Week 1, Day 3 continued

The first meeting was with a Senior Research Director. He obviously knows the pros/cons of various proposals along with its feasibility. So, this was a great opportunity for us to bounce various ideas to seek his feedback.

After a long meeting, we were treated with Korean Lunch Box meals. One member was struggling with using a pair of chopsticks so another person was attempting to teach. I am not disclosing who is teaching whom as what happens in Cheong-Ju, stays in Cheong-Ju.

The next meeting was with leaders from the Taxi and Bus Transit organizations. Both entities are private for-profit organizations. Naturally, there are competing agendas. Discussions were probably most liveliest to date and the meeting could have easily ran way more than 2 hours.

The last meeting of the day was with a local university professor who've studied extensively on Cheong-Ju traffic. He had at least 8 specific recommendations. What was surprising to me was that the majority of those recommendations were to improve "quality of life" vs. traffic improvement. It reminded me of a statement that the city mayor made yesterday. And that is, his goal is to make Cheong-Ju a city that puts the "people" first and "cars" second. Meaning that the city should strive to make people friendly rather than car friendly. 

Finally, we wrapped up the day with a team dinner. The restaurant was called VIP which looked like any other upscale steakhouses in the U.S. BTW, no tipping in Korea yet a great service. Hmm.

OK, it's time to hit the sack. I have only two wishes: (1) sleep thru the night, (2) there will be less than 100 emails to check in the morning.