Last Friday, I was fortunate to have the chance to visit Seoul. It’s always nice to get away from the habits of one’s place, to explore elsewhere. Yet, it was more than just a weekend to visit Seoul, I attended the KOTESOL Connections last Saturday as well as to discuss the upcoming KOTESOL International Conference for 2026. It was also the perfect opportunity to use my new camera, in the field, and to capture some pictures while attending.

I arrived finally in Suseo on Friday, where I was picked up by a family member. We spent the afternoon together and had some lunch, opting for some kimchi jjigae (김치찌개) which was not exactly fantastic but did fill a gap. Afterwards, I was left to my own devices and spent the evening relaxing, watching some Netflix and catching up on some Korean dramas. By dinner time, I ended up going down to a local Korean restaurant for something a little more appetising than what I had at lunchtime and decided upon pork bone soup (뼈해장국).

The next morning, I was out the door at eight and heading to Sookmyung Women’s University (숙명여자대학교) for the KOTESOL International Conference Committee Meeting followed by the KOTESOL Connections Day, which was located on the other side of Seoul and took me around an hour and a half to finally arrive. This was all the more challenging as I was taking my new camera and some other equipment to record some content as well as capture some pictures.

Once I had arrived, I unpacked my gear which included a tripod, my two Sony cameras (a Sony ZV-1 and a Sony ZV-E10 ii), and a DJI Mic Mini. After settling into the KOTESOL International Conference 2026 meeting, I met some familiar faces as it had been a while. I also managed to persuade some of the attendees to take part in some short recordings for publicity in the run up to the conference.

Using my new Sony ZV-E10 ii to capture some lovely moments at KOTESOL Connections Day

One of the individuals that I met included Claudia Tumba who is a co-host of mine for the fortnightly Sunday Social Show for Teachers Talk Radio. She was actually giving a talk for the KOTESOL Connections Day regarding self-publishing and sharing her experiences of this, along with how she got on with her own publications for the Korean market. It was an incredibly informative session and such an honour to finally meet in person, despite us having been co-hosting on Teachers Talk Radio since the start of the year.

One of the latest shows with Claudia Tumba on Teachers Talk Radio

If you are heading to the KOTESOL International Conference this year, please let me know. Thanks so much and have a splendid rest of the week.