Week 2, Day 11

Today was somewhat an uneventful day. Perhaps we are all getting use to the environment and the project at hand. Since Week 1 was all about "discovery", Week 2 is all about drafting and validating the recommendations. Thus, after spending the morning hours on continued development of recommendations, the team conducted a 2 hour validation session follow by another 3 hours of team review which lasted until 7pm. By then, some U.S. team members learned "I-go" which means OMG or "good grief" in Korean.

There is a requirement that each member to take turns in completing a daily activity summary report. However, my two turns were completed by a teammate who offered to help since I was doing this daily Blog. I appreciated it very much. Speaking of this Blog, "page hit" reached 1,000 page views today and counting.

Pageviews by Countries South Korea 841 United States 104 Russia 23 Indonesia 11 Germany 3 Malaysia 3 France 2 Hong Kong 2 Singapore 2 United Kingdom 1

I also received few encouraging comments from the readers and emails from my colleagues back in the U.S.

After a quick carryout dinner that our driver got us, I needed to get a hair cut, so I ventured out. I quickly found a barber shop near the hotel so I went in. I was pleasantly surprised as the shop was open until 9pm. Back in the U.S., my barber shop normally closes by 7pm. A young man greeted me and gave me a great hair cut & shampoo. All for $8. I know it's not typical to tip, but I really wanted to say "thank you" for your great service so I gave him 10,000 won ($10) which was received with a puzzle looking smile.

I took a stroll down the street further and found this Chinese/Korean bakery. I bought 3 Gin-Bang for 1,000 won ($1). I felt a bit awkward to make him do all this work for $1 as he had to steam them.

On my way back to the hotel, I saw the middle aged hotel doorman standing by the door who is always sharply dressed and is always very kind. For some reason, I remembered something that my mother had always reminded me of. "Be kind to those who may not be in powerful positions". So, I walked over and asked him if he would like to share my Gin-Bang... He laughed out loud and immediately declined as I had expected (typical Korean custom). Then, I told him that I had 3 in the bag and begged him again to have one. He finally accepted and commented "oh, it's even hot" with a smile. It was my small token of appreciation. There is a saying "In-Shim" in Korean which I think means "human heart" or "generosity". I think this is what brings people together.... and there is a lot of "In-Shim" in Cheongju...