Korea 10
The end of my summer at Yonsei

The hospitality shown by the Yonsei staff has truly made this a great experience.  I enjoy doing many different types of things in the summer and this is one of those experiences that I may do again in the future. 

 The scheduling of classes during the summer allowed me time to interact with the students and experience the culture and beauty of Korea.   I enjoyed the interaction with the students both during class and in meetings with students outside of the classroom.  Not all of my students were business majors, so I found it interesting working with students in the sciences or engineering.  Many of the students in my class were also interested in masters programs, so I was able to answer some of their questions in considering their future goals.  I encouraged several of them to gain a few years of work experience before applying to a program, so they could attend a better Master’s programs.  Most MBA programs require at least 2 years of work experience.  The better the program, the better the job opportunities.  If you ever researched MBA programs, the salary differentials for graduates of top quality programs and lower level programs are huge. 

The weekends allowed me the opportunity to travel and experience many of the great palaces, temples, and mountains of Korea. It is a great country. These are the main items that I wrote about in my earlier blogs.  I would have never considered Korea as a travel destination before hosting a foreign exchange student from Korea, but having experienced the wonders of Korea, I would enjoy returning again. The kindness shown by our exchange student’s family made for a great trip and many connections.

Korea 9

Bukhansan National Park

Bukhansan National Park is just to the North of Seoul.  It is one of the areas, we almost did not go to.  As I always find at home, the closer an area is to your house, the less likely you are to go to it.  Over our time in Korea, we visited the port city of Busan to the South, Seoraksan National Park to the Northeast, and the beaches to the west.  This weekend, we decided to stay in Seoul and see the wonders of Bukhansan.  We had heard it was beautiful, but this trip became a highlight of our trip to Korea. 

Bukhansan is known for Bukhansan Peak and for Dondosan peeks.  We choose the tallest peak at about 873 meters.  My children set a fast pace, determined to get to the top before the sun set.  The weather was perfect  The day before it had rained, so today was humid but a bit cooler.  The climb up to the peek was one of the more strenuous climbs that I have been on.  At times the huge rocks of the cliff jutted out of the ground at very steep angels, but the cables along the trail, gave us something to pull ourselves up with.  At times, I wondered how some of the climbers were able to stay on the rock without the use of the cable. 

Once at the top, the beauty below was amazing!  To the South is the city of Seoul.  We made it to the top just prior to sunset, so the sun was far enough down in the sky that it seemed to shimmer off of the buildings below.  To the North was the beauty of many other cliffs.  There are many areas to hike in at the park and the trails are full of people.  We also watched others rock climb using ropes and pulleys.  It is a great location.

Bukhansan National Park is in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the highest number of visitors per square foot, over 5 million people visit Bukhansan each year.  It is well worth the trip.

Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures from the top, as I forgot to recharge my camera battery before leaving.  But here are a couple of pictures that you might enjoy.

http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Bukhan1.jpg
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Bukhan2.jpg
http://asiaenglish.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=312935

Hello!
 
It is almost time for all of you to go back to school, start school for the first time or enjoy your first semester as a new graduate! Whatever it is make sure you make the best out of it. I recently moved to England, working for Rolls-Royce has really allowed me to continually challenge myself and explore a business world that is truly global. In my US role and was charged with the commercial aspects of the customer relationship for those customers in Asia, Europe and some in the Americas (like American Eagle, etc) and it was in the regional airline market.  In my current role, I am charged with the commercial aspect of the business for the South East Asian region for the big engines (for Boeing 777, 747, Airbus A380, etc). It is a very challenging environment because these airlines need our product to perform with no mistakes- thousands of lives depend on us and as the airline industry suffers from increased oil prices they can not really afford any other inconveniences.
 
On another note, I usually try to provide some type of business advice every time I blog. Now, however, I would like to give you a personal advice. Life goes by way too fast, it is easy to put things that we enjoy off because of other goals/objectives. However, it is wise to find a balance that will allow you to do the things you really enjoy while working towards achieving your goals. It varies from person to person how to get there, but for me consistency and discipline have been a great help.
 
Good luck on your return to school.
 
Jaime

Lotte World, Everland, and Carribean Bay

If you have teenage children, you couldn’t imagine visiting another country without visiting their amusement and water parks.  In the Seoul are the amusement parks include Lotte World and Everland and the water park is Caribbean Bay.

Lotte World is a large indoor amusement park with some rides that are also located outside.  We visited Lotte World on a rainy day, so we spent most of the time indoors.  Fortunately, late in the evening, the weather cleared and we had enough time to go on almost all the rides that were outside.  It was a good time and worth the visit.  The rides were not huge, but we did enjoy the trip.
http://www.lotteworld.com/Global_eng/01_Adventure/AA001.asp?mn=Mn101

Everland is a bit harder to get to, but worth the trip.  It is South of Seoul and one must take a bus to get to the area, since no metro connects to this park.  We enjoyed several large roller coaters, include a wooden roller coaster that has the steepest ride for a wooden roller coaster in the world (77 degrees).   The coaster opened up just a few months earlier, so the line was a bit long (about 80 minutes), but well worth the weight.  They also had a coaster that had two upside down loops and several twists that took you upside down.    The rock and roll rides in the park were set to shake you about like I have never been shaken before.  The unexpected nature and direction of the ride made it a great deal of fun.  I posted a few pictures below of some of the rides.
Wooden Roller Coaster Ride as shown on YouTube http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=AKHgOggts_M
If you like to be shook around, take a ride on a guitar, http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=pGCpZWGU8IU

The water park, Caribbean Bay was a disappointment.  It was overpriced, oversold, underwaved, and a basic waste of time.  The lines for any of the rides were over 2 hours.  The wave pool was so crowded that they really could not get the waves going well.  We were glad to be back home after a long day of being on our feet.
  

Seoraksan National Park

Seoraksan National Park is located to the Northeast corner of South Korea.  It is known for its natural beauty and, of course, hiking trails.  This weekend we choose to brave the traffic and I rented a car.  Driving in Seoul is no fun.  Not only is it more congested than any city I have been in, but figuring out the streets and the signs in another language adds to the complexity.  A navigational unit that gave directions in English was a definite plus, but I was very glad once we got out of the traffic and into the country.  To get to Seoraksan, you either take bus or rent a car, there is no train going to this part of the country, which is why fewer foreign tourists visit this area.  But if you enjoy hiking, it is a must-see in Korea. Driving across the countryside was great, but if I did this trip again, I would probably take the bus and leave the driving and traffic to someone else.  Buses are also able to get to places faster since some of the highways have dedicated bus lanes.  Both on the way into and out of Seoul the stop-and-go traffic added about 2 hours to our trip.

Unfortunately, it rained all day Friday and Saturday while we were there.  Hoping the rain would clear up, we visited the town of Sokcho, walked around the beach, up to a lighthouse, and drove around the town.     

On Saturday, we decided that rain or not, we were hiking the mountains of Seoraksan.  The rain was a steady rain, without much wind.  It actually had some advantages to it.  The weather over the last couple of weeks had been near 90 F, and the humidity was also very high, making all our hikes very hot adventures.  With the rain, it was actually comfortable hiking.  No more sweating on the walks up the mountain, unless if the kids turned it into a run up the mountain, which we did on some sections of the trail.  Usually the steeper parts where my wife did not join the kids and I. 

The first hike was to a waterfall.  The rain also had some advantages here.  Unlike park in Seoul where we went to see a waterfall and found it had no water, there was plenty of water running through the park on this day.  The waterfalls were beautiful with the extra water.  We did about a 3 hour hike in the morning and a 2 hour hike in the afternoon.  If you don’t enjoy walking up the mountains, they also had a cable car for one of the mountains in Seoraksan.
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Seorak1.jpg

On Sunday, we had a break in the rain, so we quickly got on the trails to see a few more sites.  Our hotel was located in the park, so we did not have far to go to start our journey.  Just behind the hotel was a large Buddha, about 30 meters high.  While there are many Buddhist temples throughout Korea, it was also interesting seeing all the Christian churches.  Estimates suggest that about 40 percent of the population is Christian.
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Seorak2.jpg

Next we traveled up a steep trail to get to the peak of a mountain.  At the peak, a Buddhist monk had made a temple.  Many of the Buddhist shrines are near or high up in the mountains.  I sometimes wondered on our trip if this cultural history gave rise to the great interest in hiking in Korea.  I suspect that if I did a bit more studying on this, I could find a link.  The first picture is the Buddhist temple at the top of the mountain.  I wonder how the monk originally got to this cave.  He must have been a great rock climber.  For us to get there, they connected a set of stairs to the side of the mountain.  You could look over the edge of the stairs and see down 100s of feet.  See the picture of us walking down. 
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Seorak3.jpg
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Seorak4.jpg

We also visited Siheungsa temple.  This is a Zen temple  built around 652 A.D.  Some suggest this is the oldest Zen temple in the world writes Dr. John Carter Covell.  It actually predates many of the temples in China and Japan by several centuries.  
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Seorak5.jpg

It is always interesting seeing Korean hiking.  Many Koreans carry a great deal of hiking equipment, backpack and hiking sticks.  You can tell how serious they are about hiking.  As we hiked more in Korea, we lighted our pack each time, till near the end of our trip we left the backpack behind.  Every hiking trail we have been on there are vendors selling a variety of food, water, soda, juices, Gatorade, and ice cream.  Instead of carrying as much stuff, we started to rely on finding supplies as we walked up the mountains.  For me, it made it much more enjoyable not to carry the extra load.  A common tradition seems to be hiking to a location and having a great meal also.  Many of the trails had places to get great Korean meals on the trail.  Every once in a while, you would see a man carrying two large propane tanks up the mountain so that the restaurants in the mountain could cook the food for their guests.  I loved the hiking in Korea.  Always great trails and great food.

Busan

We traveled to the port city of Busan on the Southern par t of Korea.  From Seoul to Busan took only about 2.5 hours on the KTX rail.  The KTX will travel at speeds of up to 300 km/h (about 180 mph).  It is a great way to get around the country in a fast smooth ride.

We first went to Haeundae Beach, which is the most popular beach in Korea.  The waves were great and the water wasn’t too cold.  We had a great time jumping around the waves. 
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Busan1.jpg

The following day we took a bus to Taujongdae Park.  It is on a peninsula that juts out into the ocean.  We did some extensive walking along the coastline and then visited a lighthouse at the end of the peninsula. 
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Busan2.jpg
http://bus.iupui.edu/carow/pictures/Busan3.jpg