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.