Time for Joy: The Fabulous Return to Seoul!

As you might know, I recently went on a trip to Seoul, South Korea with my friend Mindy (we realized we've known each other for 10 years! How is that possible!?!). We had been planning this trip since I started graduate school in 2012 and decided it would be my graduation trip for whien I finished my graduate degree (done, baby!).

We looked up places to see, things to do, foods to eat, and we came up with three goals for our trip (people with graduate degrees are very goal oriented, after all). Here they are:

1. See all the things.
2. Buy all the things
3. Eat all the things.

I think we did a pretty decent job on all accounts. If you read this blog then we are most likely also friends on Facebook (wazzup), so you've probably seen all of the pictures I posted along the way. I don't post often (at least not as often as my mom!), but I wanted to share some of our experiences in real time while we were there.

Overall, it was an absolutely amazing trip. I'll share some more detailed posts about how we managed to succeed in achieving our three goals, but for the curious, here is a quick timeline of what we did on each day of our trip (you might see a few places come up multiple times *cough*myeongdong*cough*)"

Day 1 (and 2? depends on how you see the flying out Monday and arriving Tuesday night...): Fly to Korea!!

Haven't seen each other in so long!!

Day 2: Shopping in Namdaemun and Myeongdong

I swear, I left SOME things in the stores!

Day 3: Seoul City Tour bus hop on hop off tour to see the Korean War Memorial, National History Museum, and Hanok Village.

Mindy takes a lot of pictures... and hers were way better than mine, too

Day 4: Shopping in Myeongdong and Elisabeth the musical

My favorite German musical in Korean!!

Day 5: King Sejong museum, Gyeongbokgung palace, and the National Folk Museum.

The lovely palace

Day 6: Church (hello, English branch!), Hyundai Department Store, Jurassic World at the Megaplex
Day 7: COEX Mall and aquarium

Wazzup, guys?!

Day 8: Fly out and back for a day trip on Jeju Island to take the hop on hop off tour bus to see the Jeju Incident Memorial, the Stone Park and Stone museum, Dongmun Market (the good market), Seomun Market (the crappy, empty market), and dragon head rock.

Part of the Jeju Incident Memorial

Day 9: Leave the guesthouse around 2pm (we were very tired) for "lunch" followed by the Trick Eye Museum and walking around Hongdae.

I'M TALL!!!

Day 10: Dongdaemun History and Culture park, Andy Warhol Art Exhibit, Design Plaza, and shopping in the Dongdaemun Migliore building.

Nine floors of nonstop shopping in the Migliore building!

Day 11: Final (haha) day shopping in Myeongdong and Namsan Tower

The view from North Seoul Tower

Day 12: Hongdae Free Market, Times Square Seoul, and seeing "Pixel" at the CGV theater. Otherwise known as the day Mindy almost bought a puppy.

EAT ALL THE BINGSOO!!

Day 13: Church (goodbye, English branch!), lunch with the friend of Mindy's friend, shopping in Namdaemun and Myeongdong (really, real last time), teatime with my friend Rachel, hit a noraebang (singing room), and a fancy sticker booth