We started our day with another factory-DK Industries, which makes metal pieces for large appliances. We saw refrigerator doors being molded, and rows upon rows of washing machine drums. They also make condensers and back panels for refrigerators, including Kimchee refrigerators, my new favorite appliance. Our factory guide was a GSE team member from Korean to Australia, and the company's CEO is currently on Long Island as the team leader for the Korean group. It was wonderful to meet someone who had so very recently been through the process. He started our day with a presentation of his GSE experience, as well as the company, in a cushy conference room where there was juice and rice water laid out for us. His English was pretty good, though he wouldn't say so, so we got to talk to him directly on the tour, instead of going through the interpreter. He told us that about half way through the trip he was ready for some Korean food-so we know to start expecting that in about a week. He said there were no factories in Australia, just a lot of mines. He also said he understood our accents more easily than the Australian accents-probably because they learn American pronunciation in school. Then we got to walk around and see things being made, and then had lunch in the company's cafeteria. It was actually really great to eat simple food, and to choose our own portions and not feel like we were wasting a ton of food.
In the afternoon we took a trip to a natural dye center, and after some serious shopping, we got to dye our own silk scarves. We got a brief history of indigo dying, which this region is famous for. The nearby river flooded regularly, wiping out rice plants, so the residents planted a heartier grass, which can be turned into indigo dye. We had a choice between tie-dye, gradations or all blue, most of us went for the tie-dye, but we all came up with very different patterns in the end. That was a very cool experience.
We transferred to a new club and new host families that night. This club had a very different make up then the ones we had previously been in. There was much more of an old-boys club feel at this one. At the two other transfer dinners, the wives of the host families attended, but not at this one. There was a Rotary Club meeting going on in the same restaurant at the same time, but we were not aware of that, and so were not prepared with name tags and jackets. There were a few glitches, and our leader had to assert herself on our behalf, but in the end, we all got to where we needed to be, to rest for the next day's activities. Dinner was Chinese food, so just a touch different than Korean food (though there was still kimchee). The meal was much less spicy than most of the others we've had recently, and that was a nice change.
Our host family does not have internet in the apartment, so we took a walk to BK Construction, which is their company. We borrowed some employee's desks, and got to check email and such. It's very odd to work on a computer that has Windows Vista in Korean, I'm not familiar enough with Vista or Korean to do much more than get to the internet, and shut the machine down. I'm pretty proud I can even figure that out with out holding in the power button :D