Day 3 of the JCI trip: Leaving for Seoul

It was after breakfast at the hotel when headed off to our first destination of the day—the Gyeongsanbuk-Do Provincial Fisheries Resources Development Institute.

The Gyeongsangbuk-do province supports fishery businesses in Korea by raising and releasing “massively high quality” species of fish. According to our tour guide, the Provincial Fisheries Resources Development Institute has also established artificial fishing reefs, multi-purpose port facilities as well as fishery infrastructure in order to respond actively to the Korea-Japan Fisheries Agreement and the Korea-China Fisheries Agreement.

The institute, which was established in October 1998, raises and releases over 3 million high quality fish each year.

After our visit to the fish farm, we paid a visit to one of Korea’s rare ancient villages to take pictures and learn a little bit of some of the earlier Korean homes that were once occupied by Korean government officials.

According to JCI member Jae Kim, the houses are now occupied by senior citizens, while the much younger generations choose to live in the cities.

The Junior Chamber International sponsor members also took the group to a nearby market where most of the villagers buy their groceries and other goods.

After our brief educational visit of the small village, we had to brace ourselves for an even longer ride as it was the day to head on to Seoul, Korea. We had to switch buses before we completely leave Yeong Deok.

On our way to Seoul, we stopped by several tourist location, including the site of 24 huge power generating windmills.

The windmills, which are made out of steel and wood, provide electricity to 40,000 households in Korea, minimizing the use of fossil fuel for electricity.

Right on the same spot were at least six beautifully preserved old Korean warplanes. Other tourists were on the site to take pictures. Some of the CNMI students also had their pictures taken with the Korean tourists at the site.

It was truly a long ride to Seoul as the JCI president Yang Chul Jang warned us. Luckily, the cold air and the heavy lunch got the entire group snoring throughout the entire four-hour long ordeal.

I woke up just enough to capture Korea’s beautiful scenery between the two cities. Mountains, cotton fields, peach trees and rice fields stretched for acres.

We got to our new hotel around 5:30pm and we only had an hour to get ready and meet up with the mayor of YangPyong.

Saipan Mayor Tudela Juan B. Tudela, chaperone Jose C. Tenorio and I met at the lobby and headed off to the Yang Pyong Mayor’s Office while the rest of the group head on to a popular Korean restaurant to meet up with JCI’s past and present members.

The two mayors talked about the duties of being a mayor in their own cities and also emphasized the importance of continuing the cultural exchange program to strengthen cultural ties and friendship.

After the brief meeting, we drove to meet with the rest of the group at the restaurant who were already feasting on their Korean barbecue and bulgogi.

What else can I say about the little get-together other than it was incredibly fun.

One student from the group, Tinian High School’s Grace Borja, had a birthday that evening. While some of us were singing the traditional Happy Birthday to her, some were singing Korean pop music. I thought I even heard It’s a Small World. Anyhow, it was all in good fun. It was about almost 9pm when we started to head back to our hotel room.

I think the time spent with the JCI members was likely one of the most fun times the group has had during their Korea visit