Standing in the buffer zone facing North Korea was the last thing she thought she’d be doing over her spring break.

But visiting the Korean Demilitarization Zone was just one of sophomore Evan Graham’s highlights from the 26-student study abroad trip to South Korea from March 8 to March 16.

Students also visited the Busan Tower in Seoul and took a Korean cooking class, where they learned how to make kimbap.

“I loved the idea of traveling out of the country because I’ve never gone before,” Graham said. “I’ve always wanted to learn Korean and see what South Korea looks like.”

Graham learned common Korean phrases before they went on the trip. Five students from Carnegie Vanguard High School also joined the trip with Bellaire students.

“I knew one person when I started to go on the trip,” Graham said. “But as the trip went on, I made friends with the majority of people there. Everyone was welcoming and really sweet.”

While ten chaperones attended the trip, IB SL Math, Algebraic Reasoning and OnRamps Precalculus teacher Johnston French’s chaperoning was a “spur of the moment” decision. He decided to go after a chaperone dropped at the last minute.

“I hadn’t been outside of the country, except to go to Canada before, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to see more of the world,” French said. “Honestly, one of the things that struck me the most is how similar the cities in South Korea were to big cities in the US.”

Graham attempted to communicate with others using the Korean phrases she knew. She said she advises others to travel abroad.

“You might not know people, but you can always make new friends,” Graham said. “It’ll just be a really fun experience for you to just go out to the world and have a good time.”

French said he enjoyed noticing small details of similarities and differences between South Korea and the US. One of the most blatant differences, according to French, was the absence of public trash cans.

“It was little things like that,” French said. “It wasn’t like things were somehow fundamentally different from here. I think one of the places I remember the best was called Gamcheon Culture Village. It was a bunch of really colorful houses stacked on top of each other, and there were some shops in the area.”

Next spring break, students will have the opportunity to visit Greece. To learn more about traveling abroad, sign up for remind @cardsfly or follow the Instagram @bhstravels.