천안 - Cheonan

June 12 - 14, 2024

Cheonan was a brief stop, but it carried weight—the kind that lingers long after you’ve moved on. This was where we stepped out of observation mode and into something real, standing inside South Korea’s classrooms, face-to-face with the students who live the intensity of its education system every day. The high school was structured, disciplined, humming with quiet ambition. The elementary school? Chaos in the best way—kids buzzing with curiosity, laughing, and eager to engage. In both, we found the same thing: warmth, humor, and a shared human need to connect. Outside the schools, Cheonan itself was a change of pace—a place where life slowed just enough to see the details. No towering glass buildings, no neon spectacle. Just the everyday rhythm of a city that doesn’t cater to tourists, where history and modernity coexist without putting on a show. We wouldn’t stay long, but the experience had already cemented itself—one of those rare moments that doesn’t just pass through you, but leaves a mark.