Monday, April 30

Today was our last full day in Korea.  Our hosts in Asan have graciously given us a free day to pack, ship packages, buy last minute souvenirs, etc.  It was much needed!

Most team members slept late and attended to the many details they,'d need to complete before getting on the plane tomorrow.

Our day ended with a farewell dinner from District 3620, our Asan hosts and the District Governor.  There were about 100 people there, including several of our host families from along the way and the Assistant District Governors who did much of the planning.

It was an emotional evening, with speeches and many embraces around the room.  And, of course, pictures!

After the dinner, our Asan hosts invited us to coffee and then for a little beer.  It was a relaxed farewell from the folks who had had the greatest difficulty with our schedule and fatigue.  In the end, any hurt feelings were soothed and we parted best of friends.  It was a fitting close to an unbelievable month of learning, cultural friendship and fun.

Tomorrow we catch a plane at 12:40 pm and arrive - God willing - in Richmond about 11:30 pm same day.

Much love in my last post from Korea!

Sunday, April 29

Today, we were bused out to the local university for day 2 of the District Conference.

Wow!  What an event.  Rotarians filled a university auditorium - perhaps 1,500 people - for a day of speeches, awards, pyrotechnics, singing and fun.

The morning was mostly speeches and award presentations.  We didn't understand a word that was said, but we certainly understood the energy and enthusiasm permeating the site.

Breaks were held outside the auditorium, where dozens of vendors were selling all kinds of Rotary and other gear.  Also outside were tents to house barbecue style lunches and snacks for every club in the district.  The entire location was just a beehive of activity.

We were, of course, the highlight of the afternoon...kidding, of course!  Actually, we shortened our presentation dramatically, with Marisha Hall and Kirk Irwin doing a masterful job of editing our powerpoint and putting together a 200-slide show which was completed in 10 minutes vs. our original 30.

Beginning at 3 pm, each of the 13 "regions" within the district performed a skit, dance, song or other performance for the entire conference.  They were hysterical, entertaining, and generally wonderful.  Again, we couldn't understand a word, but we enjoyed it tremendously.  Our Shosan group asked us to participate in their performance, so we danced while holding placards with Korean words...ultimately saying "We love Rotary."  Great fun.

The evening ended with a wonderful American-style dinner hosted by our GSE Chair.  We all have great thanks for all the work everyone has done to make this such a memorable month.

Saturday, April 28

<p>Today is the first day of the District 3620 District Conference.</p>
<p>We begin the day by saying goodbye to our last set of host families, then we met at the hotel in which we'll be staying for the last three days.&nbsp; Homestays have provided many of our fondest moments throughout our journey, and it's difficult to leave them behind.&nbsp; All the same, it's a relief to have rooms to ourselves as we begin to prepare for the journey home.</p>
<p>Immediately when we arrive at the hotel, we realize we've made a judgment error.&nbsp; Our local hosts have told us we don't have any meetings to attend until 6 and that we can come to the hotel in casual dress.&nbsp; However, we should have realized that we would be arriving at the conference hotel and that Walter and I at least should be in our formal gear.&nbsp; As it is, Walter got out of his host family's car in the hotel parking lot at precisely the same moment that the district governor and several key officers arrived in a police-escorted limousine motorcade!&nbsp; So there's Walter in jeans and casual shirt, looking desperately for a hole large enough to hide him.&nbsp; Of course, the District Governor immediately hailed Walter and introduced him all around.&nbsp; Can you spell "AWKWARD"?&nbsp; Needless to say, Walter and I rushed to the bathroom with our luggage to change.</p>
<p>We had an official lunch as part of the conference (somewhat of a surprise to us, but we managed), then had free time in the afternoon before a big conference VIP dinner.</p>
<p>We survived, and I hope we haven't disrespected the District Governor and GSE Chair.&nbsp; If we did, no one mentioned it.

Two days left!

I noted at the beginning of our trip that many Koreans sleep either on a cotton floor mat or on the wooden plank they put in place of what we might expect as a box springs.  I've managed bookends for this experience in my sleeping arrangements.  I began on a plank of a bed, and I've finished with the pad on the floor.  I fold everything - pad, pad cover and comforter - in half and sleep like I'm in a sleeping bag.  Whatever...I sleep comfortably.

Thursday, April 26

We find ourselves in a bit of a bind.  Today and tomorrow are scheduled to be vocational experiences, meaning one GSE Team Member (sometimes more than one) meeting with a business owner, educator, etc., one-on-one to learn about how his/her profession is practiced in another culture.  Our Asan hosts, however, have scheduled a series of tours which address our vocational interests but involve all 10 Team members in two-hour tours rather than individual, in depth explorations individually.

We felt we had negotiated this last night, but our hosts seem to be back on their original schedule.  We negotiate some more, working to get each team member a one-on-one visit, with other team members taking some free time when their vocational experience isn't happening.  This has taken us from the expected two vocational days down to one 2-3 hour time each.  Team members seem to be ok, with only one or two worrying that they won't meet the expectations set by their employers when they gave them the time to come on GSE.

Sadly, our Asan hosts secured reservations for 10 people for each of these tours, so we're having to fight to get real vocational times - not tours - every couple of hours.

By the end of the day, our hosts see us as terribly demanding and not helpful...we see them as not working to meet GSE program expectations.  Worse, I think our translator is making things worse all the way around.  He claims to be explaining our positions, but by mid-day he's rolling his eyes every time we come to another negotiation time, which seems to be about every two hours.

Pile on top of all this the fact that we've been asked to cut our presentations in half for the District Conference, which starts Saturday.  Since we've seen no schedule for the conference, we have to prepare as if we'll be up first Saturday morning.

We've decided that our best presentation will involve as little introduction of team members, which we've done in laughable Korean, as possible, followed by a slide show of pictures from our experience.  The audience will then get to see themselves or their friends and remember the things they've done.  Of course, we have to do all this in our free time, which has dwindled quickly.

Walter and I work in the morning to compile and winnow down the 8-10,000 pictures taken by team members and get team members to whittle their personal intros down to 30 seconds from the 2-6 minutes they've each taken.  We then will turn the task of fashioning a 180-slide show from the 6-700 we've reduced.

Best news for the day:  dinner is in a restaurant with chairs!  My hips cheer loudly!

Wednesday, April 25

Today was our second vocational day.  The Cheonan group of clubs seemed to have a good plan for this.  As often happens, there were a couple of delays and last minute changes, but everyone was off to their vocational activity shortly.

I joined Eboni in the morning to meet with a musician and producer.  This young man sings, plays several instruments and has a professional recording studio. He played several songs he produced for famous Korean artists.  His genre leans towards hiphop, but he prefers songs that have more melody to them.  He was also in the process of mixing a song for a TV performance he has coming up in May.  He had laid down all the tracks but the lead vocal, so he played the produced song and sang the lead live for us.

He told us a bit about how to mix the sound for a song, then gave us a chance to act as sound engineers for a song he had recorded.  It was great fun.

After lunch, Eboni and I visited one of two branches of the Cheonan YMCA.  The Cheonan Y seems to have several main focus points:  youth clubs, adult clubs, energy saving and environmental improvement.  The Y facility has meeting space and provides offices for several aligned organizations.  The Y has several hundred people active in its programs and about 1,000 members, who are actually donors and those who support the Y, not people who pay a fee to use facilities as with many US YMCAs.

Dinner was held in a restaurant next door to the home of the District Governor for District 3620.  After dinner, we had a nice reception at the Governor's home, and we met our new host families from Asan.  This is the first time we've made a transition in the evening like this...it's a little jarring, but off we go.

Tuesday, April 24

Our trip for the day was to Seoul for shopping.  We went to the traditional market in Seoul.  Streets lined with open air shops with most everything imaginable for sale...clothes, food, souvenirs of all kinds, electronics, etc.  I didn't see any big appliancea, but I wouldn't doubt they could be found.  Prices were good, and you could bargain with most merchants.  Team members bought a variety of gift for people back home, and a few for themselves, no doubt.

As you might expect, traffic in Seoul was horrendous. With the fairly chaotic habits of Korean driving and streets packed everywhere with every type of vehicle imaginable, it took 20 minutes to go three or four blocks.  We did a little better leaving Seoul.

Returning to Cheonan, we visited the dental office of Dr. Moon, who is the coordinator for Rotary in all of Korea.  His office was very interesting.  It occupied four floors of a large office building.  He employs 28 dentists and has an overall staff of nearly 130.  They are a soup-to-nuts dental practice, offering everything from children's dentistry and orthodontics to oral surgery and implants...wow!

We finished the day dinner and homestays.

Monday, April 23

Today was our "free time day," with no formal activities scheduled for the team or their members.  The GSE plan calls for one off day each week of the trip, though past GSE Team Leaders have told me this seldom happens.  We had a four-hour break in Yesan and a couple of one-hour breaks along the way, but those hardly provided soul refreshment.  Team members have been exhausted for a week, and have been looking forward to this.

Seven of the eight team members chose to go to Seoul for a day of shopping and looking around.  Tyel from our team stayed home to relax and reflect.  Walted Lundstrom (D6690 Team leader) and I chose to stay in Cheonan and look around.  We had lunch and dinner with our host dad (we've been staying with the same family here) and went to jil-je-bong (sad effort at phonetic spelling!) in the afternoon.  Jil-je-bong is a coed spa, with a big brick sauna, massage, abour four pieces of exercise equipment and an ice room (kept at 30 degrees) in a large (4,000 sf?) coed room. There were also hot tubs, a barber shop, Korean massage (the scraping we received last week) and some more in the locker/shower areas.  We had a fine time sauna-ing and chatting with some women there who knew our host dad.  It was a fun day, capped off by nouri-bang (karaoke in a reserved room) with a group of Rotarians from our host dad's club.

All of our team members greatly appreciated the time to themselves.

Too good to wait.

Our blog hasn't caught up with the time frame yet, but here's Tyel enjoying an after-lunch snack.  Don't worry, Adriane, Tyel won't starve!

Sunday, April 22

We started with a return visit to Independence Hall.  Again, what an amazing place.  Our 90 minutes today still left many of us not finishing all of the museums.

Lunch at a cafe in a highway rest area ( good for several team members, as they could choose their food).  Then it was on to a baseball game between the Hanwa Eagles and the Samsung Lions.  It was still fairly cold and drizzly, bit we survived.

Perhaps the most fun part of the game was the home team's cheering section.  Behind the home dugout there is a cheerleader, a couple of team mascots  and a group of female dancers, leading cheers and dancing to music all through the game.  Lots of fun!

Saturday, April 21

Our morning trip was to Independence Hall, part of a 1,700 acre complex devoted to sharing and preserving Korean history and culture.  Independence Hall is a series of seven museums that outline Korea's history and struggle for independence.  The Korean peninsula has been occupied by several other nations/kingdoms through the centuries.  In modern times, Japan has ruled over Korea for much of the century prior to Korean independence, achieved after the World War II.  The Koreans believe (rightly so, it would seem) that Japan has denied the brutality and inhumanity of its often barbaric occupation of Korea.

We spent nearly three hours, and most of us made it through only three of the seven museums.  Our hosts agreed to bring us back tomorrow.

We ate lunch, then attended a performance of an acrobatic/comedic team.  Though we couldn't understand a word they said, we enjoyed the performance thoroughly.

After the performance, we worked with one of the performers to learn walking tightropes (4 inches off the ground) and spinning plates.

Our last trip of the day was to a temple with what I understand is the largest Buddha figure in Korea.  Team members enjoyed the time here, though the weather was cold and drizzly.

Next we went to dinner and our homestays.

Reflections at 2/3 point

As I reflected at the halfway point we've found the Korean people to be very warm and outgoing.

Bathroom arrangements in homes have been interesting.  In most homes, the bathroom is set lower than the rest of the house and is completely tiled.  Sinks, toilets and showers are all together, no stall separation for the shower...there is a floor drain for the water.  In some cases, there are qebathtubs, but they don't have shower curtains to keep shower flow in the tub...again, a floor drain. Food - really only had 4-5 different meals<br>
It seems to several of us that we may not have experience Korean food as fully as we might. This is understandable. Staying in each city for only three days, our hosts have rolled out the red carpet, showing us the best, perhaps most expensive food they could. In the end, it seems we've really experience only five or six real dinner choices. Similarly, our host families have treated us as honored guests (we do the same with our GSE guests), putting out either a gourmet Korean feast or what they believe to be an American breakfast. I've had salad, soup, and several other interesting concoctions set out on the breakfast table. When asked if what we're having for breakfast is what they eat normally in the morning, the answer has always been no. It's usually amusing and sometimes very awkward to eat in this situation. I always feel as though I'm being carefully scrutinized with every bite. Sometimes I expect applause every time a bite of food reaches my mouth. If I don't "clean my plate," my host invariably thinks I don't like the food. Whenever I try a Korean item, I feel numerous sets of eyes watching to see how I'll react. Of course every new set of Rotarians feels the need to show us how to use chopsticks and how to eat a dish we've had three times before. It's all an effort to help is and be polite, of course. At one point early in the trip, I started to get annoyed when one woman practically spoon fed me at the beginning of a meal. Upon reflection, though, I think we've all taken it with a smile. (The other night, I couldn't help myself...when someone tried to show me hoe to use chopsticks, I used mine to pick up a single grain of rice. They thought that was hilarious. Boy, I'm really glad their rice is sticky! There are many more thoughts in my mind, but I have a not-too-frequent chance at internet access, so I'll stop here.

April 18

We started our day with a visit to the office of the mayor.  The mayor is best friends with the former Rotary International President from Korea, and he called him while we were in his office.  Walter,who met the former RI President years ago, talked with him briefly.

Following the mayor's visit, we met with the vice chair and secretary general of the Dangjin City Council.  After the usual exchange of gifts, speeches and pictures, we moved on to lunch.

Our after lunch stop was the cultural center, which was a magnificent new facility on the outskirts of town.  A large portion of the center is devoted to the annual tug-of-war, which engages most local residents in a month long effort to make a 100-meter long, 3+-foot thick rope made from rice stalks.  The tug-of-war itself involves 30,000 (!) people tugging.  The event was held a couple weeks before our arrival in Dangjin.

We spent time learning how to make rope from rice stalks, then joined a group if novice traditional Korean drummers, who performed for us then involved us in drumming and dancing with them. 

We finished our visit by engaging in a tug-of-war between the GSE team members against our Korean hosts.  GSE won 2 of three, but I think we were pulling downhill in our wins.

Our last visit of the day was to a nursing home.  Many of the challenges for mursin homes in Korea are similar to those in the US...not enough funding being the primary one.  For the most part, families pay a good share of the cost, though the government subsidizes a share.  Korean nursing care does not seem to have as much difficulty finding good workers.

We finished our day with dinner in an Italian (Korean version) restaurant.

Friday, April 20

Friday brought our move to our sixth set of hosts in Cheonan.

After the now-normal set of picture taking and embraces, we hopped on a bus and off we went.

The Cheonan group seems very well organized.  They presented us with a complete schedule for our five days with them.

Our first day was a visit to Nuri Peace Park, which we learned meant that we were visiting the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.  This was a fascinating and sobering experience.  As you might imagine, military presence was quite high, though many of the Korean servicemen seemed to occupy themselves largely posing for pictures with tourists.

We visited the northernmost train station in South Korea.  You can take this train through North Korea to China and Russia...I don't think I'd want to try that.

Next stop was an observation station overlooking the DMZ.   No picture taking was allowed from anyplace you could actually look over the DMZ.  From the observation station you can see the 4 kilometer DMZ (2 km - 1.2 miles - on either side of the actual border) and a number of structures on the North Korean side.  Apparently the North Korean government erected several tall "apartment buildings" with lights in different rooms on different floors to make it appear there is a functioning town to those on the south side - incredible.

Next we visited a museum that outlined the history of the DMZ and the results of the Korean War.  We then walked down a tunnel, one of at least four dug by the North Korean military to facilitate an invasion of South Korea.  Most were built in the 70s and 80s, but rumors persist of new tunnels being built today.  North Korea denies digging them, but the evidence is clear that they did.

This was an amazing,eye-opening trip.  We've visited a number of temples and historical museums, but this trip really gives huge insight into the Korea of today.

Our three-hour drive back to Cheonan encountered bad traffic, partly the result of a bad accident on the freeway.  We were thus a half-hour late for a Rotary meeting.  The club(s) waited for us, and we only had to introduce our teams, not do full presentations.

Dinner and moving in with our next homestay families finished the day.  This group of Rotarians seems to be a relaxed, fun group.

Thursday, April 19

Today was our first opportunity to have vocational experiences.  A key goal of the GSE program is for team members to learn about how their occupation is practiced in another country and culture.  While the host Rotarians always do their best to match team members with a similar situation, it's not a perfect science by any means.

Dangjin is a small city, so it's especially challenging.  Team members from the US experienced working/learning about a cell phone company, a local cable broadcast station, a bank, a museum and an accounting firm.  Most enjoyed the experience, even if it wasn't a perfect learning experience.

Our lunch and afternoon were spent with a university teacher of Korean culture.  We ate a very traditional Korean lunch and learned a bit about how to prepare it.  We made after lunch snacks, then experienced a Korean tea ceremony and dressed team members for a Korean wedding.  We took many pictures, asked many questions and had a good time.  However, the three hours we spent sitting on the floor were a ljttle much for our American backsides and knees!

After a brief period of free time, we made our presentation to the Rotary clubs of Dangjin, followed by our farewell dinner with these Rotarians and families.

Tuesday, April 17 - Yesan to Dangjin

Today was another change day, from Yesan to our fifth host city in Dangjin.  We packed our luggage and our boxes of gifts to date, ready to be shipped home (thank you, Yesan Rotary Clubs!).  Off we went.

First stop in the Dangjin area was the GS EPS electrical power generating plant.  This is a new plant, built within the last few years, employing 60,000 people (a great boon to Dangjin!).  After a movie and tour of the plant, we travelled a short distance to the Hyundai steel manufacturing plant.  We toured the plant...huge machinery that takes 6" thick sheets of metal, thins them down to perhaps quarter-inch strips (elongating them tremendously in the process), then rolls them into 8-foot diameter rolls.  Of course, the steel is red hot throughout this process.  Fascinating.  No picures allowed in the processing plant (since their technology has kicked the US out of the steel manufacturing business!)!

Next stop was lunch.  As we learned that the Dangjin group was not prepared to provide vocational activities (where team members spend time learning about how their individual professions are practiced in Korea), we spent some time negotiating with the Rotarians to arrange our first vocational visits.

Quick note: Dangjin is a small town, so arranging 8-10 individual experiences is difficult in the first place; second, doing so on 36 hours notice is a monumental task.  The Dangjin Rotarians somehow pulled it off, and by dinner we had vocational visits arranged for all team members.  Not all are perfect matches, but this was a tremendous accomplishment.

As a result if the time taken negotiating, we canned a visit second electric generating plant (oh darn, we missed another movie and bus tour around a factory!), and instead went earky to a pottery and artisan's studio.  We got to dye scarves to take home and made pottery items (candle holders, coffee cups or small trays) from raw clay.  Our third grade elementary school children are in no danger of being outclassed by a group of adults...we learned very quickly why we work in other professions!  Regardless of our (lack of) ability, this was a very enjoyable and productive afternoon.  The pottery maker will fire and finish our items before we leave Korea, so we can bring them home with us...and we'll bring beatiful scarves home with us!

Dinner was eaten at a delicious Korean restaurant, then we were off to our new homestay families.

Monday, April 16

We visited the Yesan Cultural Center, where we met with the volunteer director and learned about how the center operates.  The center runs a variety of programs to preserve Korean cultural heritage and to help young people with various problems (many related to single parent families, according to the director).

Next, we met mayor of Yesan.  He had met us before, at Saturday's ceremony and at the run on Sunday, so there were not many formalities.  He called the former Rotary International President from Korea, who apparently is his best friend, and had him speak with Walter for a few minutes.  After the obligatory photo op, we moved to lunch.

We were given the afternoon free to roam Yesan downtown shops, use the internet in coffee shops, etc.  This was a nice break from the continuous touring with guides that we've been doing.  Though Yesan is a small town, many team members found fun shops in which to buy souvenirs.  A big hit for some was Lotteria, about as close to McDonald's as you'll get in small-town Korea.

We finished the day by attending a meeting of all the Yesan Rotary Clubs. There were many gifts, but neither GSE team had to make its presentation...a relief, though we'll need more practice before the District Conference.

After the Rotary meeting, we had dinner then adjourned to a karaoke-type bar for some fun on the last night with these host families.

Half-Way Point Thoughts

Some observations/thoughts half way through our GSE adventure:

* We have been treated like royalty throughout ur stay.  In every town, locals have gone WAY out of their way to make sure we are comfortable and want for nothing.

* Each of our host groups of Rotary clubs has been unique.   Our first group of hosts in Saeson City were so warm, happy, laid back, relaxed...it will be a tough comparison for this next group.  The first Asst District Governor was a wild man, always talking on the phone while driving, laughing, quite the life of the party.  Our second group of clubs in Boryeong was much more formal than the first.  Still friendly, but with more formal presentations, etc.  Third group in Hongseon had the best English skills, were very clear with timetables and directions, yet were very affable.  The Yesan group is a lot of fun and perhaps a little disorganized.  Seems as though every trip or activity requires a committee meeting among the Rotarians.  It will be fascinating to see what our remaining three host groups will be like.

* We have received wonderful, often lavish gifts at every stop.  From large gift boxes of Kim (the dried seaweed) to statues/trophies commemorating our visit to original artwork by local artists - every stop has included gifts of some sort.  I filled two large pieces of luggage with things we will give to local host families, thinking we could bring back our team's gifts in those bags.  Not even close...I've filled one of the bags already with gifts only to me, and we're only halfway through!

* The Yesan Rotarians have offered what may be the most amazing gift of all.  Tonight they will give us boxes we'll fill with our gifts to date, then they'll ship them home for us...at their expense.  Wow.

* Not surprisingly, our delegation may be perceived the way Americans often perceive Japanese/Asian tourists, all with cameras ready to take pictures of eveything.  Every meeting, meal or other event ends with a 12-camera photo op..."say kimchi!"

* One of the cultural differences we've encountered has caused a little discomfort among team members.  In Korea, friends of the same gender who travel typically sleep inthe same bed (now I better understand why my 20-year-old son Chris would often sleep in the same bed with his first-generation Korean friend Tae).  Not so for Americans.  Our team members have often been paired up for homestays, finding one bed for them to sleep in.  They've made the best of it, and we've let our Korean GSE Chair understand the difference.

* The portion of Korea we've been visiting is clearly off the beaten tourist track.  Except for our visit to the southeastern coast, I could count on one hand the number of non-asians we've seen.  That's been very cool.

* Though we're clearly a curiosity to many locals, people have been universally friendly.  After a Korean greeting, school kids will say "hello" and "how are you" before bursting into fits of giggles.  We get a few high fives along the way.

* So many of the products we've seen here are American in style/branding.  I figured I'd look for a baseball cap with Korean lettering on it or some sort of Korean branding...no such luck, but I can easily get a Yankees cap or Polo branded shirt.

* Customs are so interesting. Meals may have a main entree (e.g. a soup with meat), but there are always 6-10 dishes with Kimchi, fish, vegetables, meat, etc.  Diners pick stuff from any of these dishes any time throughout the dinner.  Food is delicious.  Some is spicy hot, some is not.

* If anyone had told me a month ago that I would be eating live (truly squirming on the plate) octopus tentacles, I'd have told them they were out of their mind.  Yet here I was last Friday evening, chomping away (and you do need to chew very well, lest the octopus latch onto your tongue).  With the right sauce, it's quite tasty.

* In a country with such a strong economy, living standards are quite simple.  We believe the families we're staying with are well-to-do, yet their homes are generally pretty simple...not a lot of frills.

* Toilets reflect the combination of ancient traditions and modern convenience in Korea.  We've experienced toilets that are porcelain holes in the ground and toilets that have heated seats when you sit down and have electronic buttons for every imaginable convenience (bidet, rectum washing, bottom washing and more).

* A number of our hosts have expressed that Korea has gone from being one of the poorest in the world to one of the richest in the last 50 years; they received so much help when they were poor, now they want to help other nations by sharing of their wealth.

Surprises:
*  Road signs almost always have English printed right along with Korean.

* Traffic is interesting.  There are some traffic signals, but no stop signs whatsoever!  People just go where they need to go.  It's chaotic, yet we've seen no accidents or dented cars.

*  Very few Koreans speak English.  From our first host family and interpreter, we learned that all Koreans are taught English througout their school years, but it focuses almost exclusively on book learning to pass tests - reading, some writing, and listening, but very little speaking.

* Several of our preconceived notions about Korea have proven to be false:
   * We expected more formality and less warmth than we've seen.
   * We expected more internet access.  Families seem to have intenet connections, but seldom wireless.

Sunday, April 15

We were up early to run, walk or saunter through the 5K run at the 8th Annual Yesan Cherry Blossom Marathon.  Roughly 7,500 runners participated in the 5K, 10K, half marathon or marathon events.  All our team members participated, though not everyone went the distance.  It was a tremendous event, quite likely the only Korean running event any of us will participate in.

The weather has gotten much better, warm (hi 60s-low 70s) and sunny.  We had lunch outside at a restaurant owned by one of the local Rotarians, then a few of us ventured to a nearby spa for a mineral hot tub, sauna and Korean massage - more of a scrub, really.  Most of our members were not interested in the naked (single sex) spa environment, so they opted for a quiet day in town.  The "massage" consisted of a masseur (only our male membes partook of this) scrubbing our bodies HARD with a towel that felt more like the scrubber side of an American sponge.  I'm quite sure I shed at least one layer of skin.  A day later, I'm still feeling the tingle!

Later in the afternoon, the two groups met at a museum honoring a Korean Patriot who acted to begin Korean independence from Japan in the 1920s and 30s.  He was executed in Japan after carrying out a bombing at a military ceremony, killing several Japanese officials.  We didn't realize that Korea has only been independent since 1946, being occupied at various times by Japan and China for centuries before that.

Next stop was the Sudeoksa Temple.  This is a 700-year-old temple that is the only one in Korea that has survived in its original state (structure, materials, etc.) through the years.  It's quite impressive to see those old wood pillars surviving all this time.

The day ended with a traditional Korean dinner at another restaurant owned by a local restaurant.

Saturday, April 14

Today was another change day.  We'll be moving now to Yesan City, which is an hournor so east of Seosan, the first city we visited.

After bidding our third set of host families a fond farewell, hoping to see them again at the District Conference, we drove to a ceremony honoring the famous ancestors from Yesan region.  The hour-long ceremony is a Korean tradition - one day each year they honor famous ancestors.  Local elders and officials wear traditional clothes, visit the spirits of ancestors, light candles, bow etc.

We ate lunch at the site with our new Rotary group, then drove around the reservoir that serves the Yesan area.  We visited Daeheung-myong, a city deemed to be the sixth slowest city in Korea, meaning that their way of live moves very slowly.  They are quite proud of the fact.

From Daeheung, we visited a traditional artist/craftsman who lived nearby.  We had tea with him, then engraved traditional wooden cups he gave us with our names in Korean.  Very cool!

We then drove to the condo complex where all of our home stay families live.  We moved in, relaxed a while, and drove to a restaurant for our traditional Korean dinner.  After dinner, we stopped by a night-time festival leading up to tomorrow's Cherry Blossom Marathon.  We were amused by the irony that one of our fellow team members - Kirk from Ohio, who supplements his professional photography work with bicycle mechanics work - one the big raffle prize...a bicycle!  We walked home to our homestays to retire.

Friday, April 13

Today we drove literally to the other end of Korea - a 4 1/2 hour drive to Changwon (near Busan in the southeast corner of the country) for the annual cherry blossom festival.

It's a bit hard to describe just how beautiful the cherry blossoms were.  The entire town is planted with cherry trees...they are all blossoming with pinkish-white flowers.  Not only is much of the town white with the blossoms, but it is surrounded by hills with a ring of cherry trees midway up the hills.  It was just gorgeous.

We spent an hour in one scenic location along some railroad tracks, the a half hour along a stream in the middle of town.

Next stop was Changwon's Marine Park.  This exhibit center held rwo museums and a mothballed navy ship that could be toured.  We spent another hour or so there, then began the long trip back to Hongseon, where we had dinner.

The festival was well worth the long journey, and the 8-9 hours on the bus (with food, drink, K-pop videos and a movie) also provided a sort of rest day for our teams.

Thursday, April 12

Our day began sith a visit to the Honseong County Mayor and the county administrative offices.  As has consistently been the case, the Mayor was very gracious, sharing an overview of the history of the region and welcoming us.  We toured the grounds of the administrative compkex and heard about the Mayor's ambitious plans for making county government much more accessible and attractive to the people of the county.

Our teams then divided up to visit with students in the local middle and high school.  The Virginia team visited with classrooms of middle school boys, who were amazed to hear about the short American school day and lack of nearly-required academy tutoring every day.  Middle school boys are the same in many ways around the world!

The Korean schools are operated very differently than American ones.  In Korea, many schools we would think of as part of the public education system are privately owned and operated.  The private school we visited today has no tuition for students and serves all children in its service area, just as a public school would in the US.  These schools operate under the same regulations as public ones and are required to prepare students to excel on the same academic tests as public schools.  They appear, however, to have freedom to choose instructional methods.  It's an interesting system...I wonder if it might work in the US.

After our school visit, the Mayor treated our group to a wonderful Korean lunch.

The first stop in the afternoon was a strawberry farm, where we picked (and ate!) our own fresh strawberries.  What a delicious treat to take home to our host families.  The strawberries were uniformly sweet and delicious.

We then visited the landscaping business of one of our host Rotarians.  We drove to a unique village of newly-built traditional-style Korean homes.  After looking at the homes under development, we stopped at the community center/library/town hall for this small community.  A very interesting concept, though we're not exactly certai  we understand tne concept and what it's trying to accomplish.

Back to town for dinner!

Wednesday, April 11

This was another "switch day,"  changing to a new city and set of Rotary clubs.  Switch days are a little stressful, wondering what the next group of Rotarians will be like just as we've become comfortable with our current group.  In this case we're moving to Hongseon City, where there are 5 Rotary clubs.

We said fond farewells to our gracious hosts from Boryeong and greeted our new Rotarians from Hongseon.

From the outset, our new group appears very friendly and somewhat more relaxed than the Boryeong group.  The spokesman for the new group, Mr. Lee, speaks very good English and gave us good instruction about what to do with our gear, which van to get in, what would be happening, etc. 

Also part of this group as our interpreter is Julie Lee, our main contact and best interpreter thus far.  It turns out Mr. Lee is her father.

The trip to Hangseon was not long - about 45 minutes.  When we arrived, we met a number of other Rotarians and toured a traditional market downtown.  The market takes place every fifth day, as we understand it.  The market consists of 10-12 square blocks of open air vendors, everything from meat, fish and vegetables to clothes and crafts to a blacksmith.  It was a bustling market and gave us a feel for traditional Korea.  We tried a variety of different foods along the way.

We lunched downtown and walked around a few of the shops there, then stopped at the local Rotary office.  Rotary has an office in one part of town and a meeting hall on the fourth floor of anoffice building downtown.

We next visited a plant that packages and ships kim (the dried seaweed), owned by one of the Hangseon area Rotarians.  Imagine our surprise when we saw boxes of Korean kim marked as Trader Joe's brand!

Before dinner we got a supermarket break at the LotteMarket in town.  LotteMarkets are three-story one-stop-shop stores, with groceries, clothes, jewelry, toys, books, shoes and much more.

April 11 is also election day for their National Assembly positions.  It has been vey entertaining to see men and women standing at intersections wearing jackets promoting their candidate, always designated by a number.  check out the picture.

As always, the day ended with a Korean dinner, then off to our new homestays.

Tuesday, April 10

First visit was to the Buyeo National Museum, located about one hour from Boryeong. The museum is primarily devoted to the history of the region, going back to the bronze age. We looked at artifacts including pots, tools, weapons, and artifacts from local Korean history.  We were occasionally overrun by groups of local students visiting the museum.  They were quite interested to see Americans (we were, as far as we could tell, the only non Koreans/Asians to be found), to say the least.  They were quite excited to say hi and to give an occasional high-five.

After the tour, we had lunch with the mayor of Buyeo, a very nice gentleman.

Our first afternoon stop was at a ginseng manufacturing and shipping plant.  As you might expect, it was a very clean, sterile environment.  We got to see the verious steps in the production of red ginseng products.  This company manufactures 500 different ginseng products, from juices, to pills to tea and well beyond. As has often been the case, we were given gifts from the manufacturer...the gifts are beginning to stack up to a point that we won't be able to pack them home!

Our next stop was to the Buyeo Cultural Center, a recently-built replica of a Chonan era palace and city residence.  The historically accurate buildings were quite impressive.  The compound was 25-30 acres, with buildings as tall as 5 stories...all built of wood.

This last portion of the day was dampened by rain (pun intended).  We didn't get terribly wet, but the weather cut our visit somewhat short.

We returned to Boryeong and prepared for our presentation to the women's Rotary club of Boryeong, held in their Rotary building.  One difference from American Rotary organizations that we've seen in Korea is that the combined clubs in a city or region have their owned or rented meeting/office spaces.  This meeting was in such a space.  

As has been our impression of the Boryeong Rotary group, the meeting was quite formal.  The District GSE Chair and the Team leader for the outgoing Korean GSE Team to Ohio made enthsiastic speeches, though they were little long and had club members looking at their watches.  Our presentations are improving, though we have a ways to go yet.  Dinner was served in the same space immediately after the meeting...once again delicious.

Friday, April 6

We started the day with a visit to a private school near Seosan.  The school has 900 students from first grade through high school.  (Note: Koreans count their years of school differently than in the US.  They count from grade one to whatever the last year of a particular level of school is.  For example, school begins with the first grade and continues through 6th grade in elementary school; when the students start middle school, they start again with "first grade," then again in high school.)  We started the day with a visit to a private school near Seosan.  The school has 900 students from first grade through high school.  (Note: Koreans count their years of school differently than in the US.  They count from grade one to whatever the last year of a particular level of school is.  For example, school begins with the first grade and continues through 5th or 6th grade in elementary school; when the students start middle school, they start again with "first grade," then again in high school.)  It has 85 teachers (compare that ratio to the ratios Virginia public school teachers must contend with). Technology in the school was state of the art: tvs in most rooms, computers and projectors as teaching aids, a golfing center with virtual golf, etc.  The school was modeled after Eton prep school in England, a very ambitious model.

We enjoyed seeing artwork done by the students (very impressive), participating in a martial arts class, and seeing some of the teaching methods.  We met upper school students, who were able to ask us some questions in their very best English...they did well, though they weren't always easy for us to understand.

We had a delicious lunch in the school cafeteria, then departed for a visit to the Seosan post office.  We met the postmaster, got some explanation about the Korean postwl system, and got a tour.  We didn't see much evidence of high technology being used in the system...not sure if that happens elsewhere, or they just don't use technology as much in the sorting of mail.

Next we visited a space technology museum.  After some explanation, we looked through two telescopes at the sun, one to see sun spots and one to look for solar flares.  We then watched a movie on the solar system (I THINK, since I dozed off through much of it!), followed by a virtual roller coaster ride through space, which was pretty cool.

We finished the day with a Korean dinner, then all the team members moved into new digs at the Lee's country house. s (compare that ratio to the ratios Virginia public school teachers must contend with). Technology in the school was state of the art: tvs in most rooms, computers and projectors as teaching aids, a golfing center with virtual golf, etc.  The school was modeled after Eton prep school in England, a very ambitious model.

We enjoyed seeing artwork done by the students (very impressive), participating in a martial arts class, and seeing some of the teaching methods.  We met upper school students, who were able to ask us some questions in their very best English...they did well, though they weren't always easy for us to understand.

We had a delicious lunch in the school cafeteria, then departed for a visit to the Seosan post office.  We met the postmaster, got some explanation about the Korean postwl system, and got a tour.  We didn't see much evidence of high technology being used in the system...not sure if that happens elsewhere, or they just don't use technology as much in the sorting of mail.

Next we visited a space technology museum.  After some explanation, we looked through two telescopes at the sun, one to see sun spots and one to look for solar flares.  We then watched a movie on the solar system (I THINK, since I dozed off through much of it!), followed by a virtual roller coaster ride through space, which was pretty cool.

We finished the day with a Korean dinner, then all the team members moved into new digs at the Lee's country house.

Thursday, April 5

Again, apologies for the blank spot in our blog. This will hopefully capture part of the time we've not yest described.

On April 5 we drove to the Hyundai Oilbank refinery, about 30 minutes west of Saesan. The refinery is part of the Hyundai corporate empire, which includes the auto maker. We took a bus tour of the refinery, which imports crude oil and makes gasoline, propane and other oil products. The bus was very elaborate, with curtains, particularly nice seats, etc.  We lunched at the Hyundai plant, again a very elaborate affair.  The lunch was delicious.

In the afternoon, we visited a Chonan empire fortress and building complex.  The complex at various times housed the local government, served as a fortress protecting the ruling government, and more. Korea was overrun by the Chinese and Japanese at various times through the centuries.

We finished with a Korean dinner.  We seem to be pretty comfortable with Korean food at this point.

Monday, April 9

We met our new interpreter for today, Julie Lee.  Julie is the young woman with whom we have corresponded in preparation for the trip.  She is 21 years old and thoroughly Americanized...even speaks with a bit of a Texas drawl.  She had met the  Ohio group at the airport, but was unable to make the trip back for our arrival.  It definitely helps to have an interpreter who is easy for us to understand and who easily understands our questions as well.

After our overnight in the condo (we probably didn't really make the very best of our "rest day"), we began our first day with our new hosts with a visit to the Hundae Kim processing plant. Mr. Chen, the founder of the company, has been at it for 43 years, though he hardly looks much older than that himself. Though the company has over 800 competitors in the production of kim (pronounced "keem", seaweed processed for food - it's delicious, by the way), the Hundae company has been consistently the top or second highest producer in the industry. This is a wholesale plant, selling to restaurants and resellers worldwide ( US sales are primarily in Los Angeles and New York City).  It has 50 employees. The owners, especially the wife, were very warm and friendly.

Next stop was Boryeong City Hall.  We were very surprised to see a huge banner across the entrance to the building welcoming us. We met with the mayor for tea and presentations.  He was extremely gracious in welcoming us and speaking about Rotary. Following the audience, we adjourned to a local Chinese restaurant for an elegant Chinese lunch. The mayor spent more than two and a half hours with us...quite an honor.

In the afternoon, we visited an art muesum and sculpture park outside of town.  We toured an exhibit of art with a theme of doors, with the artist Ma Jin Sik as our guide.  He takes traditional doors from old buildings (usually wooden, sometimes burned, etc.) and paints either on them or on special paper he has affixed to them.  The paintings are mostly still lifes of indigenous plants to Korea.  We then walked through the sculpture garden and an educational plant and fish greenhouse area.

From there we drove to a city-owned cemetery.  It was very large and mountainous.  The director described how people pay for plots/tombs...it seems that families pay for 15 years at a time.  There is a mausoleum where people can put their cremated remains and above ground graves for individuals and families.

After the cemetery tour, we returned to Boryeong for a welcome dinner at the restaurant owned by the immediate past district governor.  There were many speeches and presentations, including a beautiful statuette representing our visit to district 3620.

After dinner we joined our homestay families.  I stayed with the family of an accountant (Kirk from the D6690 team also stayed with them). They live in a very nice condo with very modern appointments.  We went to another condo in the building (family of another Rotarian),who were conducting a ritual honoring the anniversary of the death of the grandmother.  It was also the birthday of their youngest son.

Sunday, April 8

Sorry to those of you who have been checking our blog. We've been without internet access for the last couple of days. We'll try to get caught up!

Today was a transition day to a new group of Rotary clubs.  After breakfast, we waited for the new club transportation to arrive.  They arrived at 10 am, per the schedule.  There was some miscommunication and a little disorganization, which meant that we didn't depart the Country House until about 10:45.  The new Rotarians were a bit upset.

We drove to Daechon Beach area.  We walked around an ocean front marketplace for about a half hour...we couldn't check into our condo until about 2 pm.

We had a delicious European style lunch (spaghetti, hamburger steak, etc.) at a restaurant overlooking the coastline.

After lunch, we checked into our rooms at the timeshare resort style "condo."  Rooms are interesting.  a two bedroom condo consists of a common area with kitchenette, one bedroom with a double/queen bed and another bare room with pads/matresses in the closet to spread on the floor and comforters.  It fits my understanding of sleeping arrangements in Korea.

Afternoon was relax time.  Most team members walked around the resort town of Daechon Beach.

We had a traditional Korean dinner with a group of our hosts.  Rice with vegetables mixed in, kim chi of various kinds, soup with miso and vegetables.  Evening was on our own...we called home, hung out and walked around town (9 pm on Easter Sunday at the height of low season in a tourist town...not much happening, to say the least).

First impressions.  Our new hosts seem much more businesslike, perhaps a little colder.  Our first group of hosts in Saeson City were so warm, happy, laid back, relaxed...it will be a tough comparison for this next group.  I wonder a little if they were small town folks, a little less businesslike and sophisticated than other Koreans.  Regardless, we loved them and the feelings were mutual.

Saturday, April 7

Our last day with our first group of hosts.  We walked to a Buddha carved into the stone wall somewhat up in the mountains.  This is a major cultural icon for the area.

From there, we walked to the site of an archaeological dig with a large rock flagpole.

We ate a pizza lunch (!), then relaxed at the country home of the Lees.  That evening was the farewell party for the Seosan Rotarians.  We gave our first presentation (I'm certain it will improve with time!), then had dinner and partied into the night. There were tearful farewells with our host families. The warmth and laughter we experienced with them will not soon be forgotten.

Seosan City - Our First Full Day

We jumped right in on Wednesday, April 4, with a lot of travel time.

First trip was to Gwanwolam Temple, south of Seosan by about an hour. Gwanwolam is a small temple (the "am" at the end of the name signifies that it's small) is set on a small island 50 yards off the coast at high tide. At low tide, you can walk to the temple, but at high tide you take a hand-pulled ferry (a platform on pontoons). The temple is 600 years old. The location is picturesque, with terrific views of the Cheongsuman Bay.

From Gwanwolam, we travelled north to visit Buseoksa Temple. Buseoksa is a large temple (signified by the "sa" at the end of the name) located in the hills/mountains about halfway between Gwanwolam and Seosan City. This temple consists of a number of buildings (7 or 8 vs. the 3-4 at the smaller temple). Buseoksa is 1400-1600 years old. We were invited into the main temple building by one of the monks, and we learned about some of the prayer rituals of the monks there. Several of us tried practicing one of the prayer methods.

After a hearty Korean lunch, we travelled west to the Cheollipo Arboretum, which is on the coast next to Mallipo Beach. The arboretum has more than 1,700 species of trees. It was established by an American, Mr. Miller, in 1964. He had served in the Korean War and came to love Korea and its people. Since it is early spring and still quite cold, there were not many plants blooming. Still, it was quite beautiful.

From Cheollipo Arboretum, we travelled quite a distance to visit a small resort town along the Taeanhaean (seashore) National Park. Here several of us got to try some fresh (as in live animals cut up before our eyes) squid and octopus. Not everyone had the stomach for this, however! After looking around and taking some pictures, we visited the seashore pension (between a hotel and a bed & breakfast) of one of the local Rotarians. We snacked and socialized with a number or local Rotarians who had come to meet us.

Finally, we returned to Seosan for a Korean dinner with many Rotarians. Every meal is a feast in our honor, it seems.

We're quickly coming to love our hosts for the week. Everyone is so helpful and friendly. Our team members are working through their jetlag (Tyel is our Team Champion at being able to nod off to sleep in the van!), and the lengthy van rides have cause some motion sickness for Joy. Not many of our Korean friends speak more than a few words of English - and we certainly don't know much more than "hello" and "thank you" in Korean - but it just doesn't seem to matter. The warm hospitality is overwhelming.

Arrival in South Korea

Having been delayed in Chicago by eight hours by aircraft maintenance problems, we spent our journey's first night in the Nikko hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

We rose early on April 3 to catch our Asiana Air flight to Seoul/Incheon airport.  We were met by District 3620 Assistant governor Jong-Hwan, Jeong and our interpreter.

We grabbed lunch and drove to the city of Seo-San.  There Team Leader Lee met the Mayor of Seo-San while the team saw a presentation about the city.  We also met the GSE Team from District 6690 from Ohio.  We'll be sharing our Korean visit with this team.

Following our visit to City Hall, we got better acquainted with our fellow GSE Team, met our first host families and had a wonderful Korean dinner.  We then departed for our first home stay.

And here we sit...

We've arrived in Chicago and have at least a five hour layover ahead of us because they are "servicing the plane".  This means that we may miss our Tokyo connection.  It's too soon to put us on another flight and so we sit and wait.  We've decided on an impromptu lunch at Chili's.

The adventure begins!

Our team is currently sitting at the Richmond airport ready to board our flight to Seoul via Chicago and Tokyo.  We just found out that our flight out of Chicago had been pushed back and it may affect our Tokyo connection.  So it appears that the advice to go with the flow has come into affect far sooner than we expected. ;)