It's Tuesday it must be Belgium

Actually, it is Wednesday morning. Another incredible full day yesterday. We visited Postech University. They have a student body of 3,000 and every student is there on full scholarship, tuition and housing. They accept only the top 1% of high school students.

Then, of course, lunch and it was time to say good bye to our hosts to be handed off to another club. We had so much fun with this group we were sad to see them go. We will have a chance t0 see them again at the district conference on April 28th.

Our next group seemed much more serious, but we are finding that it just takes them a little while to warm up. We went on a beautiful drive to Hangot which is the Eastern most tip of South Korea. Every New Year's morning 20,000 people visit there to watch the first sun rise. There is a sculpture of two hands held upward, one in the sea and one on land facing each other. The sun rises directly up from the hand in the sea (it will make more sense with a photo). There was a group of students there (hundreds of them). A couple of the boys (about 10 years old) were in a bit of a fight. At first I felt sorry for the one little boy with glasses that seemed to be being picked on (our boys push and hit, theirs kick like martial arts), but after our host gave them a talking to, it became obvious that he was still in his face. There was one little boy playing mediator between them. He had a big job. Boys are boys wherever you go I guess.

As usual, we wished we had more time there to enjoy the beautiful, rugged seaside and promenade, but we were hurried in to the van for our next destination... E-Mart! When we got there our host said, "O.K., we will meet back here in 2 hours." TWO HOURS at E-Mart?! Sure glad we didn't waste too much time at the beach! Argh! This is one of the frustrating things about not speaking or reading the language. We let them know that we thought one hour would be plenty and it was. I took some photos of the men's clothing racks with shirts and suits in pinks, yellows, blues, purple. They dress in great colours and sparkles (the men and the women). Our hosts (4 men in suits -- the business dress is dark pinstripe suit with colourful tie) weren't quite sure what to do with us since we cut our shopping time by an hour. We suggested perhaps a park or a nice walk somewhere, they chose rather to buy us a drink at McDonald's! We had to shake our heads again, smile and say kamsahmida. Janice thought she was ordering a blueberry milkshake and ended up with a black bean and rice shake (black beans look kind of like blueberries, don't they?). We couldn't stop laughing. Actually it was quite delicious and tasted kind of like an oreo cookie blizzard. I just had a sip, still full from our lunch.

We went to our first Rotary meeting after that. We each gave a presentation with pictures of our families and lives at home. This group was pretty impressed with my marathoning and hiking. I'm glad I included pictures of what I like to do. "Marathon. Ah good," makes for a good conversation starter. They served us dinner and plates of the sweetest strawberries I have ever tasted. Mina and I polished of three platefuls of them! Sky-Bae, the club president presented us each with a gift (a business card holder -- exactly what we needed, presenting business cards is a VERY big deal here) and then wanted to take us out for a beer. We weren't sure what to expect, but wanted to be polite.

We went to a very cool quiet lounge with couches and stuffed chairs and a great view of the Posco Steel factory -- quite beautiful at night. After many glasses of beer (Janis and I had orange juice... they don't seem to mind that we don't drink, although we hold up shots of soju (Korean rice wine 19% alcohol) to be polite) and more food (plates of fruit and baskets of popcorn like snacks), the men lightened up. We are each wearing a Rotary pin. It is quite ridiculous really -- we all think they are tacky (except for Shane, of course). The Koreans LOVE it! "Big pin good!" One of the men gave his small Rotary pin to Janis. She gave him a Canada flag pin, but would not give up her wheel (or rather, Shane wouldn't let her give away her wheel). We pulled out some other pins we had with us. With each pin we gave him, he got prouder and prouder. He would pat his chest and sit up very tall with a big smile and a little grunt. When you think that these are CEO's, business owners and executives, it is just so darned cute that they are so crazy about pins. He was wearing 5 by the end of the night. At the Rotary conference we will give away our big (about the size of a twonie) ugly Rotary wheels to our favourites.

On my morning run I found a great little park with lots of little trails. In the centre of the park was all kinds of outdoor fitness equipment with at least a dozen or so people exercising to nice Korean music. They were all quite concerned that I was in shorts. Lots of smiles. They don't seem to mind that I find them all adorable and can't stop myself from taking pictures of them.