The end

The GSE program has come to an end. This morning we put Lone on a plane home and the rest of us are now travelling around for a week before flying out from Pusan next Friday. Lotte and Kim are now in Jeju, Mette is in Japan and I am in Pohang. It has been a fantastic four weeks and I will miss the fun we have had in our group and the wonderful, caring, funloving Koreans we have met on our way, many of which I wish we could have spend more time with. / Elisabeth

Rotary District Conference 2011

The last two days we have been attending the Gyeongsangnamdo district conference. Saturday we were invited to a big western style dinner - we had 5 courses in 45 minutes at Samsung Hotel in Geoje. Today - Sunday - the big conference started at 9.00 o'clock. 2000 Rotarians were assembled in a sportsarena. Lots of pomp and circumstance inside with speeches and awards.

We, the GSE team, had 20 minutes to present some sort of entertainment so we showed our hosts a slideshow with our experiences and impressions these three weeks we have visited Korea - we think they were intertained.

The conference ended with almost two hours of entertainment - a Korean stand up'er and some of the most famous Korean popsingers. A very good show and it is always a lot of fun to see our very formal hosts sing and dance.

Tomorrow we are going to the famous Jigalchi fish market in Busan - we'll probably have lots of live octopus, sea-squirts and sea-sausage.

Photo compilation from the last few days...



Cherryblossoms in Tongyoung.



Cruising in the bay, Tongyoung.



View from the top of Mt. Namang.



Kimbab lunch with squid and kimchi.



Rotary club meeting on Monday.



Chungreol temple.



Kim having a fancy cuppa.



Midterm break in Seoul

About to board the KTX bound for Seoul. We travelled with as much as 302 km per hour!



Elisabeth with South Korean soldier in Panmunjeon.



Bridge of no return.

Half of our GSE program has now gone, and it has gone quickly. Time flies when you're having fun, eh.
Last night we returned to Jinju after a great weekend in Seoul, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. For Saturday we had previously booked a tour with the American army to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Bill Clinton was not far off when he claimed it was the scarriest place of Earth! It was extremely interesting to see, and we were taken to a number of places in the area, ie the Joint Security Area (JSA), the place where talks between the parties are sometimes held, in buildings split between the North and the South and soldiers from both sides eyeing each other, more than ready for combat in their Martial Art positions. We also saw the Bridge of no Return and one of the four (discovered so far) tunnels dug by the North - a slightly claustrofobic experience to walk in! At one of the observatories we had a peek into North Korea and as our last stop we visited the shiny new and very flash Dorasan trainstation meant to connect the two sides but due to circumstances were not in use, apart from very few passengers with special permit.
Sunday was spend individually visiting the War Memorial, Folk Museum, market, Seoul Tower and other things before we boarded the express bus back to Jinju. / Elisabeth

Seoul by night.

Namhae

Today we have left Jinju and travelled to Namhae by the sea. We have all been staying with hostfamilies for the weekend, and have all enjoyed the experience. It's been good to see how Koreans live, and good to spend time with the very welcoming and hospitable families.
We entered Namhae from the magnificent Namhae Bridge where we met our hosts for the day. We then visited the Mayor of Namhae and all recived fine gifts. Next stop was the beautyful Boriam temple in the mountains where we had a good look around. After a splendid lunch of grilled eel we headed for a butterfly museum, which was very interesting. So many varieties. / Elisabeth

Scrumptiolicious grilled eel.

Meeting the Korean version of Danish Tycoon Karsten Ree

The Tuesday program was arranged by Jinju Chokseok Rotary Club, which is Jinju´s largest Rotary Club. We started out with a visit to the City hall meeting the mayor of Jinju. We were all dressed up in suits and nice dresses except one member of the Korean delegation, who arrived in a Redface winter jacket. As we later learnt was he the Korean version of Karsten Ree – very rich, very interested in many different projects and a man who only does what he like and dresses as he cares.

The visit at city hall went well and after visiting a company making nature medicine from bell flower did we drive out to Korean Mr. Ree´s ranch. Here we attended a traditional Korean tea session, which was quite cool. (We hope to be able to perform such sessions in Denmark, with the tea sets received from a six time black belt Judo Master!!) Later did he invite Lotte for a horseback ride on an electronic horse! We had made a small house in his garden with the sole purpose of containing his electronic horse J We ended the visit with a half hour 4WD drive on the ranch, going up and down the mountains surrounding the ranch.
The day was successfully ended with a presentation of Denmark for the Rotary club and a trip to the local karaoke bar. The Koreans might seem very formal at first sight, but they for sure loosen up when the Karaoke gets going J
Roger and over – yet an inspiring day in Korea.
/ Kim

Meeting and greeting the Koreans!

After a nice resting day on Saturday, which was mostly used to explore the area near the motel we will stay in for the next 5 days, did we Sunday meet up with the local Women’s Rotary club. They had arranged for a tour to the local mall and afterwards a trip to Jinju Castle, which was used as a defense in one of the many wars between Korea and Japan. It is quite interesting to see how forgiving the Koreans are to the Japanese people and how worried they are around the atomic crisis in Japan.

After seeing a movie in the local Lotte cinema (almost every shopping and leisure shop is named after our team member Lotte Genz) did we have an Eel feast. We had Eel in many different styles, including Eel bones as a snack. The Korean women were in a very good mood, so we ended the night at the local karaoke bar singing a mix of English and Korean songs. / Kim

Wonderful day in Korea

We have had a wonderful day in Korea. The day started with a nice breakfast, soup with clams and rice. Then we went to a private girls highschool with 1100 students. The principal gave us a tour of the school which included the chemistry, English, art and PE department. They had excellent volleyball facilities and a few year ago the won the championship.

Teachers teach 4 hours everyday + time for preparation. Each teacher has their own workstation with computers at the teachers lounge. They do not have smartboards in their classrooms but instead they have overhead projectors and blackboards where they use a new invention - dustfree chalk. Usually there is app. 36 students in a classroom. The students also do their homework and studying at the school so they normally stay there from 8.00-22.00.

After the schoolvisit we had a wonderful lunch followed by a visit to the local city newspaper which is more than a 100 years old. It was very interesting to see how they printed the newspaper. In the editing room the had a big article on the wall about Bjørn Lomborg - we told them that he is Danish. The editor of the newspaper visited Copenhagen 20 years ago when he was a member of the Korean parliament.

We also visited a modern hospital and a clinic with traditional Korean medicine and we tried acupuncture which is actually a Korean invention, not a Chinese!

We give a big thank you to our Korean hosts for some exciting and fun days.

Finally here

After a couple of month of planning we are finally in South Korea.

The flight here went smoothly - and as a matter of fact we arrived in Pusan about one hour earlier than planned. We were greeted by the local Rotary district with flowers and a big banner and then headed towards Jinju city (population 340,000) - about 1½ hours drive west of Pusan. Here we will be staying for the first couple of days.

One of the things we've already found out is, that we will have lots of fantastic food while we are here - perfect for a group of foodies. /Lotte

Less than 48 hours to go

Now the suitcases have been packed and filled with new uniforms, gifts for our Korean hosts and great expectations. Fortunately the earthquake in Japan hasn't had any impact on South Korea so we are all set to go and look forward to meeting new Korean friends and seeing a lot of interesting places/Mette

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to our online diary of our Group Study Exchange in South Korea! We intent to write posts as often as possible about our adventures, be it vocational or cultural. Our readers are most welcome to write comments to our posts.

With just over a month before take-off we are all busy preparing for the trip. Mette and Lotte are working on our presentation and Kim and I (Elisabeth) are preparing a leaflet to hand out. Lone is establishing contact with photograpers, embassys, sponsors etc. as well as researching air tickets, insurance etc. Lots to look into. So far we have held meetings at Skovshoved Hotel and at Mette's and Elisabeth's homes. It is good to see how we all live – and a way of getting to know each other. One of our first meetings was held in a fabulous Korean restaurant – Miga in Gl. Kongevej – where we sampled the mouthwatering goodies that awaits us once we reach our destination.