Did We Really Agree to Meet at 8:15 on a Saturday Morning?

We did, and Ed brought us a wonderful assortment of bagels from Bruegger's.

:)

One of the biggest aspects of our preparation for South Korea has been the studying the language. Our group has been so fortunate to have Sara and Inho Yoon as instructors in our endeavor to learn. It is difficult to find words that adequately describe all they have done for us. "Superb" comes to mind, as well as "Above and beyond." Under their guidance, we are continuing to work on the alphabet, some basic grammar, numbers, and key phrases.

From the outset, the group decided to deliver the presentations to our Korean hosts in Hangul and began to look for ways to effectively communicate. Sara helped us translate our District 7750 presentation. She also took the time to make audio recordings of each slide (currently 55 Powerpoint slides) so that we could practice pronunciation and improve our words per minute. We also will likely provide the Rotary clubs we visit with handouts of our presentation.

We also continue to learn about culture and customs in an effort to keep the faux paus's to a minimum!

(Finally, it would be remiss not to mention that yes, Sylvia is Korean. She is, however, our Girl, not our crutch! She is an incredibly valuable source of knowledge concerning language and culture, but also a terrific teammate.)

Saturday, January 17

District 7750's GSE team met on January 17 at Day and Zimmerman for language and culture training. Father Ken stopped by Saturday morning to go over some official business - passports, medical forms, and proof of insurance. Next, we discussed uniforms and where to buy them. With 5 team members of varied sizes, this wasn't as easy as it sounded. Varying shades of gray, pleated vs. flat-front, and the ultimate question: Seersucker. Talks are ongoing, but a resolution is forthcoming.

After lunch at 5 Guys (Ed, Michelle, and Jaime) and Atlanta Bread (Babette), Sara arrived with lesson 5. She also brought a guest with her, Dr. Peter Yun, an economics professor formerly of the University of Virginia's College at Wise, currently of Handong Global University in South Korea. She patiently covered the Korean number system--there are two systems for those of you who are curious. Pure-Korean is for counting, Sino-Korean is for measuring quantities. We also reviewed some expressions and pieces of our presentation.

We will meet next on January 31. (These snazzy pictures are from my cell phone and are the first I've taken since getting the phone--a Samsung Sway. For a cell phone, they're not too bad.)

Quick Update

So, what's new with District 7750's GSE team to South Korea?

Here's a quick run down of some of our recent activities post-Clemson:

• Language and culture training have continued with the Yoon's (Sara and Inho.) They have been wonderful instructors and patient with us as we make our stabs at learning Hangul. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at their home in November, which included a number of delicious Korean dishes and many bottles of 포도주.



• Last weekend, our group, along with District Governor Carol Burdette and Ken Tucker, traveled to High Point, NC for an orientation of GSE and Rotary Scholars in our zone. It was a great time to catch up with everyone and meet some of the other GSE teams. (Plus, we got to stop at Trader Joe's in Charlotte on the way home and Sylvia treated us to Mochi ice cream. Great stuff.)



• Michelle, Travis, Sylvia, Ed, and I continue to work on our presentation. Our goal is to effectively communicate with our Korean hosts in their language. We're thinking of some ways to share information about our district that will be interesting to them and cover our bases should we find ourselves without projector's or encounter computer problems, etc.

Regular blog posts and pictures are forthcoming!

고맙습니다!

Team Ventures in Clemson

The Team Ventures excursion in Clemson took place over the weekend. Despite not knowing what to expect other than rain, the weekend was enjoyable. Some of our activities included a tour of the SC Botanical Gardens and the geology museum, an unexpected "drop off" downtown, dinner at the Mellow Mushroom, and some exercises on the Team Ventures course on Saturday.
Our group had the opportunity to give our presentation to Rotary members who then offered feedback. We stayed up late-late Friday editing our portions so that a new draft would be ready to present Saturday.

While I had no idea of what was going to happen last weekend and a slight (okay, maybe more than slight) case of nerves as a result, I knew that I would be there with the team and that we would have a good time. I was grateful to have time to hang out and bond with everyone. Our trip to South Korea is going to be a blast.

01/05/09: (More testing by Michelle) Looks like I can edit Jaime's post as well.