I hope everyone reading this enjoyed their May holiday.  Many students told me they didn’t do much…just hung out with their friends, relaxed at home, and some even said they had to do schoolwork.

For the past three months I had planned to visit my American friend Heather, who is living and teaching in Seoul, South Korea.   Heather has actually taught here at WuDa in the 2005 and 2006 Summer Intensive English Program with me.  The time finally came and I traveled to Seoul last week.  It was amazing how fast the culture scenery changed:  new money, new language and new food, to name a few.  I could no longer use my Chinese speaking skills to get me around – good thing Heather has been studying Korean for a long time!

The first night I was in Seoul we went to a professional baseball game between Korean teams.  Baseball is very popular in Korea, and it was nice to do something I often like to do in the United States.  We also visited some famous ancient emperor palaces.  Heather did not have a week holiday like we had, so while she was teaching during the week I went to places like Olympic Park (Seoul hosted the 1988 Olympics if you didn’t know or forgot), Seoul World Cup Stadium, shopping malls and local museums.  The weather was perfect almost the whole week, except for one day, in which it was cloudy.

One of the more interesting parts of the trip was when I took a tour to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which is the border between North and South Korea and is guarded by soldiers from both sides.  My grandpa served as an American soldier during the Korean War (that’s what Americans call the war) so it was very interesting to be there and see some of the things he did more than 50 years ago.  Though there are differences between the North and South, we were told during the tour that both sides are taking little steps to hopefully one day unite again into one Korea…I hope we can all experience this soon, for the War separated families and friends.

Heather teaches at Seoul National University, which is considered a key university of South Korea and sometimes called “The Harvard of Korea.”  The campus was very beautiful, situated in front of a big mountain range.  I always enjoy seeing new universities to compare them to the ones I’ve already seen; and although many of the buildings were new, and they have planted many colorful flowers and trees, I think WuDa has a better atmosphere for walking around and enjoying the scenery.  Heather’s students were all very friendly and hard-working, just like my Chinese students.

In some ways Korea was like China.  I definitely stood out in the crowds, even though Seoul has many more foreigners living there compared to Wuhan.  Many children would see me, whisper to their friends, say “Hello!” and then walk up to talk to me.  I have had much practice in China with this experience and enjoy the fun little culture exchanges, even if only for a few minutes.

I really enjoyed the food.  If you’ve ever had Korean food before you know it’s a bit different than Chinese even though there are some similar ingredients.   There is actually a really good Korean food restaurant outside the main gate of WuDa that I sometimes go to.  Now that I have returned I can enjoy delicious bibembop (shi guo ban fan) and remember my trip.

It took some time to return to Wuhan because of so many Chinese traveling through the holiday, and I was honestly glad to be home.  If you have read my previous blogs you know I have been lucky to travel a lot recently, and now I look forward to spending the next month or two just around Wuhan, visiting familiar places and looking for new ones.

Ok, time to get back to work.  Till next time…