Day 1: Incheon airport, Korean Folk Village and Chungju

We arrived to Incheon airport today and we met our welcoming committee. 

 

GSE team from Finland and welcome committee from South Korea.

We took plenty of photos and then headed to Korean Folk Village similar to Helsinki's Seurasaari open air museum. Area of the Folk Village Park was enormous and there we lot of activities. The funniest and craziest thing was a ghost ride on amusement area of the park. This is not definitely so folky stuff but interesting and just reminds us how spiritualized country Korea is. It really reminded Linnanmäki's ghost ride. Folk village was really interesting are including local food and activities based on old folk traditions, like pottery making, straw rice bag making, dyeing experience, herbal tee house, wooden craft workshop, Buddhist temple, mask making, traditional wedding show etc. There is also situated plenty of building that has been built old traditional way.

 

We also tasted rice wine (Makgeolli) that reminds me somehow too old milk or strange beer (kilju). But it was actually really tasty. 

After the park we had traditional lunch with the wide variation of the Korean small dishes. Plenty of everything; fish, beef, kimchi, tofu, veggie stuff, octopus, rice in three different ways - you name it.

 

Lunch table after we finished it.

Finally in the bus we had time to have a nap while we headed to our cosy hotel for the first night in Chungju city. Chungju city is famous for three or four things: it is the place where the current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spent his childhood, here is every year held a big apple festival - everything related apples available, also once in a year here is World Martial Arts festival (check more: www.martialarts.co.kr). In Chungju there is situated also artificial Chungju Lake and to get to know it better you can participate some of the cruises that are set there every day.

We will also have welcome dinner this evening so have to rest now for the evening gathering. I let someone else report about the dinner or I will do it tomorrow.

Potteries and reflection from Korean Folk Village

Getting started - Day 1

Today is the day we depart. We've agreed to meet at the airport 90 min before departure. My daughter drove me in a little early to fit her program so I'm contemplating the trip over a cup of coffee.

- Finally it gets started, after months of preparation I'm on the way
- Naturally questionning myself about what I have forgot (a charging cable for my iPad keyboard is the only thing identified sofar)
- In the past few days I managed to get manythings done at work that were long overdue, the impact of a hard deadline is often amazing
- Now it's time to pick up the Korean material again and start translating at least keywords of the presentation
- Will see if a month without PC, but with phone and iPad will cause me anxiety or relief!

What do I want to get out of the month?
- Gaining an understanding of how the Koreans look at the world of today, when the Western world looks at financial difficulties
 - What does Koreans see as worthwhile goals to strive for?
- At least a rudimentary conversation language of Korean
- What does Mobile Broadband and Cleantech look like in Korea?

- Anyhow I look forward to a month of being able to discuss, contemplate, photograph, exercise and learn!

Calce

Above Irkutsk, South Siberia - local time in Helsinki: 00.20 and local time in Seoul: 06.20

We are now heading towards Korean peninsula. Flight with the white wings on Finnair flight number AY041 will take us to Seoul where we will arrive about 9 am local time. At the moment I do not have a clue where we will be going after we will arrive. I only know that we will have after arrival three hours ride with the minibus to our final destination.

There is really strange feeling about the trip at the moment, because we have planning it so long time and now we finally are on our way to Seoul and Korea. Probably when we land I will realise that we are going to be one month away and travelling and experiencing South Korea and Korean culture and habits. On the other hand I will also realise how much I will be missing my loved ones and friends in Finland.

This is how I prepared during the flight for arrival.

We needed to do some more paper work to get to the country: arrival information and also declaration for customs. Flight has been really ok so far. I got extra seat next to me free so I have plenty of space available. Thanks Finnair Check-in and Plus membership.

We still have plenty of things to do with the team, so that all the formal and also informal meetings will go as planned. The biggest task is to make presentation about Finland, European Union, Estonian, team etc. look sophisticated, cool and informative. Our biggest challenge is to make it interesting for Korean people because we have heard that they do not really understand English as widely as we would like to share the information about our countries, economy, business and educational system. I will upload also the presentation here as soon as we are really satisfied with the slides. I have to admit that Kristjan has done remarkable work on the presentation design.

Unfortunately I also heard yesterday that the North Korea announced “a war declaration” against South Korea so there are pretty much tension at the moment on the Korean peninsula. I will report about the situation when we will get to the final destination if there is something to worry about.

The Team

So departure to South Korea is tomorrow and it's been a lengthy process applying and preparing for everything. Writing the applications and bioforms in the autumn seems like ages ago, and back then the actual trip to Chungcheungbuk-do seemed very distant.

After filling in heaps of forms and submitting different certificates ensuring that we're in full mental and physical health and have an insurance that will cover just about anything, we're finally on our way. 8 hours and 45 minutes flying to Seoul tomorrow and we'll kick off with what's going to be a month full of interesting programme and fascinating visits.

Team members Kristjan, Rope and Carita and team leader Calce planning the trip in Ariran, a Korean restaurant in Tallinn.

Stay tuned for updates by all team members and our team leader!