Although I am staying with friends in every city, I often spend the day alone touring each city because my friends are at work. The wonderful part of that is that I get to meet new people in my travels. One day I took what is called a Hop On Hop Off bus to see KL and met a young lady named Maria from Spain.

While I was on my tour of the Petronas Towers, there was a family group from Brazil that included my new young friend Paulo. He invited me to hang out with his family during the tour and offered to take photos for me. Lucky for me that both Maria and Paulo could speak English, because I couldn’t speak their languages. Do you know what languages people speak in Spain and Brazil? Yes, they speak Spanish in Spain, but do you know what language they speak in Brazil? Do you know why?

Before I went to KL, I thought the only important thing about the city was the Petronas Towers. I was so wrong! KL is a wonderful mixture of languages, religions, people and cultures. They have a big variety of good food as you will see in my second video about KL. A lot of the people who live there are native Malays, but there are almost as many Malaysian Chinese and also many Malaysian Indians (from the country of India).

Nearly  half of the population are Muslims, so there are many mosques. Many others are Buddhists, so there are many Buddhist temples. There are also Christian churches and Hindu temples, although many Hindus worship at home alone or with their families.

Bahasa Malaysia is the main language spoken, but English is also very common as well as Chinese and Indian languages. As I walked through the city, I heard people speaking many different languages, but nearly everyone returned my smile. It almost always pays to be friendly and kind.

So far, I have found friendly people all over the world. I have noticed that people everywhere are proud of their own country. They show respect for their own flag. I bet you are proud to be an American and that you show respect for our flag.

Some students have asked me whether I will be visiting Japan or the Philippines or Vietnam, but I am not going there on this trip. I have been to all of those places before and I loved each one. After KL I still have four more cities on my list including one I added during my trip. The city I added is not in Asia, but on a different continent.

Thanks for all of your questions and comments. Is there anything you want to ask me about my trip to KL? Are there some things you can learn on your own about KL and the rest of Malaysia?

When I first visited Koh Samui, Thailand in 2001, I heard that one of the really fun things to do was to ride an elephant. Seeing an elephant up close and being able to touch one and feed it bananas sounded very exotic and wonderful. I paid to ride an elephant with the mahout or trainer leading the elephant along. If I had known then, what I know now, I would NEVER have done that.

In Thailand, there are 3,800 Asian elephants in captivity. Most of those are used as tourist attractions. Tourists pay to ride the elephants or to see them do tricks. The only way to make elephants do these things is to “train” them when they are little. Elephant calves are put in steel cages and tortured to make them “tame” by breaking their spirits.

Elephant Nature Park (ENP) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, was started to rescue elephants from being used to entertain tourists or from working in the logging industry. I would love to visit ENP some time. At the park, they care for 36 elephants on 250 acres of wilderness. People who go there can feed them fresh fruit, watch them play in the mud, go on walks with them and even get into the river to help give them a bath. That would be much more fun than riding an elephant. It is also good for the elephants.

Asian elephants are an endangered species. Experts believe there are now fewer than 2,000 wild elephants living in Thailand. Besides the elephants that are used for tourism, others are dying because they are losing their habitat or place to live.

You may have seen an Asian elephant at a circus in the past. In February of 2016, Ringling Brothers Circus agreed to stop using elephants to perform tricks. Instead, they are sending their 16 performing elephants to a nature preserve in Florida. That is good news for folks who care about how elephants are treated!

Do you think you would still want to ride an elephant? I am sorry I did!

I gave you LOTS of clues in my third video and I bet some of you were able to guess this city.  Hong Kong is near and dear to my heart for a lot of reasons. It is an exciting place to be with lots of activity, great people, wonderful shopping and a huge variety of restaurants and food. I also loved seeing friends I had not seen in years.

Remember in my video how I showed you the Ladies Market, the Flower Market and Bird Street? My friend Mrs. Beselt went with me.  To get there, we took several different kinds of transportation. (Transportation is a way of getting from one place to another.) When you go somewhere in Minnesota, you probably take a car or maybe a bus. I started out by taking a taxi to the bus terminus.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we took a ferry across Victoria Harbor. If you can find a map of Hong Kong, you will see the harbor on the map.  The ferry I took was the Star Ferry. There are twelve boats in the Star Ferry fleet and they have been taking people across the harbor since  1888! That is over 100 years. Maybe you can figure out exactly how many years it has been running. It carries over 70,0000 passengers a day or 26 million each year.

There are other ways of getting across the harbor, such as a train called the MTR that travels in a tunnel under the harbor and buses and taxis that go on a bridge over the harbor, but the Star Ferry is still very popular and not very expensive at all. Since I am considered a “senior citizen” in Hong Kong, I was able to take the Star Ferry for only $1.10 in Hong Kong dollars. In US money that is only 14 cents!! What a cheap and exciting ride it was for me. For everyone who is not a senior citizen, it still only costs HK$2.50 which is only 32 cents. In my next video, you will see what the harbor looks like when you ride the ferry.

After we got off the Star Ferry, my friend and I took the train. The photo below was taken in the MTR station when my friend and I got off the train. It helped us know which exit to use to get to the Flower Market and Bird Street.

After we went to all of those markets, we ended up in an MTR station that was not very handy. Can we believe we had to change trains 5 times to get to Causeway Bay where we were meeting another friend for dinner!

Finally, we took a tram to a part of Hong Kong  called Happy Valley for dinner. Happy Valley is also where the racetrack is for horses.

So, on just one day in Hong Kong, I took a taxi, a double decker bus, the Star Ferry, the MTR and a tram. To get home from the restaurant, we took another taxi. Because I am a “senior citizen,”  I probably spent a total of US$1.00 all day except for the taxis. I must say I was pretty tired by the end of the day, but it was all worth it to get the photos and videos for my YouTube video about Hong Kong!

Which of these kinds of transportation would you like to ride most? If you have time in your class, maybe you could talk about them or maybe you could write about them in Writers’ Workshop. Be sure to post your questions or comments.

 

Hello to all of the students and staff at Diamond Path Elementary! I am so pleased to have you join my friends at Highland Elementary to virtually experience my trip around Asia.

Be sure to interact with me by writing comments and questions. I am happy so answer what I can about where I am. I would also like to see you do some research of your own when you have time.

For example, you can find the places on a map and do a little reading to learn more about them. Maybe there are books in your school library. Maybe there are students in your classroom or grade who have actually visited the same places. It would be great for you to share what you learn with your classmates. It would also be fun for you to share something you learn in the comment area of my blog.

Within the next day I will post the first video of my second stop. Everywhere I go, I take videos and photos to share with you either in my video, on my blog, or on my visit to your school when I get back to Minnesota in November.

I love hearing from each of you. Thanks to Mrs. Hernandez and Mr. Ryburn for making this experience available to all of you!

You saw my son in the video about the temple. He was reading my blog and noticed the questions from Ms. Youngberg’s class. He decided to answer some of them himself. He did such a nice job in the comment section that I thought everyone should see what he wrote in the main blog. The rest of this post is from my son. He even included some Korean characters. at the bottom of the post, I included some photos from a store in Seoul called Kakao, sort of like our Disney store with popular toys. To read about these characters from the photos, go here: Kakao Friends.

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영버그 선생님의 학생 여러분, 안녕하세요!

That says “Hello, Ms. Youngberg’s 4th grade class!”

This is Mark, Ms. B’s son in Seoul Korea. Right now it’s lunchtime Tuesday here in Seoul, but the Vikings are playing (they’re winning!) on Monday Night Football right now! How can it be daytime here when it’s nighttime in Minnesota? Well, Korea is on the other side of the planet! So when the sun is shining on Korea, it’s nighttime in Minnesota! If you try shining a flashlight on a ball, maybe you can see how part of the ball is in a shadow. That’s basically what’s happening on the Earth all the time!

Anyway, my mom answered your questions but I wanted to say something too.

“How long has your son been living in Korea? ”
Well, when I was in 5th grade at Highland Elementary, I had a chance to learn how to speak some words in Russian at a weekend activity at school. I thought that was pretty fun to speak another language and be able to talk to some other people I could meet in the world. Then when I went to Scott Highlands, I took Spanish, and it was REALLY fun because there are some Spanish language TV stations on in the Twin Cities, and after a while I could watch those TV programs and actually understand it! And, from those stations, I could understand how other people in the world lived their lives differently, and thought very differently, compared to Americans and Minnesotans. Well, I love America and Minnesota, but It’s really fun and amazing to learn about how other people live and think! Sometimes you can find fun and cool things that don’t even exist in America! When I went to college, I made friends with a lot of Asian Americans, and many of them were Korean. My Korean friend was born in America and he really wanted to learn to speak his parents’ language, so he took a Korean class, and invited me to take it too. So I did! And I have been speaking and writing and typing Korean since then!

Korea is very interesting. In some ways, they have things here that come from America, for example there are pizza restaurants and they love baseball. Students in 4th grade until middle school love to play Minecraft. However, there are many things that are not in America. For example, almost no one here likes American football. (Actually almost no one cares about American football outside of America!) Also, going to the doctor is WAYYY cheaper than in the United States. And here… students in 5th grade usually have about 3-4 hours of homework every night. And many of them go to after-school academies to study math and English for another 3-4 hours after school. They study like crazy and they are too tired! And no time for PS4! Anyway, there are many things I miss about America. But, it’s really fun and interesting to be in another country!

“How long does it take for Yoon to walk to school each day?”

One interesting thing about Yoon’s walk to school is that she never has to cross a big street to get there. In this part of Seoul, which is called Gangnam (maybe some of you know the song called Gangnam Style? It’s named for this area!)… there are really huge buildings and tons of people, but the blocks are really huge compared to in Minnesota or even downtown Minneapolis. If you walked just two blocks, at a normal speed, it would take you about 45 minutes! The streets at the outside of the blocks are very busy and there are cars driving very fast, with usually a 6-lane street. Inside the huge blocks, there are smaller streets with no sidewalk, where people walk on the same street where cars are. You can see in the picture of Yoon and her father that they are walking on one of these streets and there is no sidewalk. And at that moment there are no cars. So, on the outside of the block, it’s really busy, but as you get closer and closer to the center of the huge block, it’s very quiet and peaceful. Maybe you live in a place where your parents have to drive you to the store, or to a restaurant. Well, in Seoul, you really never have to drive because there are stores and restaurants within 5 minutes from your front door. This is pretty cool and convenient… but also there are TONS of people everywhere and the city is very dense. Almost no one has a house, and almost all people live in very tall apartment buildings. It’s hard to find nature around here… that’s one of the things I miss the most about life in America!

I’m glad you guys are interested in other parts of the world! Actually the most interesting places are outside of the USA because they are so different from what you would expect! Many of you have parents who were born outside of the United States, or maybe you were, and that is just awesome! I hope you can share some interesting things about that country and culture with your classmates. And I hope everyone has a chance to try some Korean barbecue, and other foods from different countries… the taste can be unexpected but it’s really delicious! Actually there are some Korean restaurants in Eagan!

Have a good day, everyone.

마크 (Mark)

Thanks so much for the many questions and comments that  students and teachers are posting. It shows that you are paying attention to my videos and posts and thinking about what you saw and read. I have answered some questions in the comments section, but thought I would also share some information in this post.

Mrs. Moe’s class wanted to know about the time difference between Minnesota and Seoul. When it is noon in Apple Valley, it is 2:00 a.m. the next day in Seoul. They also wanted to know about getting used to being in a different time zone. Some people say that it takes a day to adjust for each hour of time difference, but I don’t think it takes that long. When I get to a new city, I just start using the time in that city and forget about what time it is “back home.” Right now, I am in a different city when there is a 13 hour time difference from your time in Minnesota. It is nearly noon here on Tuesday, but it is only about 11:00 p.m. on Monday in Minnesota. I just watched the Vikings finish beating the Giants. (Skol, Vikings!)

Ms. Youngberg’s class asked me about the currency or money used in Korea. The currency they use in Seoul is call “won”. One US dollar equals 1,104 South Korean won. When I took $200.00 US dollars out of the ATM in Seoul, I got 220,811 won. It might sound like a lot of money, but I had to pay 1,200 won for a piece of string cheese. I will bring back some money from each of the countries I am visiting for you to see.

A few people asked about food in Asia. As you saw in the video, I had the lobster tail and king crab legs, but I also had some amazing Korean food in a few different restaurants. Check out the photos below.

The food I am eating in the photo below is lamb on skewers. When they bring out the lamb, it’s on metal skewers, but the meat is still raw. However, as you can see, there is a grill in the middle of the table! They bring out really hot coals, and you are in charge of cooking the meat. You have to watch carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn. Do you see the metal tube coming down all the way from the ceiling? That is like a very quiet vacuum that sucks the smoke from the grill. That way the smoke doesn’t get everywhere in the restaurant when all of the customers are cooking their own meat.

 

 

 

 

If you went to a public school in Seoul, South Korea, it would be very different from your school in Minnesota. I visited the school where my son’s friend Dongkyu sends his daughter Yoon. The school is right in the middle of a busy neighborhood with restaurants and shops nearby. In the past, families had several children, but now it is very expensive to raise children in Seoul. That is why many families have only one child. In Yoon’s school there are many empty classrooms and only a few sections of each grade.

Public schools go from grades 1 through 6. There are also a very few openings for kindergarten students, so most parents pay to send their children to a private kindergarten. Students in grades 1-2 only have school from about 9 am – 1:30 pm. If their parents want them to have music or art or PE, they have to pay for extra classes. Students in upper grades may have some of those classes during the day.

Yoon is in the second grade, but her Korean age is 9. When Korean babies are born, they are considered one year old because they count the time they were growing inside their mother. Then, on New Years Day, everyone turns a year older. So, if someone is born in December, they are one-year-old the day they are born. Then, on January 1st, they turn “two” even though they are really only one month old. It sounds crazy to us, but that is normal in Korea.

In Korea, the schools are community centers for the neighborhood. Families can use the outdoor field and the swimming pool in the school. There are also many after school classes offered, but parents have to pay for those. Even so, parents want their children to have the best education possible, so they sacrifice to be able to send their children to after school classes.

The students I saw in Yoon’s school seemed very happy. In one of the photos below, you can see the Korean flag in the front of her classroom, just like you have an American flag in your classroom.