Seoul, South Korea: History in the Making

After Xi’an and Harbin, it was finally time for us to leave China!  After spending the past 5 months in the same country, we’d forgotten how disorienting it is to deal with new language, currency, and cultural norms.  We were a little embarrassed to not even be able to say “hello,” “sorry,” or “thank you.”  Still, we were excited to dig into the new culture and explore as much as we could in our limited time.  While the city of Seoul was amazing, the highlight for us was definitely our day trip to the Joint Security Area (JSA).  This is part of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which separates North and South Korea.  We learned so much about the politics between North and South, and came away feeling like we had just visited a part of current history – who knows how long the JSA and DMZ will be present, and what the future holds for the formerly unified country?  Keep reading to hear more about this eye-opening experience, and to find out what else we did in Seoul!

Continue reading “Seoul, South Korea: History in the Making”

We’re Back! Trip Highlights

As many of you know, Tommy and I had a month-long holiday for the Chinese New Year.  Actually, I had a two-month holiday because my school is like, super hardcore about prepping students for exams – woohoo!  Anyways, we spent our time off travelling through East and Southeast Asia, trying to see as many highlights of this amazing continent as we could before returning for the second semester.  In four weeks, we visited 10 cities in 6 different countries!  We feel so blessed to have had such an incredible trip.  Now that we’re back in Sinan, I’ll be working on posts for each of the cities and hopefully sharing at least one per week.  In the meantime, here is a quick run-down of our trip highlights!

Continue reading “We’re Back! Trip Highlights”