Updates, Updates, Updates

Kevin and I went to explore the city last night, thus the reason for the delays in updation of the Blog. We ended up in a Korean coffehouse/bar where Kevin was able to get his hands on a guitar and played several songs until the mamager came up to us with his guitar and started jamming out with us. A truly memorable moment...

Monday morning began with a visit to KBS, a major radio/television broadcaster here in Gwanju. We were able to sit in the chairs of the newscasting stage and I gt to the the lead anchor for several minutes, it was quite the experience and fun too..."I'm Ron Burgundy, and you stay classy South Korea."

The afternoon provided yet even more breathtaking views of the mountains and the production of green tea leaves. The cliffs of the mountains were lined with row after row of green tea bushes. They reminded me much of the corn and soybean rows in Iowa, except they were built into the mountains!

Tuesday morning began with a temple visit. The temples are always beautiful, filled with detailed artwork on the buildings, many statues that each represent an area of life, and they are peacefully quiet yet full of life and spirit. Buddhism is a wonderful religion and path to truth.

There was a group of elementary school students who, after being prompted by one of our hosts for the day, began easking Keving for autographs. 100's of children swarmed Kevin, who is 6' 5" all screaming out the words, "Sigh, Sign!!" They thought he was a movie star and he might as well have been Tom Cruise with the attention that he got, it was yet another funny moment.

Finally yesterday, we visited a re treading plant where they re tread truck tires which helps with the environment and recycling. We then moved over to the Kia production plant where we saw a great presentation about Kia and how they are moving into the future. They are huge producers here in the East and are spreading to become a world wide car manufacturer. The plant and car production line was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. To be able to see, start to finish, the production of a car with all of the automation and fine details was a sight to be seen. There were huge machines providimg much automation with classical music playing in the backround...it was peaceful actually, like dancing. We didn't see a human putting anything onto or into the car until the car was 3/4 of the way complete. I wish the students could have seen this autimation, it was really neat to say the least.

Concluding, what seems to hit me more than our visits each day as memorable, are the people we get to meet daily. Each day a new Rotary Club from the Gwanju area greets us at the hotel with open arms and smiles. The days have been starting with simple hello's and handshakes, proper smiles. As we culminate these days we leave in full embrace, speaking even more of the language that we had known, wishing we only had more time with each group to further our bonds of peace, unity and understanding...we fight the tears with smiles, each day seems as sturggle to let go and start anew, but cherished is the time that we had and will have again soon.

The philosophy here in the East is that each day is special...what are the special moments in your day? I hope you are having many...

be safe, many hugs...