Everland Theme Park
Since the Lunar New Year was the only holiday we got during our exchange, we decided to make a trip to the Everland Theme Park since it is outside of Seoul. This was an amazing experience; we did not realise there would be so many incredible animals; it was like a whole zoo within the park! There were also some really cool rides, including some themed on one of our favourite K-Pop groups called NCT.
We also went to one of the many animal cafes in Seoul, a Samoyed cafe! It was really fun; the dogs were so cute and really soft to pet. Animal cafes are definitely very popular here in Korea, so it was definitely something on the bucket list while we were here.
I also had the incredible opportunity to go to a concert and meet my favourite band called The Rose. Their songs have helped me through some really hard moments, so it was really healing to be able to hear them in person (ironic since this tour and album is called Heal). One of the members actually grew up in New Zealand, so I made sure to tell him that he was very loved in New Zealand; he was very surprised and thankful. I never thought in a million years that I would be able to see these people whom I look up to so much; it was truly a blessing.
We spent our last day before going back to class at a Korean Sauna (pictures were not allowed inside, however), which was a really unique experience that really helped us connect with the culture here in Korea. This is something we are so thankful to have been able to do on this trip; many of us had never been to Korea before, yet we have been learning the language for years. Finally being able to connect to the history and the people here have been really meaningful.