Home :-(

Finally home. We are all devastated to be back in the UK after a real trip of a lifetime. These students will never forget the experiences they have had in the last fortnight!

Below are a number of things we have learned since being in Korea, which make the country the fascinating and crazy place that it is: 

Korean girls' schools are as loud as UK girls' schools!

When people take photos they say 'kimchee' instead of 'cheese'

Kimchee is vile. (Ms Murphy, sorry it smelled too badly to bring some back for you!)

Koreans don't sleep much!

Automatic toilets are complicated but we all wish they existed in the UK.

Samsungs are by far the most popular phones, and stay attached to students' hands day and night.

Children sleep in lessons - and aren't told off for it!

K pop is really good!

Much fun can be had in a karaoke booth.

Korean face masks make you look hilarious but are the 'real deal' (quoted by Ikea!) 

The people are incredibly kind but barge past you all the time (apparently this is not rude in Korea)

Everyone shares food at home and in restaurants.

Front doors have electronic codes instead of keys.

Many Koreans sleep on a thin mattress on the floor, even people with a lot of money. Paige slept on one of these and said it's actually quite comfy!

Korean teenagers take amazing selfies (And even have selfie taking poles!)

Korean fashion is amazing, although we've seen some interesting English words/slogans on T-shirts, including 'butter' and 'happy donkey.'

Boyfriends and girlfriends wear matching clothes when they go out together and give each-other couple rings. Very strange! 

Korean people seem very bad at working out peoples' age! They all thought Miss Morton was one of the students (which made her very happy indeed!) 

Korea is a beautiful mixture of old temples and very modern tall buildings.

We hope that you have enjoyed following our NGA blog and sharing our experiences. If anyone wants to hear more I'm sure Nicole, Gaja, Ikea and Paige will be happy if you stopped them around school to answer any questions! They will also be doing assemblies about their trip in September and helping the Sungkwang students when they come to visit us! 

We hope that this 'sisterhood' with Sungkwang Girls' High School will have a positive impact on both schools for years to come. Sungkwang is a very special school and we can definitely learn a lot from the attitudes and work ethic that Korean students have. It's been a real eye-opener. 

Just to finish, I'd like to give the students the following awards... 

Best sleeping position..... Goes to Nicole Clements! 

Smile for the camera award... Goes to Paige Walker!

The 'should have gone to specsavers award'... Goes to Ikea Wint!

Finally... The best selfie award... Goes to

Gaja Jodlowska!!

Thanks for making this trip so fun!!!

Lotte World

After more tearful farewells this morning we took the KTX high speed train back up to Seoul. We dumped our bags in the hostel and hot-footed straight to Lotte World! This is the world's largest indoor theme park and it looked pretty impressive! 

Lotte is one of the main department stores but they have branched into all sorts, including theme parks! It had a bit of a small scale Disney look going on but possibly a little cheesier... A good time was had by all and it was a great way to finish off an incredible 2 weeks with some wonderful students and new friends. Our legs are aching but we have smiles on our faces!

We had a 'whale' of a time!

This was our last day in Ulsan at Sungkwang Girls' School so we are all very sad. In the morning our wonderful teachers (Kun yup and Min Jeong) took us to the whale museum. What an experience! We arrived in time for a dolphin show! 4 dolphins did some incredibly cool tricks for us, led by their keepers. We were all incredibly impressed! 

We saw a 4D whale film which sprayed water in our face and wind in our hair. The chair moved too! We also saw a Dory fish! (You know, Finding Nemo!) 

We then met the principal and vice principal at the D'Maris world buffet. I can only describe this as Red Hot buffet but ten times bigger and better!! We ate very well indeed; sushi, pasta, dim sum, cake, and fruit. Miss Morton and Ikea had crab legs which involved using scissors to  get through the shell. 

In the afternoon Miss Morton learned some more Korean with the principal. Korean is a really interesting language to learn. The words are all in a different order with the verb at the end. I imagined it would be a little like Japanese which has very few irregular verbs (the students will know how frustrating they are!) But actually it was full irregulars! 

The evening was one of the nicest parts of the whole week. The Sungkwang Girls' High School put on a huge show especially for us! We were asked to present about the UK, Nottingham and our school. Nicole, Paige, Ikea and Gaja had to stand on stage in front of 1000 people and they really did themselves and the academy proud! We also performed the cha cha slide and made the whole audience join in too... They loved it!

Our presentation was followed by a number of impressive performances including dances that could even rival G-13 (Although I think we still have the edge!) There were dance performances to American music and also K-pop, which I'm certain many of our students would have enjoyed. Anyone know Girls Generation?! 

We were treated to incredible singing  of both Korean and English songs including lovebird by Leona Lewis and listen by Beyoncé! Some of those students would definitely do well on the X factor! 

As the show drew to a close we were pulled back on stage to take millions of selfies with random students... It felt just like being a celebrity! Many tears followed as we said goodbye to the teachers who have made us feel so welcome all week.

Off to Lotte World tomorrow in Seoul before setting off back home :-( we're all secretly hoping we can find a way to stay but it's not proving successful so far!

Wednesday's eventful day!

Apologies for the lateness, it's been a busy couple of days! Yesterday we did a bus city tour together with Nottingham Academy. We were first taken to the Hyundai area of the city. Ulsan is the city where Hyundai was founded and where the vast majority of its products are built. It began as a car workshop in 1935 and has now become one of the biggest engineering companies in the world. 

We saw both the heavy industry (shipping) and the car side of the company. It was fascinating! We drove through the ship production yard and saw the different processes. They have cranes that hold 1290 tons! The scale of the place was incredibly impressive.

We then went to the car side of the business. We went to a museum to see the development of Hyundai cars since the first in 1975. It was interesting to see the development of safety features over time! More excitingly, we were taken to the actual assembly factory where we watched the workers putting together the cars bit by bit! We were told not to take photos but a bit of swift stealth work by Miss Morton produced some good results! We were told that a new car is completed every 10 seconds at the factory! 

Now comes the dramatic part of the day (and of the whole trip come to that!) So we got off the bus to look around a park... But just as we were ready to set off, Ikea walked nose first into the boot door of a bus 😫! As her mum put it, 'it's all part of the experience'!! 8 stitches later and a group venture to experience a Korean hospital, we are all safe and well again! 

Here are our observations about Korean hospitals. They have...

1) amazing chairs

2) a grand piano in the lobby

3) a fish tank

4) a glass case full of bones (who's bones I do not know!)

5) pictures of operations in the lift!

Crazy place! They were, however, very quick and incredibly friendly, not to mention putting Ikea back together very well!! 

We were joined by our Korean partners this evening for dinner before having a relaxing evening after an eventful day! 

Gyeongju (Bulguksa temple)

Today has been very interesting. We began the day with two hours of learning Korean. The students learned how to write in Hangul and how to say a few more sentences. They also watched lots of K Pop music videos! That is new Korean music which is also becoming very popular in the UK now! 

Miss Morton learned with the principal again and being a language teacher geek I learned how to use verbs in the past, present and future (GCSE students know the importance of this!) 

In the afternoon we went Bulguksa (Buddha's country's temple) for a lovely look around the temple. There were four different buildings used for praying, all with a golden statue of Buddha. The architecture was beautiful and we were particularly impressed by the 'guards' at the gate which are designed to scare intruders off! 

After this we went to the Seokguram grotto which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's a statue of Buddha which was place in a hollowed out cave and surrounded by huge stone bricks in the shape of a dome. It was built between 742 and 771 A.D! Despite the lack of technology the measurements for each brick was far more precise than it is now! Cheeky picture taken by stealth... Not the finest of photography (sorry Mr Traylor!)

Finally we went to the national museum of Gyeongju. We spent some time in the Buddha art area then saw the 'Sacred bell' that we learned about on our first day in Ulsan. According to Koreans, if you have the opportunity to hear the bell you will be blessed by its sound... Here's hoping! 

And with the other two...

We're going to the Hyundai factory tomorrow! Wonder if they do free gifts? 😉

Busan!

This morning we had our first Korean lesson! The students learned with the English teacher called Min Jung (민정) and learned Hangul (한글), which is the Korean alphabet, and Miss Morton was taught personally by the principal called Choe Churl Ho (최철호) which was a real honour. He used to be a Korean professor in the United States and is an excellent teacher (as you can see from my first attempts at writing!) 

After lunch at school, we went to Busan (부산) with three of the English teachers. First of all we visited APEC. This is an international conference centre which was built to host a presidential summit in 2005. 

We then made our way over to the beach (해변) where we met the Nottingham Academy students. The beaches are busy but very clean! Koreans don't like sunbathing at all so everyone sits under their parasols fully clothed! 

For dinner we went for Italian (home comforts are sometimes needed!) before making our way to a traditional marked where the teachers very kindly bought us all gifts! Paige, Nicole and Gaja got jewellery boxes and slippers, Ikea got slippers, a t shirt and a necklace. Miss Morton got a picture frame with a small hanbok (traditional dress) inside. Everyone was very pleased with their gifts, souvenirs to remind us of our fantastic time here! 

More Korean lessons tomorrow then a visit to a temple in the afternoon. 

Weekend!!

So here is an explanation of what each of us did this weekend including pictures... Its a long one today, which just shows how much fun our girls are having being teenagers in South Korea! 

Miss Morton

Saturday

I went with my partner, Hye-won, to play pool with her class. We had a cheeky ice cream at home before heading out for a Thai body massage! It lasted two hours and was a vigorous massage by a very petite lady, not sure where she got her strength from! 

We then went for 샤브샤브 (shabu-shabu) which is the Vietnamese/ Japanese fusion dish we also had on Friday... Love it! 

In the afternoon we watched Frozen in 3D at home 

For dinner we  went out for Bibimbap, a popular dish where you mix together meat with rice and noodles (!) and different vegetables. I guess it's the Korean version of bubble and squeak as it was created to use up your leftover food. 

Sunday

I went to The Hyundai Department store with Hye-won and her mum. Hyundai own a number of different things in Korea, it's not just a car manufacturer. We ate sushi for lunch! 

The afternoon was great fun! All the students joined together to have a photo shoot in traditional hanboks (the national dress). 

Finally, everyone came to my apartment for dinner and a party, including two Sungkwang teachers (I felt like a teacher at a school disco!) - DJ Morton had all the tunes though! A great time was had by all! 

Gaja

Saturday

Dear diary, 

I've woke up at 8:00 were I should be up by 7:30 (ups). I got ready in 10 minutes so therefore I could be able to drink a protein shake ( it was delicious). Me and gayoung we ran out of the apartment and we ran towards the bus stop where we waited for gayoung's friends. Finally after 10-15 minutes the bus arrived and it was very packed with people. The journey to the cinema which is based in city centre took us around 30 minutes. After, the long journey we walked towards the cinema where I have met gayoung's teacher for the first time, to be honest it was pretty scary also I had to introduce my self to 20 girls form gayoung's class. The movie that we all went to was "Dawn of the planet of the Apes". Personally I think this movies was incredible and it has shown the real side of humans, also during this movie I have cried a lot. The movies finished around 12 and me, gayoung and her 8 friends we decided that we are going to have a lunch together so we have walked towards the restaurant which was "200Gram". Gayoung ordered 3 dishes which were pasta with seafood, French pastry with cheese on top and finally medium rare steak. ( it was amazing and not even expensive). After having a delicious lunch with amazing people me and gayoung we met Ikea and Suyeon and after 20 minutes Nicole and Youngseo. As we walked out way to the "singing room" we have brought some cold smoothies. After cooling our bodies down with the smoothies we have walked towards the singing room which is "Rockshy". First I was very couriers why they are calling it singing room but when I went in there was many rooms where you could sing and dance……we had small stage in the top left corner which of course me and Ikea totally owned :) we all have sang a lot of songs including Korean songs as well! Haha! Me and Gayoung we went to "lottelia" which is pretty similar to McDonald's but it's more spice hahaha -.- I ordered some hot crispy chicken burger, don't get me wrong it was nice but too spicy for a European person haha. After having amazing food, gayoung went to pick up her sister and then 5 of us we went to "Roomiya". We watched "The ring 2" in Japanese with Korean subtitles (don't even know what they were saying but oh well ) while watching they movie we ate popcorn and we played "Janga". I had to pretend for 10 seconds that I am a chicken. After 40 minutes I fell asleep and Ikea took a picture of me -.- After nice sleep we went to the shop and I got some sweets and then we went to gayoung's home to have a girly night :) The day was pretty long but very good I hope I will have these kind of days everyday :) 

Sunday

me and gayoung we got up around 11 o'clock. gayoung's dad dropped us off near the shopping centre. I bought some really nice clothes like skirt and a white top. Then I've got changed into them and gayoung helped me to look more Korean by putting the front if my t-shirt in my skirt! (Loved it) haha. After that we went to really nice bakery and got some nice stuff like cheese and sausage on a croissant (I had 3 of them!) :o. Then we have met Ikea and Suyeon we went to game centre and we played different games! After that all of us had to meet up to try on some traditional hanbok, after picking the one we wanted we could put make up on and do out hair. Then we had our professional photo shoot! After this we all have went to the apartment that Miss Morton is staying, we ate lovely dinner and we danced all night ;)

Nicole 

Saturday

today i went ice skating with my host student and her class we then had Mcdonalds and then me and my student met up with gaja and ikea to go to singing room me and my student then went to tgi fridays with her mum and sister and then we went for a walk which involved taking our shoes off and walking on pebbles to bring good health

Sunday

me and my host student went to the cinema to watch planet of the apes we then went shopping for a bit and got ice cream before meeting up with everyone to try on traditional hanbok at a photo shoot and then we went to the place where miss morton is staying for a party where we danced all night

Paige

Saturday

Ryuseon and I first went to the Ulsan Museum where it not only talked about its someehat recent industrial revolution in the 1960's (with shipping and cars) but it also showed artifacts of Ulsan from the Paleolithic, bronze and iron ages and the three kings period as well as other things (such as showing what men and women's rooms used to look like and art depicting battles with the japanese) after that we went to this big park close by and got icecream before walking a little bit (and getting a little lost!) After that we went to her mums workplace and her mum took me, Ryuseon and her sister out for lunch, then we drove back to Ryuseon's home to pick up her brother and dad then we went to the beach! After that, we saw Transformers in 4D! 

Sunday

started the day late but after 12 we went back to the park and this time went into the zoo they had where they had geese (yes geese!) And peacocks and other animals I wouldn't expect to see in a zoo! After that we headed to the traditional hanbok photoshoot and met up with all of you, then after that we headed back to Miss Morton's families hpme and all had dinner together before miss morton became the new david guetta and played music that we all danced to.  When we came home we played on the wii for a bit (impressed them with my mad Mario kart skills) before putting on facemasks!

Ikea

Saturday

Today I went to a Korean/Japanese restaurant in Ulsan's third biggest down town with Su-Yeon and we ate don-ka-su and bibimbob which were very delicious ! Outside the restaurant I took a photo beside a gorilla. After that we had met up with Gaja, Nicole and their Korean friends and then we went to a singing booth where we did karaoke which was hilarious ! we sang "I believe I can fly" and many other songs like "Gangnam Style".

Sunday

I started the day with a loverly breakfast then Su-Yeon and I were dropped off at the Hyundai department store where we met Gaja and her Korean friend Ga-Young at a lovely bakery we had some food and then went to an arcade where we went on a 4D rollacosta stimulator which was fun! Next we had met up with Paige, Nicole, Miss Morton and their Korean friends where we were taken to a photoshoot where we tried on traditional hanbok (dress) and had professional pictures taken we all looked really pretty! Finally we had a PARTY at Miss Morton's Korean student's home which has an AMAZING view everywhere you look! We had some lovely Korean food and Green Tea cake and then danced litterally all night it was so much fun!

Wow lots of fun!! Back to the reality of school tomorrow!