An nyoung ha seh yo Korea

Hello Korea. That's what this latest travel blog will be about: 9 days (give or take with flights, jet-lag and travel over datelines) of touring with the Tae Ryong Tae Kwon Do studio tour of Korea. Aidan and I set out to discover Asia with 49 other Tae Kwon Do students and instructors - most of them black belts of various degrees - on an organized tour of Korea - aka Atlantis, due to the moisture level present at all times.

Many people asked me before I left why was I going to Korea, and why was I taking just Aidan with me. Well, for starters, I've never had much desire to visit Asia - mostly due to the language barrier. I've done pretty well in Europe, but the Asian languages were something I couldn't begin to understand or even slightly master (it turns out that speaking them requires left brain activity, which explains a bit why it's so hard for me...) so I never thought I'd go. When this trip came up through our Tae Kwon Do studio, I thought maybe it would be an opportunity to see a part of the world that up until now remained inaccessible. The price, while high, seemed fairly reasonable, given the all-inclusiveness factor. In fact, I've never eaten so much, or so well, on any vacation I've ever had. And all the hotels were close, if not exactly, 5 star accommodation. Well, except the temple stay, which will be a blog of its own. And since Aidan also takes Tae Kwon Do, it seemed to justify my desire to take the trip if I took a kid with me. I couldn't handle Edwin, and in truth, much of the trip's meaning would probably be lost on him. And honestly, 12 hours on a plane with Ed just wasn't going to happen. As it turns out, this trip with Aidan occurred right after the end of his 8th grade year. Colin went to Italy at the end of his 8th grade year. Looks like I have 3 years to plan a trip overseas for Julia. Hmmm, Australia might be nice. They play soccer down there, don't they? :)

Anyway... the trip presented itself, we jumped on board and on June 23rd, made our way down to the International terminal at LAX to board an Asiana airline plane to Incheon, Korea. Tae Ryong TKD studios has 5 branches in the LA area. The main one is in Camarillo, where Grandmaster Shin is based. The rest of the studios are operated under him, and it's one extended "family." There were 8 people from our local Saugus studio, and then various people from the others. Some familiar faces greeted us at the airport, but, for the most part, the group was full of strangers. A few families went, several mother/son duos, married couples and younger 20-somethings individuals made up the group. As we headed through the security check/take off your shoes/X-ray portion, we were greeted with the loud shouts of "CODE BRAVO!" "CODE BRAVO!" "EVERYONE REMAIN STILL!" Apparently, TSA decided at the exact moment we were passing through to have some kind of warning drill/false alarm. Nothing like a little security breach to wake you up. By the time we arrived at our gate, I was ready for a cocktail - not quite sure what I had gotten myself into.

Which brings up the other question I kept hearing before I left: How safe is Korea to visit right now? Well, I didn't really know the answer to that before I left. All I knew was that I'd be travelling with something like 45 martial arts black belts - so I felt pretty safe within the group. As it turns out, the safety factor was a non-issue. Korea is a very safe country: safer than the US. And the "threat" of North Korea, is so constant a presence, that it almost seems like a non-presence.

Off we went - and had our first Korean meal of the trip on board the flight, served by impossibly thin flight attendants. Luckily, we had a bit of sleep and were ready to go when we landed on Friday morning at 5:30 AM local time.

An nyoung ha seh yo (Hello) Korea.