Preparing to leave

The delegation from Dong-A arrived in Greenwood on Monday. We met with them on Tuesday, June 21st. Before leaving on our tour to Fuji Film I got to present them with granite name plates that my Dad had made. I did not get a picture but the Lander photographer did, so I will post that as soon as I get it. Dr. Cho, Dr. Song and Ms. Na were all very appreciative of their gifts.

At Fuji we toured the part where they make disposable cameras and then had a Japanese meal for lunch. After lunch we went back to Lander and had an orientation meeting with Ms. Na for our stay at Dong-A. This got us all very excited for our trip and experience. Ms. Na was so helpful explaining everything we will get to do while in Busan along with telling us about the dorms and meal plans.


We learned that we will be grouped together with 10 students from the UK, 1 from Ireland and 1 other from the US. We will also have a Korean "buddy" that will be our guide/mentor. I am very excited to meet the students from the UK and Ireland. While living at Dong-A we will be rooming with another Lander student, Lane and I will be rooming together and Allie and Rachel will be together.

The brochure of Dong-A had a picture of the dorm and dorm rooms and it looks very nice. The campus is set on the side of a mountain so my new tennis shoes will definitely be used.

This Morning, June 22nd, There was a special signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Lander University and Dong-A University. Many leaders from the community and members of the upstate alliance were there along with special guest Dr. Underwood.  Dr. Underwood and his family have had relations with South Korea and higher education dating back to the late 1800's (4 generations). He is very well known to many Koreans and his family started a very successful university there as well.


Lane and I both attended the signing and got one last pep talk from Mrs. Eleanor Teal and Dr. Park.  Our flight leaves tomorrow from Greenville at 4:44 pm to Detroit. We leave Detroit tomorrow night at 8:15 pm and fly to Tokyo. That flight is approximately 13 and a half hours. We then have to get on a bus and change airports along with a 19 hour layover. We will finally get to Incheon at 10:15 pm on Saturday, June 25th. That will be 8:15 am Saturday morning in South Carolina/Georgia. We will spend a week there, probably recovering half of that time.

Please be thinking about the 4 of us for the next few days. As this is a great learning experience getting there is going to be a great accomplishment in itself. 4 girls, an extremely long flight, having to change airports in one of the largest cities in the world, not speaking a word of Japanese or Korean and one mission... to have the time of our lives and represent Lander University.