Korea.

I’m back from a 7-day long holiday in Korea, and I know you guys must be wondering, do I not get bored of this country?  Well, the honest truth is that I am not.  The last time I went to Korea, I thought I left my heart there.  This trip was for me to find it back.

This trip was a bit different in a sense that I was always out meeting friends – both local Korean friends and Hong Kong friends who flew in for either work or holidays – so there wasn’t a day when I was left entirely to myself.  I initially thought that I would be able to sleep a lot during this trip, but it turned out that my body clock has been so well-tuned that I woke up practically at 7am Korean time every morning!

Even though I have been to Korea so many times, each visit gives me different memories.  I guess I won’t go through the trip on a day-by-day basis, but rather I’d just mention the biggest memories.

1. I find that my Korean has improved a bit.  Now I could string proper sentences with local Koreans, and many of them are very nice – they deliberately spoke in simple Korean for me to understand so that we could do the conversation in Korean.  Having said that, I think I still have a long way to go before I could speak like a native Korean.  But that whatever bit of Korean I could do was helpful, at least to my Hong Kong friends!

2. I completed the Competent Communicator (CC) Manual of the Toastmasters International’s education programme at COEX Toastmasters Club.  I think I have mentioned countless times that COEX Toastmasters Club was the club that got me back into Toastmasters, and I have always wanted to do my last project in the CC manual there – a place which I considered to have started the Toastmasters journey.  I know the folks at Victoria Toastmasters Club probably aren’t going to be impressed that I did that project there, but since I still have many more projects to do in the future, I guess they don’t have to be too concerned!

3. I am still thinking about getting a Korean girlfriend, and perhaps move to Korea in the long term.

4. It’s always nice to meet new friends and I was happy to have been able to do so.  For a single guy like me, having more friends does make that bit of loneliness go away.

5. It was also good to be away from all the mess, all the quarrels, all the fights and all the politics that are plaguing Hong Kong.  I didn’t have to hear those politicians argue on TV, and mindless radicals who thought they know politics making a joke of themselves.

6. On a more serious note – and I’m sure all of you are already aware – the ferry sinking accident happened on the day I arrived in Korea, and for the whole week, I was constantly seeing updates to the situation.  TV stations stop their normal programmes and were basically doing 24-hour updates to the accident.  Every night before I went to sleep, I would hope that the number of rescued passengers increase.  But everyday when I woke up, I only see the number for victims to increase.  Even on the streets the atmosphere felt somewhat strange.  People were still going to work, doing their daily routines.  They still laugh and have fun, but somehow it felt a little strange.  I guess that is what happens when a disaster strikes a country.

I guess I’ll be planning my next visit to this lovely country soon.  It’s hard to explain why I am so fond of this country, really.