RI Con Seoul day 6

Last day of the convention. I skipped the morning gen session so I could sleep in! It was glorious! 

Made it to catch the last bit of the gen session, then went into Yoga and Fellowship break out.  I was hoping it would be more asana, but was mostly pranayama. Which I hate. I need to work on that. 

Rotary Women of action was my last beak out. Ermm... Facilities by a man. What? 

Then the Closing ceremony. It was pretty exciting when PSY came out and performed! 

RI Con Seoul Day 5

We went To the opening ceremony and then I went to the Presidents Elect lunch with 2,000 other PEs! I ducked out a bit early so I could go on a tour. The Nanta drum show. I described it as Korean Mr. Bean kitchen Stomp! I think you get the picture. 

Kathryn, Cathy, Paul and I met some very nice Rotarians. Barb from Queensland AU, and Greg from Hawaii. Before the show we walked around for a little bit and saw the oldest Catholic church in Korea.  After dinner we said good bye, and Kathryn, Paul, Greg, and I walked in the very cute neighborhood.  I got a few gifts.  

RI Con Seoul -day 4

We were up super early for the Zone breakfast, and Danielle spoke to the group about the Connecting for Good tour, and all the YP summit information.  She asked us to join her on stage.  Then we went out to the crowd and did that silly dance thing. 

Opening ceremony was very cool! Mayor of Ganjou, John Hewko, nat geo CEO, a spiritual guru with amazing hair, space archeologist, and a toast master. 

At lunch we met a nice guy from

Nebraska and I invited him to sit with us. I went to a break out session in the afternoon, then we hopped on a city bus to get to the ballet. We went across the way to a super mall, found the food court, Kathryn made a friend with the guy who sold is squid and soft shell crab. 

The ballet was wonderful, it was contemporary ballet so it got a little weird but I liked it. Before the ballet started, we met the mayor! 

The last dance group brought some people on stage from the audience. Then all the audience members were sent back except for one lady. She was the last one on stage when the whole dance troop dropped to the ground. She was so cute! 

RI Con Seoul Day 3

We got up early to attend the opening ceremony! It was spectacular! Ban Ki-moon was the first honored speaker.  Then the prime minister of Korea, Hwang Kyo-ahn spoke to the non Korean audience in Korean. I'm sure his message was nice. Then the prime minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremensinghe, addressed the audience. Luckily in English! RI president Ravi is from Sri Lanka. There were awesome drums, and more tae kwon do. I love tae kwon do set to music! It's pretty rad. 

Kathryn and I hung around the kintex area for lunch, it was super crowded, then saw a bit of the house of friendship, and other booths. We took a pic with an emperor. There we met a few Kenyans. One guy said, "Melissa are you married? I like you!" Then we ran off to city hall to be wed...just kidding! Rotarians are very friendly!

Next up is the symphony. It was really nice, but I hit my wall and pretty much snoozed through it all. I heard it but didn't see it. 

RI Con Seoul day 2

We went to the 3 K walk for Peace, and then stuck around for a bit in the area. We walked near the river and then got a bite to eat and then back to the hotel to change and get over to kintex. The ride was so long! But we got our registration stuff and met up with Danielle, then found the bus and got to the welcome ceremony. That was insane.  It started off very lovely, with a Korean woman dancing in the traditional dress. Then an very impressive tae kwon do exhibition. Breaking boards, back flips, it was awesome. The drum exhibit was wicked! Except for a very hot mic on the whistle trumpet thing. It was piercing! Then the KPop Portion of the evening got underway. Good lord. Some people described it as "soft core," and "late night." I thought it was just NUTZ. Some human Bratz dolls came out and shook their jean shorts, looked like baby hookers, and repeated the same uninterested dance moves about a thousand times.  Then they tried to make us believe some imposter was PSY! I wasn't fooled! And then Korea's finest Diva sang some ballads and we snuck outta there. The buses home were a shit  show, but at least we got home eventually! Looking back it's pretty hilarious, but mildly irritating.  In the moment though, I wanted to punch those Bratz dolls. The feminist movement regressed about 100 years. 

The Rotary International Convention

Day 1- Seoul

After a long travel day, and being awak for about 26 hours, I've arrived in Seoul.  Last night Danielle and I got to the hotel, grabbed some dinner across the street, then crashed out! 

On our first day here in Seoul, we went on s bus tour with Eric, Steph, and Molly. It was a great way to get a first look at the city, and the we stopped off to get lunch and see the old Changgyeong palace built in 1483. 

Then Danielle and I headed back to our hotel to meet up with Kathryn and Cathy, who had arrived earlier in the afternoon. 

We grabbed some dinner, then dessert.