After months of planning and negotiation with our host schools, 22 Yass High School students and two teachers were privileged to take the long journey to South Korea. They stayed with host families and experienced a very different kind of lifestyle during the holidays from September 23 to October 2.
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Many good friends were reunited following the first leg of the exchange, after the visit to Yass from Hogye Middle School students and teachers in February this year.
Our first full day in Korea introduced us to Korean culture and history through fascinating visits to a palace and the National Folk Museum. During our stay we also visited the Folk Village, The War Memorial, Samsung Innovation Museum, The Independence Hall, The DMZ and many other significant sites.
Mr Barrett and 16 Yass High students were hosted by our sister school, Hogye Middle School. We all stayed with different families, but did activities outside of school together. These involved visiting Seoul Land, a karaoke room, different restaurants and a Korean shopping centre.
Our one day experiencing Korean school life included creating paper boxes, playing soccer against Korean kids and watching a Taekwondo demonstration and K-Pop dances. There were many students at the school that were excited to see us, but sad to see us go.
The other six students and teacher Miss Young were hosted with families from Eungye Middle School. We spent lots of time together sightseeing and doing different activities such as going to a traditional Korean concert and spending time in a large park and bike riding, as well as a big theme park called Everland. We were also fortunate to spend days with our hosts and their extended family members, especially on Thanksgiving Day, an important event in Korean culture.
While we didn’t get to experience school life, we did see the school and discuss with our families the many differences and some similarities between Australian and Korean education and lifestyle.
Overall, it was an amazing trip and a great opportunity to get to know the people and their culture. The Koreans are generous people who looked after us really well. When we arrived back in Australia we had experienced another culture, renewed or made new friendships and we all felt privileged to have had this special opportunity. A big thank you goes out to the teachers that came, Mr Barrett and Miss Young, the parents and Ms Hiscock for organising this exhilarating exchange for us.