My Overseas Trip for Korean Cultural Program

On the 22nd of July 09 I went to visit my homeland, South Korea, for a few days. I had been invited by the government to go to Korea with other students from other countries that had a Korean background. The purpose of this program was to let overseas Korean students establish their national identity, to establish a basis for the education of overseas Korean and to encourage international interaction and to establish networks among participants. I was going to spend seven nights and eight days with other children my age but my parents weren’t coming! Luckily, my relatives met me at the airport.


On arrival at the hotel, all of the students had to check in and we met out our roommates. My roommates made up nicknames and they were Rosa, Chris, Yoyo, Butterfly, Narrow and Maria, while my name was Jasy. Our room spoke English one day and Korean another day but we used Korean more often. The whole group had an opening ceremony where we made vows and sang the Korean National Anthem. Then we had a delicious dinner, followed by a meeting, and we all fell into exhausted sleep at the Hotel Royal.


After breakfast together, we danced to music and wore long, white sleeves with masks we had made the day before. This was a traditional dance in Korea called ‘Thal Choom’. On that same day we all visited MBC, a national TV station. There we learnt how they filmed movies, news reports and more. There was also a machine that told us who we were. I was a manager and my lucky number is 8 and my lucky day is Tuesday! Then afterwards was a baseball match, a popular sport in Korea. We cheered for the SK Wyverns team and they then won. By the end of the game I had lost my voice. I was having so much fun!



The third day was the ‘We are Friends’ event when a clown came in and we played lots of games. I got to be the clown’s partner, it was so fun as we danced and sang. At the end of the event we introduced ourselves and received a diary book. Then we hopped in the bus and moved to a place called Anyang. There we went to a food company and saw how instant noodles were made. However before this we had to wear lab coats and a hygienic bag that covered our shoes and our hair. Even when we went into the building there was a machine we had to walk through, it burst out lots of air so that anything clinging to our clothing would fall off. Afterwards we received a package full of food for a present and we went to the Hotel Royal for another goodnight’s sleep.


On the fourth day, I woke up and took the bus to our destination Oktokki, a space centre with rides and information on how people traveled to the moon and what happened when they were there. We rode on a space lift, went dizzy in a spinning chamber and watched a movie on space. While we were there we even made our birth star necklaces and went sledging down a grassy slope. It was so exhausting! After doing all of that we went swimming with tubes and after swimming we had some food that made my mouth water. We went in the bus again and went to a place where early Koreans made camp. Then we traveled back to the hotel by bus to again have another sleep.



Our fifth day was spentexploring the crowded city… Firstly we visited a National Folk Museum that showed us all about my Korean culture. All the students of the program listened to a fairytale about a girl who sold herself for her father’s blindness and committed suicide by diving into a raging sea. The next day a beautiful, large water lily rose up from the sea and was given to the emperor. The water lily opened up to reveal the girl who committed suicide. The girl was made queen and met her father who suddenly had his sight restored saw his beautiful daughter in front of him. After this story was told everyone moved on to find a model of an olden day house with grinders and spinning wheels and wool making machines. Everyone tried the intriguing machines and touched the different food they used for cooking. After wandering around the museum we went to see a musical where two teams of dancers danced with each other. The musical had a famous dance group called B-boy and the musical was called ‘A Ballerina Who Loves B-boy’. That same day we roamed around the markets of the Korean city and walked beside a river full of wonderful fish. As we crossed the rushing river on some stepping-stones one person fell into the water with a huge splash. All the teachers rushed to help and she was lead to safety. Lastly we went to our cosy rooms and had a well-earned sleep.



Day 6 was the most exciting of all because we spent the whole day at the amusement park, Lotte World. By this time I was tired getting on and off the bus so it was great to be in one place. I went on a Viking boat, a super rollercoaster and a monorail. The best was the Viking boat, which I rode six times. I always tried to be at the very end of a boat that made the experience scarier. I felt like I was just going to drop from the sky and it felt like I weighed nothing at all. On the rollercoaster I could never stop screaming and I thought I was going to perish when the 180-degree drop came up. The monorail was slow but relaxing as it went round the whole of the amusement park. At the end of the day I had a stomachache and I figured it would have something to do with the 3 cups of fairy floss I ate and the cup of purple slushy.


The second last day was when we wrote in our diaries about the experience we had but I freaked out when they said I had to write in Korean but with some help I got to finish successfully. We had a funny questionnaire that only one girl got the answers to and did our ‘ThalChoom’ dance. I sang a solo in English and we also had to create a performance. Our group did a Korean song where the boys sang and the girls held up signs. Everyone loved it. Then we had our last dinner together.


On the very last day we all said our goodbyes and had our closing ceremony, in which I was presented with an award for being the best student and also a friendship award. Everyone received at least one award and a card from their group teacher. I said my last goodbye to my friends and met my relatives who I had my last lunch with and flew off heading back for Australia. I was very happy to have the opportunity to have this experience and learn more about my Korean culture. It helped me with my Korean speaking and writing and also my understanding of Korean nationality. It felt like I had been in Korea for a year gathering all this important information but to think the program taught me in one week is really amazing.