I was in fourth grade, practicing my spelling words when my teacher, Mr. Peterson stood up. He had an announcement.

“Class, we are going to have a school wide celebration called Nation’s Week. One boy and one girl from every class will be picked to represent the country their class represents. The students who are picked get to dress up in traditional clothing and do a traditional greeting from the country. Our class will be representing South Korea.”

He reached for the can of Popsicle sticks which had our names written on them. He first drew a boy’s name. “The boy is… Nathan!” All of Nathan’s friends looked at him and laughed. We knew the guys weren't really interested in ‘dressing up’ but most of the girls were insanely excited and wanted to get picked. Afterwards, he drew a girl’s name. “Drum-roll for the girls!” he said.Everybody started pounding on their desks. “The girl is… Sammi!”

He chose me. All the girls glared at me with jealousy, and it made me feel uncomfortable, I didn't really want to do it, but I decided it would be a fun experience. Every day until the event we learned about South Korea. We learned where it is, we learned how there’s a north Korea but there was a war and they separated. We learned about their traditional values. Mr. Peterson also had us make posters of things that were in the county. Almost everybody made flags.

The day finally arrived. A group of people from each country came to our classroom to get the boys and girls from each class. We all walked to the gym. I was paired up with a really nice girl named Mina, whose family was from South Korea. She had a tote full of traditional Korean clothing. I found a pink dress with orange sparkles. She handed me an orange scarf that went with the dress. I really liked it. We went to the bathrooms to put the clothes on. I liked the way the dress looked on me. Mina then helped me put my hair in a really cool ponytail. She said it was something the girls in South Korea would do almost every day to their hair.

After that Mina and I talked a little about what we were going to do at the end of the day. The school was having an assembly where they let all the chosen kids go up and do something that involved a tradition from their country. Mina told me we were going to do a Namaste. Namaste is a traditional greeting in South Korea. We were going to practice. She explained that to correctly Namaste I had to to put my hands together and then to bow my head down.

After I got down what we were going to do, we went to every class and learned about all the different countries and the way each of them celebrate their culture. Each class had two or three people from the country in the classroom. First, we would sit down and listen as they talked about the culture and what it’s like in their country. After that we got to learn how to do a dance and try a food. Most of the foods from the countries I didn’t like. We also learned how to write some words, and listen to some traditional music. It was really fun. I got to learn about countries from every region from the world.

It was unfortunately the end of the day, which meant that it was time to do the assembly. All the kids that were representing their class gathered in the hallway. All of the kids were practicing what they were going to to with the person they were paired with. The hallways were quiet and empty besides us. We heard our teachers explain a little bit about the country their class represented and when they did, you would go up and do what you were going to do. Finally I heard Mr. Peterson announce his class was representing South Korea. We walked through the doors and onto the stage. We did Namaste and everyone clapped.

It was such a fun filled day where got to learn about cultures I didn't even know existed. Learning about different countries on this day made me want to travel. I want to see so many places in the world and this day really opened my eyes. It showed me how different it is in every country and the things that we, in America, think of as normal can be completely different to what they consider normal.. I hope one day I can travel the world and discover their cultures. I wish to learn about how their everyday lives are lived, and maybe make somewhere else’s everyday life, my everyday life.