Day 3 with Temples, hiking and monorail + our first weekly meeting presentation

We are slowly getting used to the pace....

We started the day at the architect's house.  The stonewalled bathroom with heated toilet seats that also catered for a full bottom washing (if wanted) was something at least I had not experienced before.

After a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, sandwiches and coffee we were ready for pictures in the garden. Our bags were put on the back of a truck and sent off. We went the other way, driving to the heritage village near Chungu Lake.

The temples had been moved there before the valley was flooded by the Choungdu Dam. Many colorful temples, Vistapoints and Nobility halls were seen. The great water jet was also visible for some time in the beginning of the visit.

After this we went to the adventure park, but in the rain nothing was open - thanks heavens we would not take the 62 m Bungee jump, or climb the 16 m high outdoor climbing wall. 

Lunch was served at a great Teddy Bear place, great food and nice company.

We then continued to the Monorail that goes up to the Paragliding center. It was so cold that Anna, Carita and Kim Jon Chau declined. They were taken for coffee instead. There were 6 of us going up to the top in the monorail. The machine is electrically (265 kW machinery) powered. It goes a distance of about 2 km and rises at least 400 m to 531 m above sea level. The angle was often very steep, so we leant back and held onto the bikehandles in front of ut. There is a 360 degree vista from the top - magnificent, and an artificial grass like turf for the paragliders to run on for takeoff.

Next down and then to the "Stonebed temple" - 3 big buddha statues in the topmost temple and well kept gardens and a wishing water spring. Really calm surroundings for the monks.

We then came to town, had a coffee before the weekly meeting. At the Kukwon Rotary Meeting we had about 30 people attending. The Hangul typing on the slides was the way to go, it clearly made it easier for the audience to follow by watching & reading than by listening. Some more practice is however needed to meet the wished deadline of 10-15 minutes. We will rather focus on keeping it short and answering questions.

Dinner was again a buffet, however this time we picked it ourselves and we have clearly learnt to pace ourselves a little better than the first days.

The compulsory "Helan Går" was sung again, as the teamleader was asked to toast with Sohu.

Further a round at the bar and then home to the club president for discussions, photoshare and preparation for tomorrow: charging, blogging and downloading of photos.

Dag 2 fortsätter med Liquorium, Spa och middag!

Vi gick på en kort promenad före lunchen, via en koreansk musik inrättning. Där spelade de låtar ur "Les Miseables" och "Phantom of the Opera" på sina typiska koreanska instrument. Skam åt min tanke att det mest blir asiatisk "pling-plong" med dem. Tonskalan var fin på de tvåsträngade stråkinstrumenten, de ca 15 strängade kantele-liknande harporna och träflöjerna.

Dirigenten blev intresserad när han hörde att jag är här för en längre tid och ville gärna träffa mej igen.

Lunchen blev en våt historia med en mängd rätter igen. Vi blev tillfrågade om dricker Sohu, deras risbrännvin. Visserligen, med "Helan går" till. Måltiden blev lång och god, vi rullade till slut ut. Kristjan mår inte speciellt bra utan känns febrig och har magbesvär.

När vi kommer till nästa ställe - den "Central Pagoda" - som finns mitt i det gamla Silla kungadömmet, hoppar Kristjan av. Våra värdar hittar ett ställe där han kan vila i närheten. Vi andra går utmed stranden och tittar på statyer i parken samt ser roddstadion där de i augusti 2013 kommer att ordna VM.

Sedan kaffe på liquorium, som även serverar koreanskt vin ! Amy Rose rose vinet smakar som en ung Madeira, har fyllig doft och en smaken av en lättare madeira eller port.

Vi går även in på deras "fermenterings museum" - allt om vin, sprit, öl -tillverkning. Många fina scheman om hur man lagar de olika dryckerna. Bl a går Tequila löpande bandet från buteljering rakt in i baren... med kunden i sombrero.

http://www.liquorium.com - säger mer, men bara på 한굴.

Dags att åka vidare. Vi för Kristjan till huset där vi skall övernatta och fortsätter till ett mineral spa. Det luktar sulfa i duschen. Efter lite värme i bastu, jacuzzi och varmvatten bad blev det koreansk foliage och massage för mej. Härligt, men lite smärtsamt. Min nacke och skulderblad har varit väldigt sjuka, inte alls lika farligt mera.

Sedan bar det av till en restaurang där vi mötte ca 10 rotarianer. Jag gjorde en impromtu presentation och den rönte god genklang. 

Helan går presenterades igen. När vi kommit igenom varmrätterna (ca 15) började det serverars "one-shot" - det innebär ett halft glas öl - häll i 1/2 glas Sohu och töm med en gång så att du vänder glaset på ditt huvud efteråt. Det kunde noteras att TF utbildningen är av god internationell klass...

En lyckad dag - dag nr 2 i Korea - Måndag 1 April början

Idag har vi gjort en massa!

Det började med morgonmål på samma restaurang där vi åt fasanmiddag på söndag. Den var ca 100 m från hotellet. Innehavaren visade stollt upp hur hans son tävlat i PyongJong (där olypiska spelen hålls 2018) i slalom
Utbudet likande middagens, men hade kanske 12 rätter att välja mellan medan vi på kvällen hade haft  minst 20.
Ingen gröt, inget bröd, ingen juice - men däremot tex marinerad zuccini, kimchi och noodlar att välja mellan.

Det blev dags att ta bilen till vårt första besök, men minibussen var för liten för våra 8 väskor, på 6 personer: 4 GSE medlemmar + jag + Kim Jon Chau som är vår tolk.

Efter en stunds funderande lämnade vi bagaget som sedan hämtades och fördes till nästa familjs hem.
Vi åkte till "Taekqyeon Center" där vi fick bekanta oss med den ursprunglika koreanska versionen av Taekwondoo - Taekqyeon. Båda handrörelserna, fotarbetet och sparkarna var imponerande att se. När det sedan blev vår tur var jag som teamleader nog lite rädd för att någon skulle skada sig.

www.tg76.or.kr - ger info

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!