Day 286, 287, 288

It's been a busy couple days, which seems a rarity now especially in the final month of the exchange.
On Saturday, there was a lantern festival/parade in downtown Seoul, so I went with Marine, Alex, and a couple other friends. This festival is to celebrate Buddha's birthday which I forgot what day it was on >< but I think it's later this week. Anyway, the parade had countless people holding lanterns bound for a temple, if I needed to give an estimate, I'd say at least 10000 people, just in the parade, and countless more lining the sides of the streets everywhere. I was shouting and waving for at least two hours. Oh and this was at night from 7-930 so it was a cool atmosphere, a stark contrast to the humid days now...

In the end, we decided not to go to the temple after it was done, since there wasn't really anything to see. The parade was a "jolly good" time, pardon the old expression xD

And the next day on Sunday, I went to Incheon with some fellow classmates and the teacher, for the first time. We walked the Chinatown district and I was expecting a little more. Busan's seemed better, but Incheon's was famous for Jjajjangmyeon, having been introduced into Korea from there. So we visited the Jjajjangmyeon museum and saw the history of it and how to make it too. --> I'm not going to try and make it back in Canada...too hard...
We also saw the statue of General MacArthur and were even greeted by a former captain in the Korean army that was under his command. It was nice, especially seeing many old-timers looking at us young foreign students with curiosity.
What would a visit to Incheon been without a Jjajjangmyeon dinner? Me and Alex thought this trip would be  expensive, but apparently it was covered by the international office budget...Of course the teacher told us this budget is supposed to be used for something else...but free dinner trumps that! :D

That's what happened in the last 3 days, and there's still another trip tomorrow to Suwon.



Places visited-->
Seoul:
Gwanghwamun (Gyeongbok palace), Banpo (Rainbow) bridge, Itaewon, Gangnam, Gapyeong, Namdaemun, Cheongyecheon, Seoul City Hall, N Seoul Tower, Hongdae (Trick eye museum), Changgyeong palace, Changdeok palace, Deoksu palace, Bukchon, Myeongdong, Jongmyo Shrine, Arisu Water Purification Centre, Sinchon, Seonreung and Jeongreung royal tombs, Sinsa
Jeju Island: Hallasan, Ilchulbong, Jeju City, Seogwipo, War Memorial of Korea
Yongin: Korean folk village
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ): Panmunjom/JSA, Dora Observatory, Third Infiltration tunnel, Dorasan Station
Jeonju
Busan
Paju (Heiri Village)
Incheon: Chinatown and area

China:
Beijing
Tianjin
Dandong

DPRK:
Pyongyang
Kaesong
DMZ
Mt. Myohyang