Week 3, Day 15

Week #3. Wow. Our final scheduled week in Cheungju. On the one hand, I am looking forward to be going back home, but on the other hand, there will also be sadness of leaving a newly adopted home town. It also means that my blogging career will come to an end soon which will be replaced by Kiwi walking duties...

The highlight of today was a special luncheon hosted by the Deputy Mayor. The Deputy Mayor recognized our team's effort to date.

Although we had finished the stakeholder interview phase, the team conducted one final interview with a local bus company president. The rest of the day that ended around 10pm was devoted to finalizing our presentation slides. However, we did manage to squeeze in a dinner at the hotel's Japanese restaurant.


 As most of today was spent working on the recommendation slides (which I can't disclose here), I can't really think of any other interesting events/stories to share today. Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting.

Week 2, Day 14

Today started off pretty casual. I had a light breakfast at the hotel and later headed to the fitness center. As the only scheduled event was Mayor's dinner, everyone had a free day for a change. The hotel's fitness center was very nice. In fact, it has an indoor golf practice area that was equipped with golf swing analyzer. So, I took this perfect opportunity to improve my golf swing. I am hoping my golf instructor back in the U.S. will be impressed when I see her next time. I was Big Shooter in this cartoon.


The fitness center also had a sauna in Korean style which really means a birthday suit. The place was totally empty so it was fine except the fact that I had to be extra careful as I was moving around the facility. Anyway, I felt relaxed and was ready eat some lunch. So, I headed to a food court.

Yesterday, I told my wife that I had bought presents for Michael & Eddie. But, of course she couldn't keep a secret so Michael & Eddie wanted to see what I had bought. Here they are: Angry Bird pencil cases.

I also bought a mini Korean jar for my wife.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Mayor Han's residence. After we were warmly greeted by the mayor and his wife, we all sat down by the picnic table.

BBQ Beef

 Apparently the mayor likes to ride bicycles. Pictured below is an electric bicycle.

In addition to being a "Smart Dresser" (if you don't know what that means, you will need to refer to my older post Week 1, Day 3), the mayor has a specialty drink called Mayor Han's Cocktail. I can't disclose what goes into it though, but everyone drank one and a few more.

As we were all having a good time, the moon started to peak out along with bell tolling from a near by temple.

 As we were wrapping up, City's director general gave a small gift to each of us in advance as he will be out of town all next week.

The team really enjoyed this outdoor dinner. We like to thank those who helped to make this event possible.

Week 2, Day 13

Today was an action packed Saturday. Since the SCC team took a Seoul tour on last Saturday, we took a Cheungju tour today. We left city hall around 9:20am with a city official (who has been extremely helpful and kind) plus two volunteers from city's English Club.

The first stop was to Cheong-nam-dae, which used be the presidential villa (looked more like a resort to me) until it was converted to the Presidential History and Culture Hall in 2003.

We probably hiked at least for 5 km through this beautiful outdoor wonderland filled with manicured gardens and hiking paths. There were many other groups of tourists who were all eager to explore this breathtaking landscape.

Our next stop was lunch! I think our SCC team members finally was getting use to this traditional shoe-off sit-down set up. Note that we were all sitting against the wall on the left side :-O

Next stop was to a cafe and a funny thing happened. When we sat down, a barista came over and left an ordering pad and a pen. She asked us to write down the order and walked away :-O   An interesting concept.

We noticed there were a couple of dogs outside under a shade. They looked to be a Korean breed called Jin-Dok. Surprisingly, they did not bark at all. Of course it reminded me of our family dog Kiwi.... Who's really cuter? No contest.

After a nice cafe latte, we headed to Muneui Cultural Assets Complex.

Picture below shows two holes in a wall. What's interesting about them? Well, the cannon hole on left is flat which allows you to shoot out straight while the hole on right was angled downward so you can shoot at the enemies below. Pretty ingenious....

Picture below shows three columns of steps. The one on right is to go up while the one on left is to come down. How about the center one? It's reserved for the royals.

The building below was moved twice (I think) from the basin pictured above before a dam was built. The "move" was apparently not too difficult as the structure was all built without any nails. Thus, the movers had to simply disassemble and reassemble. Kind of like a Lego set.

One of our SCC teammates felt an urge to strike a pose. I think he felt the "energy".

Group photo below. Four new faces are two volunteer interpreters who did an awesome job. What's the best way to learn English? According to one of the volunteers, it was from watching Hollywood movies! The 3rd gentleman is our Mr. City who arranged this whole day for us. And the 4th lady with a hat & a pair of white gloves is the tour guide. I think two ladies up front wanted to strike another pose for the camera.

Doesn't the house above look beautiful? I thought so. Once I read the description shown below, it became even more special. In Korea, there are many "Kim's", but there are also many different family trees. Mine is Gang-Neng Kim Shi. According to this sign, the house above belonged to one of my ancestors! Wow. How cool is that? I bet my dad will be proud :-)

I have to thank our Event Manager (pictured below) as he was the one who pointed that out to me. BTW, for those single ladies out there, he is "single and available". I can vouch that he will be a great husband and a father! I am not kidding. He's also a cool dresser. And, yes, he does have a cool hair do.

????? Did they also drink soda and coffee back then?????

Another interesting fact: the house on left was occupied by men (grandpa, dad, and son over the age of 7, so in other word, it was a "man-cave") while the house on right of the divided wall was occupied by women only. Interesting indeed. But, now I am not sure where babies came from.....

Our tour guide below wishing us farewell....

Next stop was to infamous Jikji Museum. Apparently, world's very first book printed using metal type was printed at a temple in Cheungju (pictured below) around 1377 A.D. Amazing....

Next stop was doing some fish feeding frenzy (I am not referring to the fish). It was more like we were trying to find out who can feed the most.

A near by "wedding hall" which I think had two weddings occurring at that time. Let's just hope that the brides, grooms, and guests all went to the right wedding ceremony.

Last stop was to a nice American style restaurant located on top of a hill. I think I was too tired to take any photos by then. My next career could be a bi-lingual Cheungju tour guide.