Last Blog from Jim.....

Well, we are off today on the long flight home. I can't believe it's over. We have made so many new friends and seen so many amazing things. I (we) feel honored and privileged to have been chosen to take this Rotary Cultural Exchange.

Thanks Rotary International.

By the way, I have over 8300 pictures accumulated between us. Yes, eight thousand three hundred.

The following picture is the group shot at our Farewell Party.



Here are the girls and our interpreter "Shine".


Our adopted "Official" shot done for us by Mr. Kim.



Our closing shot by Matt.....................


See everyone soon.....................

The End is Near

I'm so sad because it is our last full day in Korea. We head home tomorrow after lunch. I have to say that I've had a wonderful time eating new things and making new friendships. Korea is such a beautiful place and the people are so nice and generous. I wish we had more time! My packing is almost done and we have a few activities today like meeting with liasons from the Ministry of Education and then touring an herbal medicine hospital which should be interesting. This evening is our farewell party.

Our next to last day.............

On Sunday we went to Seoul, the capitol and 9th largest city in the world. We took the KBX which is a bullet train. See on the TV screen we were traveling at 305km/hr. That translates to over 189 mph. Very sooth and comfortable.

We toured the Changdeokgung Palace.

The War Museum of Korea. The gentleman in the second pic is someone who just walked into the picture.

Downtown Seoul with a river running through it much like Jordan Valley Park.

Buddha's birthday is this month and a parade was held.

Us with Korean and Thai friends enjoying a downtown snack and beer.

Of course we were watching the football (soccer) game between South Korea and Ecuador. We won.
More of the river as dark sets in.
Monday was spent on temple tours and a tomb tour. Our hosts were into ice cream so I had ice cream for breakfast and lunch. Baskin Robbins green tea serbert anyone?

Today we have a meeting with the education department to discuss opportunities for exchange and to learn more about their system. Then we visit a traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine Hospital. I'm up for acupuncture.

Tonight is our farewell party. Should be fun.

Tomorrow is packing and a long ride to Inchon for our flight home.

Faster then a speeding bullet..............

It's hard to believe it has been a month, it is all running together. As I stated we have full days and evenings leaving little time to do much but catch some quick zzzzzzzz's.

We have been here that long and most of us have had only one opportunity to wash clothes. You just have to choose your priorities and seize them.

Brief summary of what we've done with some random pictures.

On the 9th we went to the Barefoot Run/Walk on Mt. Gyejok. Pretty much spent the day climbing a mountain barefoot. Had a beautiful red clay path. At the end there was a concert in the park. From there we had a wine/pizza party with some of our hosts and some previous GSE teams., Great time and food. We had sushi, Pizza Hut pizza, and KFC chicken. A wonderful change and surprise.

On the 10th we visited Sejong. This was to be the new capital of South Korea as desired by the previous president. The present president did not want to make the move and halted the change. The construction is still massive. We were told the cost is $221,000,000,000. $21 billion would be high but we have no way of confirming. We also visited a national park, county administrative offices, a Korean/American War memorial, monastary, a credit union, Biamsa Goblin road, a traditional market, had dinner, and stopped in for a Rotary meeting. Tired just reading it?

The 11th? We visited the YeonGi-Gun agricultural center, Korean United Medicine Company, and the better part of the time at Beartree Park. This park is a wonderworld of plants, animals, and some of the most beautiful land I've ever seen.

On the 12th, Hansan Ramie Fabric Museaum. Ramie is the light looking fabric used in wedding andd funeral garb. It is done by hand and very expensive. Sokokvu wine Pavillion, Leeabok House, the spot the first Bible was introduced to Korea, Sinsungri Reed Field Park, Maryangri Camellia Park, and tried to watch the sunset on the ocean.

The 13th started with a senior living center tour, a trip to the mayor's office, a middle school tour, a drive across plus tour of the longest seawall in the world (Seocheon), a visit to a nursing home (where we stayed for the night), and beach soccer-golf with our host and the mayor as the sun set.

The 14th started with a trip to a traditional village and a concert by a group of young people in traditional garb playing traditional music. Very pretty and relaxing. The we visted a mushroom factory, a tarp factory, went to a traditional market, visited a credit union, had pictures taken in traditional Korean garb, and professional pics made in our GSE outfits. Ended with another great Korean meal and ice cream!!!!

On the 15th visited an elementary school, traqditional market, the busiest place in Daejeon for teenagers (Evening lights and busy streets). The highlight was a professional baseball game between the Hanwha Eagles (our team) and the Kia Tigers. You have never seen so much excitemtn in your life. they ahve a blast. Tickets...$7, you bring in all your own food and beverage. I do not know how they make any money. By the way, we won in a nailbiter.

Today is the 16th and we are on our was to Seoul on the Bullet train or whatever it is called.


Beartree Park



Monastary
Another of Beartree

A traditional home restored and maintain by a professor. It was his father's hiomje.

The Yellow Sea from Camellia Park.
Elemenatry school. 40 students. 5 or more are exchange students through Rotary.

The entrance to Sejong, the proposed new capital.

Traditional musicians in traditional garb.

Mushroom factory
Elementary school.

The teenager hangout on Saturday night.

Sorry...................

We have been terribly busy and have neglected to post on the blog. Since May 8th we have gone non-stop, been on the west coast (The Yellow Sea) across from China, slightly above Shanghai, and have not had Internet access.
Hopefully we will find time to blog tomorrow or Sunday now that we are back at our home base.
Jim

Beautiful Women, Beautiful Food and Big Bellies!

Well another week is behind us and it was a great one. We managed to get some free time and the guys went golfing. Towards the latter part of the week, we had the pleasure of having female hosts. This was a nice change since these women really had their act together. We met the Mayor of Yuseong whose wife was the President of the local Rotary club that was hosting us for the day. We visited two nursing homes which the Koreans call "Senior Welfare Centers" and actually had the opportunity to volunteer help. We learned that there are four levels of services and they are based on health and depending on what level of service you receive the government will pay for some of the cost. When I say government I mean insurance, there are no private insurance companies. The ladies treated us to a fabulous lunch with a setting that felt like an antique home and after lunch we had tea. Our host was a professor in tea culture so we learned about tea etiquette. We ended that day with an art performance by Grigio Moiso who is a very famous Italian artist who's style is much like Jackson Pollock. Very interesting!! On Friday we had another female host who was more laid back. She really wanted to make sure we were comfortable. We finally got to visit City Hall and met some really nice women who Lesley had previous contact with through her job. Yesterday was Parent's Day, so we were given the morning off, so Jim and I took the subway to the market which was fun because I got to eat at McDonald's. It was the best Big Mac I'd ever eaten!


Some things we have done but haven't the time to blog right now:
Had a wonderful lunch at one of our Rotarian host's home.
Went shopping at the Eunhaeng-Dong Market
Visited the Chilsung bottling factory, distributes Pepsi products
Experienced a traditional Korean play at the Arts and Culture Museum

Trying this one more time... only because of this AMAZING DAY!!

This is golf done right

Sorry for the order, I haven't quite got this figured out yet. When you play golf at Edinburgh, you have a full time driver, caddy, ball cleaner, refreshment lady with you. The girls figure you out quickly and always have the right club. They wash your ball after each shot on the greens. They drive the 5 man cart for you which is also electronically controlled by her to follow you.You can see the electrical guide line in the cart path. Kind of scary the first time to see the cart moving. In the background you see an older lady patching and pounding divots. They are all over the course fixing as you go along. By the way, the ladies have radios and talk to each other on the course following your ball even if it is out of bounds. Pretty impressive.




See me sinking yet another 60 yard (meter)chip? didn't think so.
Here's a couple of shots of the beautiful course.












Our hosts for golf, Mr. Choi and Mr. Lee. Matt is on of my team members. The course is high in the mountains above Geumsan. Actually the course is divided into a valley side and a mountain side. Par 72.

Talking Too Long!!!

It was another wonderful day. We started off the day by touring the Korean Nuclear Fuel Institute.


This tour took most of the morning, but was all very interesting. We got to see how fuel cycle rods are made.

After lunch, we presented our club banners to one of the Host Presidents that treated us to lunch at his restaurant. It was all very good!









After lunch we were given some free time!! YAY!!!! The other girls and I went shopping a bit. Later that evening the team was to give our first presentation to one of the local Rotary Clubs that hosted us during the day. Unfortunately our talk was too long. It was lengthy due to having a translator, however we learned from the experience. We also found out that the Rotarians were not really interested in us as individuals or Missouri for the matter, but wanted to know more about our individual clubs that were sponsoring us and Rotary activities. We tried to explain to them about what GSE is and the goals for GSE. They all thought we were Rotarians, for which we are not except Jim. Anyways, our night went long and everyone was hungry by the time we finished talking, so of course what did we do? EAT!