As we stepped onto the plane early in the morning on Aug. 1, no one could have prepared us for the long flight ahead. We had a 90-minute flight to Toronto and then a 13-hour flight to Incheon, South Korea. When we arrived in Incheon, it was noontime and we still had the whole day ahead of us. We saw an ancient Korean palace and went to South Korea’s largest water park over the next two days. The house we were staying at was five hours away in Busan and we headed there on the third day.

We originally went to South Korea to visit our friend Mee Ri (Monica), who was an exchange student at Norton High School our sophomore year (2007-08). We ended up not only reuniting with our close friend, but also gaining an awareness of foreign culture and people. Throughout our trip, we learned about many cultural practices in South Korea. We were surprised to see that Koreans eat on the floor at every meal with metal chopsticks. Even at restaurants we were seated on the floor. We had thought that they would be more Westernized in that aspect.

There were also parts of their culture that we did not expect to be very "Americanized," such as the parent-child relationship. Schoolchildren take complete responsibility for their own education with almost no parent involvement. Parent-teacher conferences are a concept foreign to the Koreans, as are calls home, newsletters, and pretty much any parental communication with the school. Parents, in general, seem to trust their children more than American parents in this aspect.

Activities such as going to the beach were different, too. Most Koreans wear their bathing suits underneath their clothes and go swimming fully clothed. Almost everyone does this in order to avoid tanning. Koreans value being pale over being tan, unlike Americans.

Another dissimilarity we noticed during our stay in Korea was something called "couple look." A couple will buy matching shirts and bottoms and wear them at the same time. To an American eye, this looks strange at first, as no one in America would dare to step outside matching their partner. But in Korea, it’s completely normal and one of the cultural differences we got used to.

The two parts of Korean culture that took the most getting used to were the food and the language. The food is traditionally spicy and meat is eaten at almost every meal. For two Americans who barely eat meat every day, this cuisine was hard to adjust to. Some of the strangest things we ate were baby shrimp and jellyfish. We also saw a vendor selling bugs to eat on a street corner. This, of course, did not look appetizing.

The language was also a challenge. Not only did we not speak Korean, the gesticulations are different, too. Whenever we tried to ask if there was chicken by clucking and flapping our arms, the server would laugh. We later learned that this is because Koreans make a different sound and gesture for chickens. We did, however, manage to pick up some useful Korean phrases such as: Where is the bathroom? How much is that? Hello, goodbye, and thank you. Even with this knowledge, communicating was still relatively difficult.

Another variation in culture was schooling. In Korea, students attend school from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. They have 14 subjects such as Korean, English, Technology and Ethics. The students do not leave the classroom because the teachers come to them to teach the different subjects. The students eat lunch in the classroom they learn in all day, too. After school, Korean students are offered tutoring. Though it is not mandatory, every student attends these tutoring sessions. By the time they arrive home, it is almost 11:30 p.m. Students in America probably think that’s insane!

There are three different high schools that students can attend in Korea: private, public, and vocational. Before students enter high school, they are told which high school they will attend. Due to the fact that college admission and higher paying jobs are given to students who have an education from a private or public high school, many eighth graders cry when they find out they have been placed in a vocational high school due to low grades.

We spent a little over three weeks in Korea and it was an experience to last a lifetime. It will be hard to forget everything we learned while in this unique country and we won’t ever forget all the people we met. Everyone was friendly and welcoming to us foreigners. After our time spent in South Korea, we now hope to visit many other, if not all, Asian countries and if we have half as much fun on trips to come, we will count ourselves lucky.