Week 5: Goodbye to Seoul

We have just finished our program here in Seoul and I can confidently say that these are 5 of the most impactful weeks of my life. We have gotten to explore so much and have learned a lot about Korean history, religion, and technology. Even as we were working on our final essays in this last week, we still got to experience so many cool parts of Korean culture. My favorite excursion of this past week was our temple stay at Myogaksa Temple. Here, a Seunim guided us through a day of Buddhist traditions such as performing 108 prostrations, meditating, and practicing a tea ceremony. 

Later in the day, we got to create our own traditional Korean stamps with our names written in Hangul (Korean alphabet). In Korea, these can be used as official signatures on legal documents, but ours were just for fun. We got to design and etch our names into the stamps ourselves which was super fun even for those of us who are not so artistic (me). 

We made sure in our last week to visit the Korean War Memorial. We spent most of our time in Korea visiting religious and historical sites, so it was really interesting to look at a more modern piece of history that is still impacting society today. 

On our second to last night, we got to visit Lotte Tower in the middle of Seoul for some amazing sunset and night views of the city. This is the tallest tower in Korea and we got to go almost all the way to the top as we made it to floor 118! We got amazing 360 views of the city and it was so cool to see some of the spots we visited all the way from up there, we even saw a baseball game happening!

Finally, on our last night of the program, we all had a farewell dinner together. It was an amazing way to wrap up our time together and recount all of our amazing memories as a group. A perfect ending to a perfect trip!

As I am trying to find a way to convey the impact this program has had on my life, I am somewhat at a loss for words as it is hard to explain just how much this trip has changed my life. Getting to study abroad is a true privilege. But getting to study abroad in such an amazing program with 15 new best friends who I did not know even just 6 weeks ago has been such a gift. The people, experiences, and memories that this global seminar has given me cannot be underestimated and I would truly encourage anyone and everyone who has the opportunity to go on a global seminar or study abroad in any capacity to do it. Saying goodbye to this program has been a truly difficult process but I cannot wait to see how my experience in South Korea continues to impact my daily life in San Diego and am counting the days to our global seminar reunion!

Ellie Grossman