Korea – Week 4

Sunday was a free day, no plans with the program. I had a lazy morning then headed out the the National Museum again as the tour was so quick last week! We did hit some of the main exhibits, but I wanted to see the rest.

Monday was not a very exciting day – faculty had everyone’s personal papers to mark. Each student had to write 5 pages about a Korean topic. It might not seem like much, but when you have 19 of them, it takes time. My goal was to get them all done on Monday (which I did). I did take a few minutes out of the day to watch some of the sports that the students were doing for sports day. I watched the end of soccer and all of Korean wrestling (because it was so interesting). The goal with wrestling is to have your opponent touch the mat with something besides their feet. Everyone has a cloth belt around their waist & one leg for holding on to. There are videos here and here. I did go for a walk at night – but that’s it!

Tuesday was a lazy day – hard to get away and do something as I had to meet people at specific times! Still I did escape for a tea and read a bit of my book. I got a pretty amazing gift from my secret angel (like a secret Santa – only not at Christmas) with a lovely note.

For dinner we were taken out for dinner by the director of BIP, Dr. Lee. He took all the faculty, the organizer, Joey Yoon, and administrative staff out to an amazing dinner at Mad for Garlic. Everything there contains Garlic. Well, one dessert doesn’t and neither do the drinks, but all the food does! I had a spicy pizza with garlic (of course), squash, green onions, and some sort of skinny hot pepper. It was sooo good. The Cesar salad had bacon chunks in it! Lots of good food and good conversation. While we were out, it started raining – maybe the monsoon has finally started two weeks late?

On Wednesday the students did their group presentations about some aspect of Korea. They were really good! I enjoyed them. It is amazing the power of group work. This was the fourth time they had worked in these groups (the other three were writing group papers). Presentations lasted until mid afternoon. I then wandered out and about. I went past a Baskin-Robbins (where I worked as a teen) and decided to go in. I had a green tea ice cream.

In the evening was the farewell dinner. The tables were set beautifully. The meal was a delicious buffet. There was an amazing slideshow, a door-prize draw, and some talent acts. The best part was we got to meet the person who was giving us all out secret angel gifts! Afterwards, two other faculty members and I went out for a mango ice flakes (yummy). When I got back I Skyped with home.

Thursday was the final certificate ceremony in the morning. It was pretty emotional. The president of the University spoke as did the director of international relations, students, and a faculty member. They played an amazing video of the experience and then we received a certificate of completion (me too!).

After lunch I went for a wander. I stumbled upon the Seoul trail. It is right near a busy highway. The highway crosses over-top the path sometimes, and as it was raining some bicyclists and a couple having a picnic sheltered under there. It was quite lovely the whole way along. Lots of flowers too. I stopped on the way back and pretended to have tea with my Boo.

All the faculty, our RA and another staff member went out to dinner at a chicken restaurant. It was very lovely. They gave us a gift of some treats and a face masque which we tried when we got back.

<pictures coming!>

Friday I left Seoul Women’s University and headed off on the last stage of my adventure