It's been a week since I got back from my 2,5 week trip to South Korea. I went to Korea to join Chung-Ang University International Winter Program, I was chosen as one of the 15 participants who are sent as a representative from my home university to join this winter program. I went there to study (suuuuuure) mainly about Korean culture as well as its language. I can now read a little bit hangul here and there hehe. This is some of the earliest shot taken by my DSLR Camera, which I took only after my first week because I forgotten to bring my camera's battery that I unpacked right before I left for Korea and that I have to buy another battery on my 6th day in Seoul *cries* and that pictures taken prior to that were taken mainly by my Instax 210s and my camera phone (which I might upload later on).
Pictures on this post were taken on Tuesday, January 26th, 2016. It was a pretty cold day in Seoul but it is not as horrible as the day which I first got to the city, the temperature were about -18° Celsius. Even my Korean friends said that it was "one of the coldest days they ever had in Seoul" which says a lot about the cold. Us people from a tropical country even got it harder; my body even gotten swollen and red on the first day. Ah, as I said before, the pictures were taken on the date when students, as divided into their group, had their own session to travel around the town by buses. Our first destination as seen by the photos above was taken in Changgyeonggung Palace - one of the five grand palaces of the Joseon Dynasty, built by the figure pictured below, King Sejong the Great.
The statue of King Sejong can be found at the Gwanghwamun Square alongside with the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin. It is interesting to look up to Korean history and their struggle against Japan. Unfortunately, as it was a swift tour, I did not get a chance to look around further. By the time I was at the Square, there was also a memorial for the students of Danwon High School who were the missing victims of the sunken MV Suwol ferry. It is a truly sad sight, especially seeing some of the last pictures the students happily took together and I hope the victims had rest in peace.
Our second to last stop is the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. It is a modern architecture complex that includes museum, art shops and restaurants; you can also find malls and other little shops around the vicinity. Prior to this tour I had gone looking around the Dongdaemun area twice and it is such a lovely place during both day and night.
We continued the trip by having Samgyetang for dinner and then closed our night by going to the N Seoul Tower. The Tower can be accessed by either cable car or by going through their entrance by a hill, which our group took the latter. The view from the top of tower were beautiful, but the sight from the hill itself were already breathtakingly amazing by itself and with this kind of view the cold doesn't even bother us. It's an amazing day spent well in Korea. Look forward to more updates on my trip! This is only the beginning :-)
Read my other posts on the South Korean trip, here:
