Grade 9 South Korea

Our morning began with early wake-ups and a lovely buffet breakfast at the hotels before boarding the bus to the Seoul National University area. There, our students took part in a meaningful service activity, preparing grocery hampers for underprivileged families in the local community. The students also wrote heartfelt messages to the families in both Korean and English, adding a truly personal touch to each package. To make the experience even more impactful, several of the hampers were hand-delivered to families by the students themselves.

Following our service activity, we hopped back on the buses and made the hour-and-a-half journey to Suwon to attend a Korean professional baseball game. We did run into a small hiccup when one of our bus groups was unable to enter the stadium, as security had capped the crowd at 1,000 people. However, our students and teachers showed great flexibility and quickly pivoted to an alternative activity, the local batting cages, which turned out to be a hit in their own right! Meanwhile, the groups inside the stadium had a fantastic time cheering on the home team, and one of the professional players even tossed a ball to our group, which was a real highlight.

After the game and the batting cages wrapped up, all groups reunited at COEX Mall, the world's largest underground shopping mall. The students had a wonderful time exploring the shops, picking up souvenirs, and sampling all kinds of delicious food. Once everyone had their fill of shopping and snacking, we loaded back onto the buses and headed to the hotels for a well-earned rest.