Seoul Touring

Our first day of touring in Seoul started with a lecture given by one of the top Yonsei professors. He gave an overview of the factors influencing Korea's development and the tensions on the peninsula throughout its history. It is amazing to think how much older their society is than ours, and that of many Western countries; their first printing press with movable type was developed in the 1200s, long before anyone even conceived of such a thing here. Looking around the streets of Seoul, it seems like things are still advancing a step ahead, with curving glass buildings, stores seemingly stacked on top of each other, and technology galore! Some of my favorite things to see so far technology-wise were full-size touchscreen vending machines, and touchscreen newspaper portals to save paper!
We saw the Blue House, the Korean version of our White House, Gyeongbuk Palace, whose size and intricate architecture and paintings on the walls, pillars, and ceilings were breathtaking (plus there was a changing of the guard simulation, which was highly appealing to the inner-tourist side of me!), and the Cheonggyecheon Stream, which runs through the center of the city, and was cleaned up as a city park and as a demonstration of Seoul's effort to turn to more sustainable development in the midst of its rapid growth. Perhaps the funniest part was that our tour classically ended up in the gift-shop of the city: Insadong. Insadong is a neighborhood where "traditional" Korean culture is supposedly still alive, but the liveliness came from a flurry of souvenier shops and not-so-authentic craft stores. In our hour here, we joined the mobs of foreigners from far and wide who gathered together to stimulate the Korean economy and take home a piece of Made-In-Korea history. Okay, so I must admit, I bought a decorative fan. So sue me.
I have grown our running group now, and so now cross-country pre-season training for me includes runners from around the country, and we are all motivating each other up the steepest and never-ending hills I have ever seen. It is a great way to explore the city early each morning, discovering little neighborhoods as we wind our way along.
It truly sunk in that we are on a fully-funded trip when we saw last night's buffet, and I took full advantage of it, sampling octopus, flying fish, as well as some completely unrecognizable things, and a dessert bar including little gooey rice balls which I took a fancy to. Unfortunately, the vegetarians are all sequestered, generally in a separate room, but we have bonded over this clear discrimination :) The other unfortunate thing was that I took a sip of a nice glass of what I thought was iced tea, but was actually a salty sauce. Just more reason to clense the palate with more rice ball desserts!
At night, I explored Sinchon, the edge of Seoul near the university with one of my original running buddies, and we came across an American-style clothing secondhand clothing store. Imagine my surprise to find a t-shirt with the words "Earth Eclogy" written across it. Needless to say, I took a picture.