Yesterday was the first day of our lectures, and today is the second and final day of our lectures. Surprisingly, I have learned quite a lot from the brief lectures, and the professors who have been teaching us are very engaging and manage to hold our attention very easily. I wish all of my classes back home were like this! Anyways, here is an overview of the rest of the day:
9:00 a.m: After eating breakfast, my roommate and I went downstairs with the rest of the group and departed to the Yonsei University library and conference center for the continuation of our lectures. Like yesterday, we had two lectures in the ChangKiWon International Conference Hall, but we would not be going to another temple and learning about Korean Buddhism. In fact, we would be going to another temple later today, but it would be for touring purposes.
10:00 a.m: The first class on our schedule would cover Korean Development in terms of the formation of South Korea and the separation with North Korea. This also slightly covered the development of the language, the people, and the government to the present day. We had the opportunity to watch a view preceding videos regarding the development of Korea before we really dived into the very interesting lecture. After the end of the lecture at around 11:00 a.m, we had a small break where a few friends and I went outside of the conference hall to the cafe and the roof where we could see a nice view of Seoul. We decided to go back to the hall since it was extremely humid outside. We then sat back down for the second lecture, which would cover the relations between South Korea and the United States. 
11:00 a.m: I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture. Our presenter managed to put a few jokes into his lecture. He compared South Korea to Italy, saying that the countries are very similar, and South Korea is to Asia as Italy is to Europe. He also stated that keeping a healthy relation with the United States is a vital part of keeping peace with the rest of the world. After the lecture, our group left the Yonsei University library to Allen Hall in Yonsei. 
12:00 p.m: We ate a very yummy and satisfying lunch at Allen Hall, especially since the lunch consisted of salmon, which is also one of my favorite foods. This lunch was just so fancy, not to mention that one of the Korea Foundation representatives joined us and gave us a small speech. After lunch, we went back to our two buses and left the Yonsei University campus and drove all the way to the Blue House where we met our tour guide.
2:00 p.m: We had a few minutes to take pictures with the Blue House (which is a lot like the White House of the United States) and then we walked to Gyeongbok Palace where we learned more about the emperor and how he owned this whole palace. There were gardens, a small lake with a beautiful temple centered in the middle. There were countless rooms for the the servants and women of the house, and we got to learn about the everyday life of the emperor and his family. After taking a look at the palace, we continued walking to Gwanhwamoon Square. 
3:00 p.m: Gwanhwamoon Square was like the “Times Square” of Seoul, except it was a very historical and political center with the U.S. Embassy being right across the street. We walked through the Square and got to actually go into a small exhibition hall that was dedicated to the man who created the Korean language, Sejong the Great.
4:00 p.m: After going to Gwanhwamoon Square, we took the bus to the War Memorial Hall of Seoul. This was perhaps one of the prettiest and cleanest museums I have been to in my life. The three stories of Korean history and outdoor exhibition of the the drones and planes used during the Korean War were very interesting. Even though I did not know much about Korean history prior to this trip, I managed to learn so much about it within these past two days through the lectures and visitation to this museum. What I also enjoyed was the array of artwork hung on the walls in the second story of the War Memorial Hall. The paintings were very large and showed scenes of the Korean War. 
6:00 p.m: After leaving the War Memorial Hall, we departed as a group to go to dinner. After dinner, we returned back to our hotel for some free time.
8:00 p.m: My roommate and I decided to go down and explore the area around our hotel. We found an amazing café near us that sold waffles with gelato on top. I ordered the Oreo-flavored one that tasted AMAZING, while my roommate ordered the chocolate one. We sat there for about an hour and ate and talked, then eventually decided to go back to our hotel before curfew.
10:00 p.m: It was time to sleep! I couldn’t believe that the home-stay with our host families was already tomorrow. My time here in Korea was flying by so fast!
Machu Pikachu 