My South Korean Invasion: Day 5:A Day with Multimedia, Korean Rain and Peking Duck

June 12, 2011

It was Saturday, but we took our breakfast earlier than before because the Koreans who were in charged of the kitchen noticed that we always wake up early, so the management of the cafeteria reset the breakfast schedule to 7:00 o’clock in the morning.

At around 8:30 we already started trekking the sidewalks of Chonbuk National University going to the training venue. The usual cheerful morning greeted us. We passed by the fertile fountain at the center of a rotunda inside the university, the green surrounding which reminded us of healthy air, the friendly bikers, and others. Everyday, we felt that we were always treated as their special guests. They advised us to bring our umbrella which they also given to us during the first day, because it might rain sometimes later on that day.

We arrived at Information and Computing Center at 9:00 o’clock. Everybody was very eager to turn on the computers to open his/her YM or Yahoo Messenger to send messages for the families and friends in the Philippines.

The training began 10 minutes after our arrival. The trainer for the day was Prof. King Yangseon. He gave a short introduction about himself. He was the only trainer for the day. His topic was multimedia data manufacturing and its uses. Each participant received CD entitled "Multimedia for ICT Education" which was provided by Prof. Yangseon. He gave the CD to us so that we could follow his lecture easily.

At 12 noon, the speaker declared the lunch break. We, together with the trainer and officers walked for 30 minutes to have our lunch at Mug Restaurant. Everybody enjoyed the western food it served to us. After lunch, we walked back to the training venue. The officers of the day, Mo Sang Hun was always counting the participants, he made sure that everybody was around and safe.

The afternoon session started at 1:30 pm. The lecturer continued discussing about Multimedia. The trainees participated actively during the discussion that inspired the trainer a lot. He assured that all of us were able to follow all of his instructions and activities. We were too busy that we were not able to take our coffee break just to finish the exercises assigned to us.

Afterward, Mr. King Yangseon played his Korean wind instrument, Daegeum. He rendered some Korean folk songs. Those were great music, so everyone listened curiously.

The fifth day training ended at 6:30 in the evening. It was the first time that the participants experienced rain in Korea. Instead of walking they provided us cars going to the restaurant for dinner.

Again, we enjoyed eating the delicious Peking duck with vegetables. It was the first time for some participant to eat “Peking duck” menu. They taught us the art of eating it. First you have to get the lettuce, put some mayonnaise and the meat of the duck. Presto! eating Peking Duck is fun and exciting too. We also tried soju, a Korean wine. We also learned to say “O, hayo” which means “cheers”.

When we arrived Gunji House, Melanie, Michael and I asked the Koreans if we could try to go to the city to buy some stuff. One of the Koreans volunteered to escort us to the city. In the city, I saw various strange Korean food in the sidewalk like the giant octopus with hundreds of tentacles, the nearly rotten banana which I wasn’t sure if is still for sale or just included in the recipe for sale and other various delicacies which are unfamiliar to me. It was raining a little so we decided to return home hastily.