Day 5: Orientation and Insadong

This morning proved to be the earliest morning I have had so far here in Seoul. I had no reason to be up early; however, we left our curtains open halfway and awoke at 5:45 this morning with light streaming in. There was no going back to sleep for me this morning and I spent the next few hours until 9:20 am communicating with people back home. At 9:20 I met outside of the dorms to walk over to the school of business here on campus at Hanyang for our opening ceremony and orientation. We learned about Hanyang's history and goals for the future and how this summer program is very important to the progression of progress for Hanyang University. We were introduced to our professors and after a lunch of Korean pizza-which is much different than American pizza, they have no tomato sauce but put just about everything on their pizza including corn, potato wedges, and sweet sauce- our day continued with a brief orientation to discuss the more technical aspects of the program. Once orientation was complete we were offered brief tours of the campus by current Hanyang University students and they showed us the different schools, eateries, and workout facilities as well as shared tidbits of information about Hanyang from the student perspective. After a brief rest time, a group of us headed out once again, this time in the direction of Insadong which is a well known traditional shopping place that has great prices on items for tourists. We spent a few hours walking around and shopping as well as taking in the sights of a few temples very near to the Insadong shopping area. One temple had been almost completely demolished except for a small portion-a very tall pillar that had been built in the 1460's. The other temple was still in wonderful condition and we were able to take our shoes off and join many other visitors as they prayed inside the temple. The temple was lined along one wall with plaques in commemoration of ancestors and the ceiling was covered with paper lanterns to help guide the souls of the departed to heaven.
Tomorrow is the first day of classes and thus will most likely end my daily blogs but I hope to continue with a blog every other day. Because I will be in class for 6 hours everyday I will have very little time to continue exploring Seoul as I have been for the past 5 days and thus will have fewer pictures and stories to share.

Insadong

Wall art in Insadong

last pillar standing-built in the 1460's

Temple still in use today