The team traveled from Cheongju to Seoul this morning in preparation for our flight out on Saturday. But, we had a surprise in the morning as two city officials showed up at the hotel to say another good-bye. We also each received another gift along with a letter. So thoughtful...
As we were leaving Cheongju, I couldn't help but to recollect our drive down from Seoul about 3 weeks ago to start this Smarter Cities Challenge. Now, it felt that we were unwinding that journey to return home. Anyway, after 2 hours of driving, we chose a Mexican restaurant near Iee-Tae-Won. I think the whole team enjoyed this change of taste.
As we were exiting the restaurant, I noticed this fancy sports car parked right behind our black van.
As we walked thru this part of the city, a couple of SCC team members bought a gift for the SCC advisor as she's expecting very soon.
After some coffee, we headed to the Korean National Museum. I took this picture below as it almost looked like a UFO, but it's actually the ceiling of the museum.
After the museum tour, we headed to a fancy Korean restaurant joined by the Seoul based SCC team members.
This multi-course meal was apparently modeled after a menu fit for a king.
The king must didn't eat much :-O Is it my imagination that price and portion size are always inversely correlated?
After the meal, it was time to say good-bye to each other. It seemed appropriate that it started to drizzle reflecting our sentiment. It wasn't easy, but this team came thru together. We all helped each other to accomplish the mission at hand. We represented IBM well. We all came away with new impression of Cheongju. We all made new friends. Three weeks away from home wasn't easy, but it also allowed us to appreciate the family even more.
Below is the final Blog pageview total (1,502) by country. My original intent was to keep my friends and family in the U.S. informed, but based on the count, people in Korea really picked this up.
I want to thank those blog readers all over the world but especially those readers in Cheongju. I really enjoyed sharing my experience thru this blog. My return to mother land after 36 years couldn't have been any richer and rewarding. As I return to my normal life, my blogging career will also come to an end. My parting words are "live life and enjoy life as life goes by way too fast".
대단히 감사합니다
Thank you very much
谢谢你 this is for the Director of Transportation in Cheongju ;-)
I guess you will arrive at Washington in this time. I hope you and your family will have pleasant time talking about each other's three weeks event. Emptiness overcame me after your team left Cheongju city. I hope we will meet sometime in the future. Have a good time with your precious family and I wish your life always filled wity happiness. ^^
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr. Lee. Yes, I did arrive in Washington safe and sound. It is really great to see the family. I hope our paths will cross again in the future.
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