Han River, Icheon pottery tour, Gyeongbokgung, Trick-Eye Museum & Ice Museum, N Seoul Tower

Last full weekend in Korea! Although I have an essay and final exams, I tried to make the most out of the remaining days.

Wednesday: We went on a night cruise on the Han River! It was a gloomy evening, but we enjoyed the views of the bridges and buildings. Later, we came back to Anam for dinner and ate at Young Chul Burger. I had a fruit salad and baked potato wedges, which were so great after eating cup noodles all week.

Thursday: After class, our group met up with a KU buddy to have samgyetang, a chicken soup typically eaten in the summer for nutrition. There wasn't anything vegetarian, as expected, but I got as close as I could by giving my chicken away and eating the broth with rice. We later went to eat patbingsu (shaved ice dessert) and then headed to the grocery store for the last time.

At store, boxing station // Instead of buying bags, we boxed the groceries.

Friday: I went with some friends to Icheon Ceramics Village (이천도예마을) to learn about ceramics. The work we saw was amazing!

If I remember correctly, the tour guide told us that only about 3 out of 10 of those big white ones are successfully made by professionals without being broken. :o

While we were painting our own pots as part of the tour, the guide decided to "read" us. She guessed that I was the youngest child (and correctly guessed the others too!) and then read my palm. According to her, my palm says I like to study, I will marry a handsome husband late in life and we will not have many troubles, and I will earn a lot money but keep it for myself. She said there will be health problems though, so I need to eat well. I don't know how much she was reading me vs. my palm, but I can see these things being accurate haha.

Painting is too hard! So I just decided to write really big to take up space haha.

We also made our own pottery, but it has to dry and be baked twice, so it won't be ready for a month. I decided to ship it back to the US though, since it is the only pottery experience I will probably ever have.

For lunch, we had a special meal in Icheon. I can't remember what the guide called the meal, but it was a huge amount of food! The servers bring out a cart with a tabletop holding a bunch of dishes already arranged. Then they slide the tabletop onto the table. I tried to get a picture of the meal, but I couldn't even fit all of the dishes into the picture!

Rice in stone pot // You move the rice to another dish, then pour water into the pot. Later, you eat the rice water soup in the pot to help digestion.

Saturday: I finally saw Gyeongbokgung (경복궁)!

Two of the many artists painting here

This painter posed with his work for us! He asked if we would take a picture with him too.

Then I took the subway to meet up with other friends and go to the trick-eye museum in Hongdae and later to see N Seoul Tower (/Namsan Tower). I got super lost looking for my friends though and walked circles in Hongdae before finally running into them. I'm just not very good with maps.

To give an idea of what the trick-eye museum is like....

We also went into the Ice Museum.... toooooo cold! I wanted to get out ASAP haha.

After the museums, we went to Myeongdong to get to the tower! But the lines were insane (bad idea to go on Saturday I guess)! We probably waited 2 hours in line to take the cable car there, then had to wait again to buy tickets to go inside, and again to go up the elevator to get to the top. It was very cool to see the city from so high up though.

Oh yeah, and we went to the Teddy Bear Museum... it was a bunch of history reenacted by teddy bears!

I was so glad to get back to the dorm room by the end of the day. Between touring, walking around, getting lost, taking the subway, and waiting in lines, I didn't think I could keep standing for another second!