Day 11 -- A Little Bit of Everything

This morning I did homework before meeting Sandi, Sonia, and Sonia's roommate from SNU Adeline at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. When we went inside, we first saw an exhibition featuring lots of AI. The exhibition was interactive, and the AI did things like tell us which hair color would suit us best and analyze our clothing in order to recommend us outfits. I am generally not a fan of AI, but it was cool to see some of its capabilities. The exhibition hall also featured lots of sculptures, and some unique rooms, like one you could walk in that was covered entirely in pillows, from the floor to the walls to the ceiling.

We then went to another mini exhibition that walked us through some of the architectural features of the DDP, like the fact that it has 45,133 panels covering its surface that took a year and seven months to install. After the exhibition, we saw a showcase of posters celebrating the DDP's ten year anniversary, and we each got to take a free poster home with us!

Next we went to another section of the DDP and saw the pre-exhibition for a show happening next month at the DDP. The exhibition's emphasis was on eco-friendly materials and representations of the ways we interact with the earth. My favorite part was a bowling lane (that we actually got to bowl on) in which the bowling ball was made of trash and the bowling pins were bottles containing soil, representing how trash is damaging the earth. The artist was actually at the pre-exhibition with us and talked us through his work. At the end, he gave each of us a special high-quality pencil that he uses to make his work.

After walking around the DDP for a few hours, we went to a nearby restaurant where we got tteokbokki, bibimmyeon, and an assortment of dumplings, all of which tasted really good! Once we finished eating, we walked to Gwangjang Market. Even though it is pretty touristy, I love seeing all of the street food being prepared in the market and seeing the bustling crowds making their way through the market. At Gwangjang Market, I tried hotteok for the first time. Hotteok is a hot pancake with cinnamon and sugar filling inside, and it was amazing!

We walked a long way to Iwha Mural Village next, an area of town where many of the buildings have murals painted on them. We stopped by a convenience store to get some iced tea because we were so tired and dehydrated from walking uphill, and then walked around the neighborhood. There were a lot of murals in a variety of different styles, and the neighborhood was really cute in and of itself, so I was really glad we went. 

As we were walking around Iwha Mural Village, we stumbled upon Naksan Park. As we walked further uphill we saw views of the city and even made our way to the city wall. It was a beautiful area and really nice to take a walk in.

At that point, we all had to go back to our dorms, so we walked a long way to the nearest subway and then took the subway together until I had to get off. I briefly stopped by my dorm to drink some water and use the bathroom, and then made my way to Songbuk-dong (my old neighborhood) to see my host parents and Mink, my host dog. We went to a Korean barbeque restaurant and then got pat bingsu (bingsu with red bean). It was really nice to see them and it was like no time had gone by at all! I also noticed that this time, I was able to communicate a lot more with my host mom whose English isn't as good, and it was nice to see that my Korean has improved a lot. The three of us talked for a few hours before I finally went back to my dorm and went to bed, exhausted after such a busy day.