MRED Around the World student Joseph Powell writes from Korea:

If disorientation happens only after one has been orientated, then we never noticed when we were orientated. Today was an amazing day full of great sites, food and people. By the end of the day we were glad we had our tour guide from ISA, Jaehoon, and to have a place to sit down to rest our feet.

The day started out pretty normal with breakfast at the hotel. A few American foods but also a lot of Korean, including dumplings and the traditional fermented cabbage with spices called kimchi. After breakfast we had time to explore around the hotel and go to church services before meeting up with ISA.

We met up with Jaehoon after lunch, which also included a side of kimchi. Jaehoon took us on a bus tour around Gangnam, and we were able to see extravagant architecture and beautiful cultural places like the Buddhist temple. This weekend consists of two national holidays, children’s day and Buddhas birthday. The temple was beautifully decorated with lanterns everywhere. It was interesting to see the contrast of the new and modern developments right next the old traditional temples.

We were able to meet up with for dinner with Ted Simons from Costco development and his wife, and Ray Cheitti from ULI young professionals. We had great food and even better conversations. The food of course included a few different varieties of kimchi. I think it is starting to grow on us. Some of us.

On the way home we stopped by the canal street. This was a $900-million development that is five miles long. The canal goes down the middle of the street with walkways on both sides. Since it is children’s day tomorrow, the canal was decorated with lanterns and floats.