Rain Rain Go Away

 Wet conditions of the streets of Seoul

As I prepared for this amazing journey and grand adventure I set Seoul South Korea as one of the cities on my Weather channel app. It alerted me that "Seoul is cooler and rains a lot less than Williston".

Well, today the weather was just like that from Florida, rainy!  I felt right at home.  This rain did not dampen the spirits of this small band of agriculture teachers, we carried on.

This was our first "free" day so we decided to spend it exploring further some of the beautiful museums and shops that we had been exposed to over the last two days. Well, we found that many of these museums are closed on Monday but we still found an amazing city which to dive into.

Seoul Station - metro, train and bus.

Mass transit at its best!  Seoul knows how to do it. The Seoul train station is just one example of this country's ability to move people. Something I look forward to riding in the next few weeks. The other is its intricate system of the metro and bus lines.  All moving people to and fro with the greatest of ease and all on the same public transportation payment card.

While on these transit options every Korean is connected to an electronic device.  Cell phones are in everyone's hand, plugged into the world.  It crosses all ages and genders.  Everyone is "wired" up and connected.

There is a bar code on the back of each card and is read at every stop and the correct "won" is deducted to ride from station to station.  Very efficient! All Koreans seem to be able to navigate these transportation options, swipe their payment card, which they keep in a very handsome wallet.  Everyone stays connected through transportation. 

I make this simple observation to say that we all need to stay connected.  In our everyday lives many times we don't stay connected, and I am guilty of this.  Our profession as agriculture teachers only gets strong when we stay connected.  I know this, understand this however I need to practice it a little more.  Being connected to these wonderful professional on this trip will only strengthen my will to grow and become a better teacher.  This international agriculture education experience has opened my eyes to the ability of us to stay connected where borders do not matter.  Just like the t-shirt reads: Teach Ag Beyond Borders!  

This is for you Dad, KTX

Since my time in Korea I have tweeted, blogged and posted on Facebook more than I have in my entire life, and it keeps me connected.  I've learned to upload pictures to Flicker, post multiple pictures to my Facebook status at one time  and even how to Tweet at someone, AWESOME!  Every morning I awake to see who has read or liked my pictures I posted the day before, reminding me of the love and passion I have for agriculture education and that there are so many people who share this same feeling!  So even though the rain has driven us inside, Seoul you know how to keep me connected, very powerful!