Korea Day 6: Welcome Lunch & Gangnam

Carol | July 25, 2019 | Featured, South Korea | No Comments

I didn’t have any particular plans for the day so I just went with the flow of my study group. We enjoyed a lovely welcome lunch with International Program Directer Lee after language class. In the afternoon we went on a group outing to Gangnam, a wealthy part of Seoul mentioned in the hit ‘Gangnam Style’ by Psy and visited the famous Starfield Library at the COEX Mall along with several other neat places.

Day 6 Highlights

Kookmin
- Language Class
- Welcome lunch with Program Director Lee
Gangnam
- Met Dani’s Korean friend Alex
- Galleria Department Store
- COEX Mall & Starfield Library
- 221B (a Sherlock Holmes cafe)
Kookmin
- Paris Baguette Bakery, Underground
- Played Star Flux in the Study Hall

Language Class

Learning how to read Hangul (the Korean writing system)

Welcome Lunch

Director Lee, our email contact for Kookmin, invited students from Kookmin’s partner universities to a welcome lunch at what I assume is a faculty dining hall. We ate lunch in a private room and the menu consisted of various traditional Korean meals. It was a really nice dining experience and it was nice to get to hang out with Director Lee in person.

My yummy lunch. I can’t remember what it’s called.

Gangnam

Galleria Department Store

The group decided to take a bus to the Galleria Department Store in Gangnam because some of the girls were under the impression that it was staffed with cute boys. We met up with a Korean friend of Dani’s and literally did a walkthrough of every floor of the mall. It was a high end department store with restaurants on the bottom level. I don’t recall seeing anything spectacular but it felt like an adventure and we had fun. I’m sure our group looked quite out of place.

COEX Mall

Next we took the subway to the COEX Mall to visit the Starfield Library, a beautiful contemporary library inside the mall. COEX Mall is supposedly the largest underground mall in Asia and features the largest cinema among other attractions popular with both locals and tourists.

This mall was super cool. It’s a place I would definitely visit again. It had a really cool Marvel store that also had a museum like exhibit, and a decent Daiso along with lots of other cool shops and restaurants.

Ihan Up Samseongdong Earthen Pot Restaurant

I broke off from the group to explore on my own for a bit and then met back up with them for dinner at Ihan Up Samseongdong Earthen Pot Restaurant. Whew! That name is a mouthful. This delightfully homey restaurant had drawers on the sides of the tables where guests can find flatware and napkins, and a variety of interesting dishes. I was feeling adventurous so I ordered Squid bibimbap. Squid is really chewy. My dish was interesting. My favorite parts were all the side dishes of pickled vegetables and kimchi. Korean side dishes are almost always a delight.

Navigating the city on my own for the first time.

Walking in the Rain

After eating we decided to search for the Sherlock Homes Cafe, a Sherlock Holmes themed cafe. We had a bit of trouble trying to figure out how to use public transportation to get to it and ended up walking quite a ways in the rain. I don’t think my travel buddies enjoyed the experience very much but it felt like another fun adventure to me.

221B in Seoul (a Sherlock Holmes themed cafe)

After quite a bit of walking, and a stop in a store or two looking for plug adapters we finally found the Sherlock Holmes cafe in the underground level or a seemingly normal looking shopping area. The cafe filled with Sherlock Holmes memorabilia but was more subtle than I was expecting. We got drinks and snacks and rested a bit before catching a bus back to Kookmin.

Underground & Kookmin

We visited the Paris Baguette Cafe in the Underground and picked up some tasty treats when we got back to Kookmin and then went to the study hall where I taught everyone how to play Star Flux. It was a fun way to end another great day in Seoul.