Jinhae 0422 thru 0424

The team spent Wednesday and Thursday in the port city of Jinhae, also a station for the Korean Navy as well as the U.S. Navy. We toured a few of the city's museums and a water treatment facility that is also doing research on fish. They had several small aquariums in their facility, some of which held rare Korean species of sea creatures.



After nearly three weeks of living according to a break-neck schedule with no downtime and adjusting to sitting and sleeping on the floor frequently and recovering from a$$-kicking food poisoning, the girls were ready for some spa massage therapy. Ok, so we didn't have the kind of spa day we were expecting - with the gracious assistance of the Jinhae Rotarians we were able to coordinate a Chinese massage therapy session ... elbows jammed into all the sore spots and people walking all over you and all that jazz. YIKES!

While the girls were "relaxing," Ed was trying new things, root juice off the back of some guy's truck (sounds pretty redneck, don't it?):



On our last night in Jinhae we were treated to a specially arranged Miguk dinner on the U.S. Navy base. Most everyone had steak and ate their meals with gusto.

We were very sad that we only had a short time in Jinhae. Our homestays were great and our hosts were wonderful.

Though we would have appreciated a longer visit with our new friends, on Friday it was time to move on to our next club in Miryang ...

Schedule:
APRIL 22
Transfer, meet & greet
Jinhae Dream Park tour
Lunch (at restaurant called Meat Valley, spaghetti)
Marine park and maritime museum tour
Dinner (welcome)
APRIL 23
Response cold water inland tour
Lunch
Tapsan, museums, jangboksan tour (tea time)
Dinner (farewell, at U.S. Navy base)
APRIL 24
Transfer to Miryang

District Conference in Ulsan 0418 thru 0419

We attended the 3720 District Conference last weekend in Ulsan. We met many interesting people and saw many wonderful things!

We were very happy to again see the members of clubs that had already hosted us - we truly have made some friends.

We met delegates of 3720's sister district from California as well as delegates from Japanese and Philippine clubs.

We met 3720's district governer, too, who presented us with gifts of lovely decorated musical jewelry boxes.

Though we had very short notice, we were able to put together a photomontage to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World."

(Video of the opening drum ceremony):


More videos are available for viewing at Michelle's Facebook page.

Masan 0419 thru 0422

Schedule APRIL 19
10 a.m. - Meet & greet Area 10
11 a.m. - Visit Hyundai dealership owned by Rotarian
11:30 a.m. - Silla Precision Co. tour (Rotarian owned)
12 p.m. - Lunch
2 p.m. - Traditional market tour and visit hanbok shops
4 p.m. - Rest / visit fish market
5:30 p.m. - Dinner (fish)
7 p.m. - Drinks & live music


Traditional Dresses, originally uploaded by jaimesc.

Masan is a port city. From the hotel balconey, we have a full view of the shipyard. We've had a really nice time here and enjoyed the company of our Rotary hosts.

Tomorrow we head out to a new city!

Masan schedule 0415 thru 0418

Schedule for Masan
APRIL 15
Team ill, down for the count
APRIL 16
Team ill, down for the count

APRIL 17
10 a.m. - Arrive at Group 2 office
11 a.m. - Masan City Hall and Masan City Council tour
12 p.m. - Lunch
2 p.m. - Rest
2:30 p.m. - Kyungnam University - interview vice-president
3 p.m. - Tour of Kyungnam University
4:40 p.m. - Monggo Foods Co., Ltd.
6 p.m. - Dinner - buffet at International Hotel

Haman to Masan

The GSE'ers are in Masan, recovering from food poisoning. The last 24 hours have been ... colorful. That is as much as propriety will allow me to reveal. We had a "recovery" breakfast this morning at Masan Tourist Hotel -- plates dominated by scrambled eggs and toast.

Before being knocked down by bad oysters, we spent a few days in Haman learning about Korean agriculture, visiting a burial site, taking a bus ride to Jinju, stopping at an arboretum, touring a fortress, and enjoying the company of our Haman hosts. Moving to Haman from Changwon reminded me of visiting Brugge after Paris--a small rest from city-life.

Today was designated as a recovery day, which was fortunate since no one has the energy to do very much. Tomorrow, hopefully, we will all be back to almost normal and get to check out Masan.

(We are feeling better. Today we all managed to stand up as opposed to leaning or laying down and to speak in complete sentences rather than grunts, mumbles, and hand gestures.)

Next Stop

We've been in Changwon City for the last couple of days and have stayed with Korean families. Changwon was the first planned city in South Korea and was developed with a 30 year plan. All of the manufacturing, commerce, and residences have certain areas. The city is beautiful--lots of landscaping and architecture.

Here's a quick list of some things we have done:

Visited Korean Broadcasting Station, Doosan Heavy Industries, a shooting range, taken a Tae Kwan Do lesson, visited a Korean cooking school, and enjoyed some free time on Easter Sunday.

The hospitality of our hosts and the Changwon Rotarians has been wonderful!

Travis eats an aquarium 0408 in Gimhae