Page 72 - Reflections of you 8-12

Erkhes

Grade 11

Traveling abroad,

Traveling to Korea was one of the most precious moments in my life. Even though I didn’t want to go my parents
convinced me and I don’t regret it.

The main purpose we went there was to learn about Korean culture and exchange it with the students. I believe this
event did a really good job at that. On the first day of the event, we learnt about the basic history of how the country
separated in half until this day, how they developed from a poor Asian country to one of the highest technological

countries. I and nine students talked about our great history all the way from the “Modun Chanyu”, “Genghis Khan” to the
modern day. Then we went to our school to stay in. It had everything high schooler need. Right around the corner was a
convenience store, 2 of the 4-floor school building, dormitory, school gym, science lab, cafeteria, baseball and football
field. Something we found interesting was that male and female students were separated and most of the students go
to all boys’ school or all girls’ school. It was such a different concept from my home country.

On the second day, we went to the girls’ school and it was no different from the first, except the very large conference
hall where all the Mongolian, Korean, Hawaiian students gathered and played tons of fun Korean games. During the

break, teachers ordered us a bowl of jajangmyeon for each student. It was a noodle with black bean sauce and yellow
pickled radish, one of the most famous dishes from the country. I watched many movies where they eat jajangmyeon.
Thus, I was exhilarated to try it. It even exceeded my expectations. At night we went out and found a billiard place near
the school. My first experience playing pool was there.

We spent a whole night in the most famous sauna in Korea. This sauna had 8 floors, a movie theatre, internet café,
arcade games, and restaurants.. The weirdest thing I found was you only sleep on the floor without a blanket or mattress.
I just managed to do it somehow.