Because we no longer had any in-person group activities planned, I was able to head to Seoul early. I thought I would be more excited to head to Seoul, but I was pretty sad. I had gotten really close with some of the people on our trip. We would all eat together, explore together, and play games in the dorm. It also made me sad to think that I might not see the Korean students ever again. They really treated us with hospitality, and we became good friends. We didn’t get to say goodbye, and I was only able to tell them how appreciative I was over text.
Today I visited Gyeongbokgung which is the largest palace in Korea. It was only five minutes, via train, from my hotel. When I got there, I was watching the ending of a ceremony when a man approached me saying they were giving free English tours. I replied, “Okay thank you”. He took this as a yes and dragged me over to the tour guides. I then got a personal tour of the whole palace. The two tour guides were shocked at how little I knew about the palace and Korean history, so my tour was about 1.5 hours. The palace was so beautiful, and I was sad to hear that it burned down many years ago. As we went further and further in the palace it kept getting prettier and prettier. One of my favorite parts was the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion which was a venue on a man-made island. You have to look it up! I also really enjoyed the detailed artwork on the exterior of the buildings. The style is so beautiful. I learned that a long time ago when they used paint that they made from resources they found in nature, the paint would last around 300 years. Now they use paint that is artificially made and it only lasts around 20 years. The whole area was filled with people wearing Hanbok and I wish I would have rented one before I visited. The palace was way bigger, and hotter, than I anticipated so I got pretty worn out. After my tour, I got Starbucks and facetimed some of my peers from SF State. I’m sad that we weren’t able to experience it together. -Gwen
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AuthorSFSU Psychology Study Abroad Students Archives
August 2022
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