Gilman Blog #11 | Semester End Bucket List Follow Up

Near the beginning of my semester abroad, I made a bucket list for myself to accomplish over the 4 months that I was living in Korea. Now that my semester has ended and I have officially left the country, I wanted to revisit the list and see how much I have managed to check off. The items that are italicized and underlined are activities that I did not complete.

#1 alternative? – mid-November

#2 and #4 – early September

*- denotes the number of times I did the activity

Touristy things

1) See the night view of Seoul at Namsan Tower
(I have heard Namsan Tower is slightly overrated so I went to Seoul Sky at Lotte Tower instead!)
2)Try on a hanbok**
3) Go to Myeongdong and buy K-beauty stuff********
(I probably spent way too much money in Myeongdong)
4) Visit Gyeongbukgung*****
(I know this palace like the back of my hand now)
5) Go to the Bukchon Hanok Village*
6) Take a weekend trip to Jeju Island*
7) Do underground shopping in Gangnam
Station*
(Overrated. I would much prefer shopping in the Ewha area)
8) Visit the Starfield Library at COEX mall*


#6 – late October

#8 – mid-December

#10 – October

#12 – Seoul Lantern Festival in early November

#13 – early December

#18- day trip to Suwon

Things to do

9) Try a jjimjilbang
(ended up not going because I couldn’t match schedules with friends… next time!)
10) Visit Seoullo 7017*
(It would have been really pretty in the spring!)
11) See an arts performance*
(Sister Act was so fun to watch although it was awkward being the only one laughing at American jokes)
12) Walk along the Cheonggyecheon Stream*
13) Take a guided tour of the DMZ and Panmunjom*
14) Go karaoke at the infamous Su Noraebang in Hongdae**
15) Go night shopping at the Dongdaemun Market*
16) Hike at Bukhansan when the leaves are changing color
17) Visit Chinatown in Incheon

18) Take a day/weekend trip to a smaller city or town*

 

#14 – mid-December

 

Food

24) Have street food for a meal*
25) Eat at the oldest restaurant in Seoul**

(Their seollongtang and radish kimchi is amazing!)
26) Try raw beef
27) Eat sweet potatoes in the winter*
28) Try live octopus*
29) Try Koreanized Chinese food**

 

street food

 

#25 – early December

#25 – part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#36

Inner K-pop/K-drama fangirl

36) Eat at the YG Republique***
37) Visit the SM cafe
38) Take a photo at a K-drama film location*

(Pedestrian tunnel in Sinchon near Ewha and Yonsei)
39) See a hologram K-pop concert
(I didn’t see a hologram K-pop concert- but I did see a real one instead!)
40) Eat at a restaurant owned by a celebrity*

 

#38 – early October (The tunnel is now under repair and repainted white)

#40 – Aori Ramen is owned by Seungri of BIGBANG

 

 

 

 

Bonus items – these weren’t on the original list!

41) Taking a photo with the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic mascots*
42) Going to a K-pop concert*

(still in disbelief that I saw Highlight live)
43) Taking photos at Haneul Park*

 

#41- late December

 

#42- Although we ended up with seats in the second to last row, it still wasn’t bad at all!

 

 

#43

 

 

#45 – Doing 108 prostrations at Mt. Myogaksa Temple (late November)

Bonus Items – cont’d

44) Becoming a regular at a cafe!*
(the owner of Charcoal remembers my sugar level preference in my milk tea)
45) Doing a temple stay
46) Photoshoot with friends at Ewha
47) Seeing YouTubers!
48) Watched a musical in Korean
(Watched Titanic the musical in Korean, didn’t understand everything but the experience was cool)

 

 

While I still didn’t get to do everything that I wanted to do, I am really glad and happy that I was able to make time to have a variety of experiences abroad. I had a ton of fun doing different activities and learned about a number of topics through meaningful experiences. Overall, I do think that it has been a semester well spent.

#47 – Talk To Me In Korean meet up

#47 – Joan Kim’s meet up for the end of her 365 vlogs

#47- Edward Avila at Joan’s meet up

#47 – Eddy’s Christmas party

#46 – mid-December

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