Reflecting on Korea!

Wednesday 12th August 2009

It has occurred to me that I have written a lot about the training Alex and I undertook in Korea and somewhat about the sights we saw. However, I don't think that I have stressed just how friendly the people were.

From our first encounter with Master Park and Mrs Park at the airport - Alex and I have been very fortunate in the people that we encountered in Korea. Ok, Anne Marie was already known to many of the people we met and there is no doubt that this smoothed the way for Alex and I. However, both of us have been amazed by the warmth and friendliness of the Korean people. Nothing has been too much trouble; nor has the generosity we experienced been limited to people that we were introduced to. For example one day during our stay in Korea, Alex, Anne and I got lost on the underground system, as our train terminated at a place we were not expecting it to!! We were trying to figure our where we wanted to go and one guy, a total stranger, came up to us and with no English at his disposal, helped us to figure out our route and went so far as to take us to the platform that we needed to be at to catch the train. There were many other instances like this during our stay.

The Martial Arts training and the sights were wonderful, but the thing that has made the trip truly special has been the warmth and friendliness of the Korean people.