absolutely amazing. When I first got to Korea, I heard about tension between the North and South as shots had been fired at the DMZ that were causing North Korea to threaten the possibility of war. Coming to Korea as an admittedly ignorant tourist, this possibility terrified me. As the group discussed this possibility with fear in our first few days here, I remember Andrew (who is Korean) talking about how it’s not a big deal and even asking Amy (who is also Korean) whether she’s ever been to Korea for there to not be an issue like this taking place. It seemed pretty obvious that this is the unfortunate norm for North and South Korea, so my worries were a bit hushed after hearing this.

The buildup to actually visiting the DMZ kind of awoke more fear though, especially after hearing all the security clearance necessary to actually get to the DMZ. We had to follow a strict dress code and had multiple soldiers check our passports and confirm that our information matched our registration information. We were then told very specific instructions of how we should behave (no pointing, no “fraternizing” with North Koreans, pictures only to be taken to the front of us, etc.).

We finally got to see the border between North and South Korea, which runs through several buildings in order to allow for a meeting space between North and South Koreans. We stood looking at these buildings for a few minutes, when we saw about ten North Korean soldiers march out and take stance on their side of the building. Obviously I thought it was really cool, but I didn’t immediately realize how big of a deal it was until our tour guide (who was standing right next to me during this) started saying things under her breath like “wow this is amazing,” “this happens only once in a blue moon,” “you are lucky to see this,” etc. Then it became pretty clear that this isn’t something that happens all the time.

When we got our chance to enter the central building that is half in North Korea and half in South Korea, we got a chance to actually step into North Korea, an experience I never in a million years thought would be possible for me. Even though it was a small step into their world it was really amazing. Looking into the eyes of the statuesque North Korean soldiers from inside this building was ironically humanizing and forced me to think about their lives and the fact that their paths are so different than the South Koreans I’ve had the amazing fortune to meet during this trip, but in the end we’re all human.

I don’t know whether I’m just being overly sentimental but this DMZ visit felt truly life changing for me personally. Hearing about the things that have happened at the DMZ and thinking about the events that have led up to North and South Korea being so strictly divided was a true moment of reflection for me and I am so grateful I had this opportunity to glance into the eyes of a North Korean and try to get a slightly better idea of the situation that has been ensuing for so many years.

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When we finally got back to Seoul on Thursday after spending some time in Busan, we checked into our hotel and got settled in. Although the hotel in Busan was absolutely beautiful and incredibly comfortable, I have to say that this hotel is my favorite of the three I’ve experienced in Korea. The main reason: closets, drawers, and shelves! I find that when I’m traveling and I have to live out of my suit case, I end up making a huge mess with my things and have a lot of trouble staying organized. When I am actually able to unpack my things, it just makes me feel at home in a sense and the act of putting my clothes on hangers and in drawers is extremely soothing for me and has become part of my travel ritual when the hotel accommodations allow for it. It was a really simple delight and great start to this last stretch of time in Korea.

After getting settled into our hotel rooms, a group of us walked around the area exploring whatever was near our hotel. Eventually, many of us split off and Joyce, Ali, and I decided to stop at a cafe right next door to where we were staying to get some work done. It’s always great to find a local cafe to ground my roots in since it is so much more pleasant to blog and talk to people back home from a cafe than from a hotel room.

For dinner that night, the entire study abroad group went to a Chinese restaurant for a huge Chinese feast which turned out to be totally delicious and a lot of fun when the combination of great food and great company were brought together. It was pretty entertaining to hear everyone’s most distinct memories about the Busan trip when we were catching Nam-ho up on our experience there.

The rest of the evening was spent exploring the Myeongdong area, which, as I’ve mentioned before has turned out to be one of my favorite regions of Seoul. As you can imagine, this makes staying in this area that much more exciting.

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Wednesday was overall a pretty relaxed day. We’d all been obsessively checking the weather since arriving in Busan and had realized that it was supposed to be pretty cloudy and rainy in the city during the duration of our stay there. However, we realized there was supposed to be a period of time on Wednesday when the weather would be pretty tame and would best facilitate some quality beach time, and activity that a few people (I included) were really excited to experience a lot of while in Busan.

After having a long and relaxed morning when many of us chose to do our laundry, we set up our plans for the beach. A group of us met up and headed to Haeundae beach, stopping to purchase some street food along the way. We found a spot in the sand that seemed nice and set up our mats in preparation for a nice afternoon at the beach. We then ate our street food that we’d purchased along the way. I personally had udon soup which has turned out to be one of my favorite things to eat here since it turns out that Koreans are pretty great at preparing the traditionally Japanese meal.

I spent most of my time at the beach sunbathing and just absorbing the atmosphere of the beach; that was probably the most relaxed I will be during this trip. It was fantastic and I felt so happy to just be laying in the sun, listening to the ocean.

After the beach, we headed back to the hotel to get showered and ready for the evening. We planned to go to Seomyeon for the night since we’d heard that it was kind of like the Hongdae of Busan and should have some great shopping and nightlife. It was 16 subways stops away which felt like a pretty substantial distance to travel, but I was honestly just happy that we didn’t have to transfer to a different subway line and could go straight from Haeundae to Seomyeon. It was kind of disappointing that it started raining pretty intensely once we arrived which sort of limited our activities for the evening.

Our first mission when we arrived was to find somewhere to eat, and we selected a Korean restaurant that pretty much only served cold noodle soup. I thought it was pretty yummy and I can always get excited about a meal that costs less than 6,000 won. After dinner, we spent some time shopping in the area and then headed back to our hotel area.

After a failed attempt to find somewhere to eat live octopus in the Haeundae beach area, the group of us decided to try the Softree ice cream we’d all walked by a hundred times and that I’d been eye balling each of those hundred times. It honestly lived up to all the hype that I had built up inside each time I saw the little ice cream shop. I ordered some honey comb ice cream and was thoroughly impressed with its taste and presentation, and we ended up spending a substantial amount of time just hanging out in the relaxed little shop. We also saw a Korean man wearing a UW spirit jersey pass through the shop which was kind of a funny moment since it was one of those times where the world just feels a lot smaller in that minute than it did the minute before.

Right now, I’m on the bus on my way back to Seoul. I’m really excited to get back to Seoul because I love it there, and we’re going to be near one of my favorite regions of the city, Myeongdong, so I’m definitely looking forward to that. But I’m also really, really sad to be leaving Busan so soon. I had a fantastic time there and it was just what I needed at the halfway point of our trip to provide some mental relaxation and a mid-trip vacation.