Day #1 - July 6, 2009

Ted with Dr. Seol, the Busan Mayor of Education.

Enjoying dinner at Alexander's in Busan.

We arrived at 03:40 in Seoul. Our group met with a group of three women from New York and New Jersey who would be part of the delegation visiting Busan. We all boarded our flight to Busan at 08:20 and arrived one hour later.

We were warmly greeted by Lee Malsook and Hyulmi Kim, both supervisors in the Busan Department of Education. They led us to an awaiting bus and we were shuttled to our hotel and assigned rooms. The hotel is magnificent. It is the Haeundae Grand Hotel and is located on the coast. All of us have individual rooms overlooking the Yellow Sea.

At 1:00 we met for lunch at a hotel restaurant, Marlinsung. This is a very high end Chinese restaurant. We were served course after course of fine dishes that I had never tried before.

Next on the agenda was to go to the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education. There we met in the board room with the Chief Education Officer, Dr. Seol Dong-Geun. We received an official welcome as well as gifts from his department. Dr. Seol, as well as other representatives from his department, made the presentations.

After the official welcome, we left to go for dinner. On the way to the next restaurant the bus stopped at Songdo Beach to allow us to get out and look around. This is a quaint little beach with shops selling seafood and locals swimming in the sea. Some of us walked a trail up a hill to a beautiful overlook - shaped like a pagoda with intricately painted designs.

To keep the group on schedule we were put back on the bus at 5:40 so that we could arrive at our dinner place by 6:00. Dinner would be at Alexander's Restaurant, which serves European-style food. It was built of logs resembling a European chalet, but the interior design was very eclectic with everything from old saxaphones and electric guitars and medival swords and shields.

Here I committed my first minor "fashion faux pas." Thinking that formalities were finished, Scott Ahlman and I took off our suit coats and ties. It was so hot and humid. Soon we discovered, however, that Dr. Seol was hosting the dinner and was joining us to eat along with the other important men from his department. Some of the other Korean men were without jackets and ties, but not Dr. Seol. I would have felt more comfortable dressing to his level.

We were served delicious steak dinner. The meat was very smooth. I was impressed by how Dr. Seol went from table to table serving wine to each guest - not once, but several times. What hospitality!

We were back to the hotel just before 8:00. I crashed in bed almost immediately. Our first day in Korea felt like it had been three days without rest.