Week One

Hello blog fan club!

Week one was absolutely wonderful. We arrived safely and had a huge welcome party waiting for us at the airport. Each team member is staying with a different host family each week. Our families have been warm, welcoming, and extremely generous.

Highlights from this week include:
-Rotary welcome dinner
-Soccer match at the World Cup Stadium
-Visit to POSCO (the world's #1 steel producer)
-Visit to Daegu Health College (the technology and design is amazing)
-Distribution Center (the electronics technology is leaps ahead of ours)
-Visit to a 400 year old family village
-Visit to the Korean War Memorial
-A trip to the East coast were the sun "REALLY" rises first in the morning
-Singing room (karaoke). Harold is by far the BEST singer in the group. Frank Sinatra got a run for his money!
-FOOD, FOOD, and more FOOD! We got a chance to try blowfish (deadly if not prepared exactly right- we all survived!) in many forms- fried, boiled, in soup.
-On Saturday we all had a free day with our families, so we had a chance to do and try a variety of things.

The emphasis on education is evident. Those of us living with families with school children are amazed that the kids go to school so early, study all afternoon and evening, and are still awake studying when we go to bed, and are awake before we get up in the morning.

We are all feeling very at home here in Korea and are having too much fun. There is a feeling of sadness that one week is already over, but there is so much more to come!

Today we are heading to a high school so that Mike can visit a math class. We are also heading to the herbal medicine market today so that Amy and Heather can try acupuncture. It should be an adventure.