Hellooo. I haven’t posted in a while… I’d like to say it was for a good reason, but, sadly, it was simply because I wasn’t really feelin’ it. I’ll try harder to post more though!
This past weekend, a large group of students in ISI went on a field trip to Gyeong-Ju, a really old and historical city on the southern coast of the Korean peninsula. We left at around 8AM on Friday and were on the bus for around 5 hours.
We didn’t really do anything touristy or culturally significant on Friday. We stopped by a traditional craft store along the way and had the choice to either make jewelry or ceramics. I chose to make jewelry because I figured that if I did ceramics I’d make a slightly-less-than-mediocre clay thing and then be forced to deal with carrying it around if I wanted to keep it. So I made a keychain. They showed us how to make these really cool glass mosaic looking things using colored sand; I’m guessing they’ll put them in an oven and ship all the stuff to us after they’re all done (we left almost immediately after finishing our crafts).
The sand form of my glass keychain thing
After we did that, we went to a beach for a few hours. Most of us didn’t swim because the water was frigid but a few of the guys were brave and went in the water. It was really scenic and there were a few women selling grilled/dried squids and other beach snacks. We mostly just put our feet in the water, took pictures around the waves, and sat down in the sand for a while. It was nice and relaxing.
SNU ISI takes the beach
so pretty ^^
After the beach, we went to our hotel for the night. There was a karaoke room, arcade, and sauna on the first floor of the resort. The hotel was actually pretty nice; I was expecting like a motel on the side of the road so it was a pleasant surprise to be in a resort. There was this really cool waterpark right outside the hotel but apparently we got there too late and couldn’t go. So instead we ate a huge dinner at the hotel buffet, went to karaoke, and hung out in other rooms and got to know everyone over some drinks and stuff. There wasn’t much else to do since they said we couldn’t leave the hotel after 10PM. Personally I wasn’t feeling well (the bus rides made me a little motion sick) so I went back to my room relatively early, but it was still fun.
Water park at the first hotel… Such a tease.
The next day we left for Mungyeong (문경) at 8:30AM to do more cultural/sightseeing things. We went to Bulguksa and Seokgulam in the morning. Bulguksa was a Buddhist temple (I think) and Seokgulam was a palace. I’m not really sure because we were a huuuuge group and there was only one tour guide so some of the information got lost. It was really pretty though and I could feel that it was super old and traditional.
yay Penn friends!
Mawunyo, Debbie, Nicolette, and myself.
a veritable swarm of ISI students
After seeing these places we went to lunch and then went to see some ancient royal tombs. They were underground I think so there were a bunch of huge hills scattered around large fields of grass. It was actually pretty cool.
one tomb
A field of tombs
an observatory near the tombs
After doing some sightseeing here, we went to the second hotel. This one was really nice too, and the view was awesome. It was in the mountains right in the middle of South Korea.
View from my hotel room!
That night, as the was also nothing to do, we hung out and drank and played Korean drinking games. It was really fun, since we haven’t really had a chance to do this with people outside of the Penn program. We met some people from England and from other schools in the States. Everyone seems really nice! I’m really glad I went on the field trip since I almost decided not to go. We left for SNU at 9:30AM on Sunday and got back to campus around 12:45. All in all it was an action packed and enjoyable weekend.
Classes have been going pretty well. I’m not used to being in history/policy-making classes so this is all brand new for me. Hopefully I won’t fail both of my classes… I don’t think Ruby and Jim would be too pleased since they are funding my trip and my studies here. Heheh. It doesn’t seem too difficult though; I just have to adjust how I study and learn this stuff. 화이팅!
I don’t think much is happening in these next few weeks.. I’m going to a Kpop music show next Sunday, which I’m reeeeaaallly looking forward to. I’m almost certain that my favorite girl group, 2NE1 (pronounced like 21 or To Anyone), will be there!!! Ah! So exciting. I’m also visiting my Aunt Yomee and Suemee this Friday, which I’m really excited about since I haven’t seen Aunt Suemee in a really long time and she also visited a lot while I was growing up. Her kids are really cute too.
Anyways, that’s all I have to say for now… Thanks for reading!
안녕!
Seoul Adventures 