Sunday

Sunday was a 'free day'--so I started in our new house by sleeping in, until almost 11:30!! That was so very needed at that point, it was truly blissful. We had Korean 'brunch', but since breakfast and lunch are traditionally the same foods, it was really just late breakfast.
E and I took a trip back to Art Street with our host mother, to make sure we didn't miss anything on the side of the street we didn't get to walk down the day before. I found some beautiful hand made shot glasses--I'm coming home with an insane amount of ceramics.
We got to sit in a coffee shop for a bit, I had a deliciously strong latte, and tried to remember everything we've done over the past 5 days. There was one whole morning lost to the depths of memory for a bit, but I remembered our trip to the High School before I had to doubt my mind too much.
Lunch was Sushi--with a Korean twist of course. It was nice to have tempura and california rolls and things that seemed more familiar. We walked around a Korean department store, which was very expensive and full of designer brands in tiny sizes. We stopped by Starbucks after the department store--real coffee twice in a day was such a treat. Starbucks in Korea does not have the Venti size listed on the menu, though it was apparently available. The sizes of everything is smaller here, the portion sizes are much more reasonable.
We did some visiting of family with our host mother, and picked up her son from the airport when he returned from a weekend on Jeju Island. (http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Travel2/Cheju) He is currently a college student in Canada, and had gone to high school in Canada as well, so spoke wonderful English. It was strange to hear a Korean person saying 'eh' at the end of his sentences though. We had dinner at an Outback Steakhouse, it was nice to have forks and red wine and steak and not share plates with everyone--a western style meal was absolutely wonderful at that point. I even had french fries--with ketchup! That was more exciting than I could have imagined.
Monday's plans went through a series of changes since most of the schedule was places that were closed on Monday. So instead of the museums, we went to a green tea field, drank delicious green tea and ate some green tea candy. In the afternoon, we visited a temple, and had a bit of walking around. We had a Roatary meeting for dinner, and then went to a Korean nightclub, which is very different than night clubs in the states. There's a sea of booths, and a small dance floor in front of a stage. The stage holds a rotating cast of comedians, djs and singers, and we danced and drank for an hour or so before moving houses for the evening. That change was probably the hardest, as we had to arrange to just carry one bag for the night, leaving the rest of our stuff on the bus that was our transportation for these few days. We got in pretty late, and had to acquaint ourselves with a new bathroom and sleeping set up, before collapsing into bed.
We spent Tuesday at Chonnam National University, first in their Robotics department, then walking around the campus. The robotics department does research in biomedical and intelligent robotics, and have been working on things like robots that incorporate bacteria and tiny drills and all kind of things. They even let us poke around in their labs. I got to visit the University's library, and got a bit of a tour. Asking questions that include any kind of jargon is an act in humorous frustration when dealing with an interpreter, since I had to try to explain what I meant in English enough for him to translate to Korean, and even then some things were definitely lost.
We walked through a traditional Korean market after lunch, which was overwhelming. They sell things like meat and fish next to ceramics and housewares, and the smells were strong and sometimes not pleasant. We bought some famous fried chicken from a stall (I tried very hard not to think of the whole chickens--heads and all--merely feet away that were turned into this delicious snack) and had a picnic back at the University. We gave our presentation again, this time to University students who may be considering studying in New York.
We drove for about an hour and a half to our next hosts--who are putting us up in a a beautiful seaside resort. We had a delicious dinner of meats cooked on a grill at the table, before returning to our big comfy rooms. We're out of the city, and the attitudes of the hosts is much more relaxed, fitting the environment. We've had some free time here, and they've left us on our own for a meal or two, after taking care of the bill. The schedules are also more relaxed--the changes are less stressful, and we dont' feel like we're running from one activity to the next. We visited a salt museum, and a shipwreck museum, and were given about 2 pounds of fresh sea salt that is gathered in this area. Today we got to see the workers gathering the salt, which was very cool as well. We also visited a nursery school, and had lunch at a truck stop. This afternoon we spent in a little artist community, and had tea with it's founder in his ceramic studio. Dinner was Korean style sushi, and most of the group is in the 'singing room' while I catch up here. Tomorrow morning we have a late start, before a trip to Mokpo, the large town/small city of this province and then a transfer to another hotel for the district conference this weekend. Our journey is almost over, and I'm very glad to have this period of relaxed activity to reflect a bit on the fact that I'm in Korea...still. Though this last week especially has been rough, on a whole this is a very positive experience, and I'm incredibly lucky to have this opportunity.