Taekwondo class

We were invited to participate in a Taekwondo class. Daegu University has several sports and Taekwondo is one of them. They compete and win lots of championships. Taekwondo stands for foot, hands and heart/mind. We took a class with some other kids about my age.

A few more

Jennifer and Katie are on the left. Helen and Amanda are next and then a picture of part of our group in front of the main building. The only people I am missing in my pictures is Rachel and Jeffrey so I will find a picture of them to add. If you go to my older posts you can see them doing the traditional bow.

The people on our trip

More pictures of people on our trip

The first picture is Cindy, Caroline, and Ashley. The second is me, my mom, and Kara. The third is me and Cindy again.

The people on our trip

As you know, we are with the Murray State group. I thought I would post some pictures of others in the group. We had a great time and they were all so nice to me.

The far left is Jennifer with me. Then Caroline, Michael, me and James. The picture on the far right is Stephen.

To the left is Lynn and Vicki.

International Time Zone

Ok - this is really weird and hard to remember. We are about 14 hours ahead of Murray time. So, when it is 8:00 a.m. on Friday in Daegu, it is 6:00 p.m. on Thursday back at home. My mom and I are leaving Seoul on Friday at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon (which would be midnight in Murray) and we will arrive in Nashville on the same day at 7:30 p.m. That is because we pass through the international time zone. So, we leave on Friday and return on Friday. When we were coming to Daegu, we left on Monday morning at 4:00 a.m. from Nashville and we didn't get into Seoul until Tuesday night so it felt like we lost a day. People who travel like this get jet lag because it takes them a few days to get used to being awake when they are usually asleep.

Cute Korean kids

Everyone in our group loves seeing Korean babies and kids so here are some we saw at the university one day. They are all so interested when they see us on campus.

Religion

We had the opportunity to visit a Buddhist temple. The traditional religions are Buddhist, Confucianism, and Christian. One of the Korean students told us that his Dad was Buddhist and his Mom was Christian. Koreans have freedom of religion like we do! The temples are really nice buildings. Here is a picture. Also - here is my mom and me with our student aid, Su Jung Lee. She is really nice and wants to come to Murray State to study next year.

The market

On the day we went into Daegu City - we explored the market area. People were crowded in the streets and there were tons of places to buy things. We passed several stands with fish stacked on tables. There were TONS of people buying fish (and other meat) like this. Daegu is a large city of over $2 million people. We did get ice cream at a Baskin Robbins and we saw stores like The Gap and Nike. The picture on the left were dead chickens that you have to get the feathers off of and then cook. I can't believe people would buy a chicken like that but they were buying them so it must be good! At this same stand they were selling puppies and kittens but not to eat, just to have as pets.

The bow for women

Traditional bowing

There is a proper way to bow when you greet someone or enter their home. Many Koreans do a short bow during the day but if you were invited to someone's house for tea - you would bow like this video. These are Murray State people practicing the bow!

Music class video

Here is the video from my music class - I hope this works. Let me know if you can view it.

Korean money

Koreans use WON for money. $1.00 US = about $1000 WON. When we got to the airport last week, my mom used the ATM and got Korean money out of it. It is kind of funny when we buy something for 10,000 won because that is only $10 but it sounds like so much more. I will bring some Korean money back with me to show anyone who wants to see it.

Cooking class

We had a cooking class today and it was really fun. We made rolls (kind of like sushi rolls). As I told you before, the Korean culture is focused on their food and they plan lots of activities around eating. Here is my group - my mom, Shawn Smee who is in charge of Recruitment, Kara Mantooth who is the student government president at MSU, and Amanda Carter who recruits students to Murray State. The Korean lady with me is our language teacher. She also helped with our cooking class. I don't remember how to type her Korean name but I will add it tomorrow. She doesn't speak much english but she is very nice.

Traditional Korean Music

We attended a music class, called Salmulnori, and the students let me play with them. (The Korean name for drum is pronounced "book") - it was fun but really loud. The students had just returned from China where they played for people. Just like in America, music is part of their heritage and tradition. I will have a video to show you once we figure out some technical difficulties!

Korea Culture

Some Korean people don't want nicknames. In Korea they dont have middle names. Women will never get the males last names (they keep their name) .More Koreans are getting more english names. It is not polite to call someone there first name unless you are really good friends with them. When you have children the adults name becomes the children's name (they would say, Will's Dad). To greet you always use your right hand. Annyonghaseyo means "hello", annyon means hello and goodbye.

My Dad will like this - TEACHERS ARE THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF SOCIETY! Everyone loves teachers and parents want their kids to be teachers.

Don't write a Korean's name in RED - that is a symbol for they to be dead.

Everyone thinks Americans hate spicey food - we don't but they think that we do so they always ask - "you like spicey"????

You are supposed to eat seaweed soup on every birthday.My MOM tried it and says it wasn't bad.

DR. FISH

The fish are from China and Korea. That is the only place they live. The fish do not eat any food so they feed on dead skin,off people's feet. This was found at a spa and we all tried it, there was also a big water park in the spa. It felt like someone is tickling your feet. Koreans are very clean and dont like to have any dead skin on their body.

Traditional Korean meal

In the Korean resturant we had to take our shoes off for the meal.The meal was not what I thought it would be.We sat at a long table on the floor.They brought out a lot of food that everyone shares.As you see up above, this fish was one of the dishes that we shared I TASTED it-It was ok.

Answering some of your questions

Some of you have posted questions so I thought I would answer them in one post.
Daegu is about 5 hours from Seoul. The whole country is really small and that is why so many people are crowded into the cities. Lots of people have apartments instead of houses. The Koreans take a lot of pride in the food and take special care when preparing meals.

This is a picture of me and the President of Daegu University, President Lee. He was very nice! They served everyone coffee and cookies but he made sure I had some hot chocolate instead.

This is our group from Murray State (except for Bill, our program director) this is first day we arrived.

The Koreans eat most of their meals with chop sticks and that can be hard to get used to. Here I am trying to eat pizza with my chop sticks. By the way, the pizza didn't taste like the pizza we have in Kentucky.

another cool thing

Thanks to all the people making comments and following the blog! I will get pictures up as soon as we can get a cord for our room that gives us access to the Internet.

Did you know that if I lived in South Korea I would be 11 years old (my American age is 10). They start counting age when the mom is pregnant, not when the baby is born.

Be back soon with more informations! POST LATER

A quick geography lesson

Hey - we are standing in South Korea at Daegu University, so if you were to look south Japan would be on your left and China on your right. We flew over Alaska on our way here and lots of water! Most of the people in South Korea live in Seoul - a huge city. The weather here is the same that we have in Murray. We all are wearing shorts and t-shirts. Helen met us at the airport (she studied at Murray State for one year and can speak great English). Today we meet the President of Daegu University and take a language class.

FOOD!

When we got to IncheonI thought the food was going to be really good,but it is not what I thought it would be. That is my opinon. I have ordered Korean pizza ,spagetti and breaded chicken with rice.The spagetti was sweet and did not taste like our spagetti in Murray. The breakfast was not bad - there was toast,and eggs with cereal. Alot of the Korean food is very spicey. I did find a TWIX bar and pringles - yum and my mom got dippin dots at a rest area in Seoul.

we made it!

Our first flight was nashville to chicago-then we had a 2 hour layover and then we flew to san fransisco which was 4 hours then we had to sprint to our next gate in 45 min. The next flight was 12 hours long.The flight was a little boring we had a tv that kept me busy.When we got there they had to take our temperature for the SWINE FLU!I made it.We got in our dorm today and are about to eat.WELL SEE YA,I will put pictures soon

Why are you going to Korea Will?

Hey everyone! I have the privilege of traveling to South Korea with a group from Murray State University. The trip is called Discover Korea! We will visit Daegu University and experience many new things (language, food, and culture to name a few). I am the first elementary school student to go on the Korea trip. I am doing this blog so that my classmates and others can follow my adventures and learn what I learn. I want everyone to know that traveling to other countries is exciting and fun.