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.