Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

We are finishing up day 15 here in South Korea. It is hard to believe that we have been here for such a short period of time, and yet we have experienced so much! We have two weeks to go, and I am looking forward to them.

Today we traveled to Suncheon, Korea via the KORAIL. This was my first time on a train, and I will say it met my expectations. It was a relatively smooth ride, longer than flying and shorter than driving.

For those of you reading this who don't know, I am a Florida girl! We have ant hills and gypsum stacks (the piles of earth that are removed in the process of mining for phosphate). To me, the mountains here are HUGE!!! I enjoy the change of scenery, though. As we were riding the fast train, we were able to see a lot of the Korean country side.

Of course, my camera was not up to the task of taking high-speed images, so this is the panorama picture I took. I feel it covers a good section of what we saw. In the valleys, rice paddies were prominent. We also saw a lot of greenhouses.

We recently learned that greenhouse production is common because it allows a larger variety of produce and crops to be grown through out the year. In the greenhouses I could see in, I noticed a lot of pepper and tomato plants.

I can officially check off "ride a train" from my bucket list. I have successfully road on/in a plane, train, and automobile!

Traveling Halfway Across the Globe

Things do not always go as planned.  So, when our flight was delayed out of State College and we missed our connection to Seoul in Detroit, tensions were high as we were challenged to change our plans in order to get halfway across the world to begin our global agricultural education experience.

I made this video as we landed in Detroit just as our connecting flight to Seoul took off...

As you can see, we learned a lot about the core values of world travelers as we experienced delays, re-bookings, a night in a hotel without our luggage, and the inconvenience of experiencing two connecting flights to Seoul, instead of just one.  However, much of what we learned is applicable to teaching agricultural education:

Flexibility
The ability to go with the flow and roll with the punches will take one far in the classroom.  Being flexible is all about reacting to new situations in a positive way and growing through change.

Adaptability
You don't have to know everything to make good decisions.  Being adaptable is about changing to meet the needs of any situation into which one is placed.

Versatility
Sometimes being jack of all trades is better that being a master of one since it may yield an advantage in certain situations.  Versatility is built through developing a wide-range of diverse skills through experience.

Although an inconvenience, being delayed in State College taught us to be more flexible, adaptable, and versatile not only as we teach and study abroad this summer, but as we mature into better educatiors through our global experiences.

Welcome to Korea Part II

The rest of the group has officially landed in the country and made it safely to the Seoul National University campus.  They were so happy to get off the plane and be in Korea that they let me take a picture of them - very kind of them, after three days of traveling!