Day 0.5 and 1 in South Korea
◦ Landed in Incheon Airport in South Korea ◦ Toured the old campus of Sungkyunkwan University ◦ Went shopping in the famous Myeongdong Shopping District
August 13th, 2017
Wow. The first few days in South Korea were amazing. After a long 15 hour flight to Incheon Int’l Airport, we finally landed! I was fortune enough to ride on the same flight as two others in the program so I didn’t get lost on the first day here. Actually, scratch that. We got lost finding the dorms after we got off the bus. We wandered around a hill for a while but didn’t make any progress. Thankfully, a girl asked us if we needed any help! Perplexed faces mean the same in any language haha. She spoke very nice English and it turned out she was also a student of the university! We chatted for awhile as she showed us the way to Kinko Dormitory. If not for here, we would’ve been lost for much longer. First impression of Koreans? They were very nice.
August 14th, 2017
The next day, we toured the old campus of Sungkyunkwan University. It was quite an interesting experience because it was literally right next to us on the newer campus and it was beautiful. The architecture from old Korea showed through. Much of it was red and green with almost temple like buildings here and there, but they served different purposes such as an exam taking space, dorms, to hold gardening equipment, a kitchen, and more. We also learned that many of the places here follow a certain Feng Shui. They build to the north of a river bend, so that it is to the south of them, with hills or mountains to the north of them. The main courtyard faces the river and the path way connecting to the building is bent so as to not bring negative energy in. It was all very interesting.
We also went to explore the famous Myeongdong Shopping District! It was such an amazing experience! I’ve never been to a street that was so alive before! There were stores on top of stores and street food stalls and so many people. The photo above pictures many the signs of all in that alleyway. Even with that little shot, you can see hundreds of signs, each representing a store! This is one difference of architecture between America and Korea, the stores here are all stacked on top of each other and cramped together while back home, each store has its own building aside from the malls (even then they’re pretty spaced out).
