Jun 19, 2005 by Naomi.

Breakfast is cafeteria style. Sandwich on white bread with crusts removed, artfully cut in triangles, filled with tuna salad and raw sweet onions; cabbage salad with crab and very tasty dressing, hard fried egg with broken yolk; frosted corn flakes with slivered almonds, milk, several fresh orange chunks. I could have had tea or coffee as well. All in all, well rounded. No napkins, or serviets or whatever.

An impressive innovation I found in the toilets. Imagine! The toilet seats are wrapped in a tissue much like US toilet seat covers, except that I press a button and the tissue is spun around in a hidden disposal. Most sanitary. And the tap water is very hot, enough for my instant oatmeal.

Outdoors, which I have yet to go, it is sunny and the day will undoubtly become very warm and humid, I suspect, from what I saw of the fog last night. This is a hilly campus and trees and shrubs fill every space between buildings and streets, which I plan to explore later. I will have the first few daylight hours to do stuff, I guess, because there are not too many folks up and around, at least that I can see.

I’m not the only white head present but the majority at breakfast were young and vibrant which will make for some interesting and valuable exchange.

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Jun 19, 2005 by Naomi.

Here I am in Seoul, Korea, amazed at the reality of being transferred many thousands of miles via machines weighing hundreds of tons at altitudes of thousands of feet. My father, born in 1888, had difficulty envisioning himself in an airplane let alone on a trip going halfway around the world. Yet five miles above the earth on a well-calculated trajectory in tons of well designed and cleverly engineered alloys, aluminum, plastic, and I don’t know what else, I was diligently propelled at 550 miles per hour toward my destination. And in bright sunshine all the while.

It had been 0530 Pacific Daylight Time, June 18, 2005, when I woke in Richland, state of Washington, USA, to make last minute preparations for the flight. That was : breakfast, dish washing, disposal of garbage, retrieve Email, upload a document to
http://www.nwr.mcnary.wa.us because the reptiles for July second Saturday event shouldn’t have to wait an eminent announcement until I returned.

I received a wonderful welcome at the ww05 reception desk in the Seoul airport where I was hustled to a taxi driven by a native Korean, speaking no English but had explicit instructions as to my destination. However, the campus of Ewha University was daunting to the driver with uphill curves and wrong turns. He valiantly persevered by asking directions from several campus policemen who weren’t certain where Hanwoori dormitory was either. Even in the foggy dark during those roundabout moments I could tell it was a beautiful campus.

I settled into my dorm room after that hour long, 50,000-Won ($49.61 USD) taxi ride at 2100 hours in the Korean time zone on June 19, 2005.

Time and my reality flies when I’m having fun!

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Jun 19, 2005 by Naomi.

The keyboard is familiar but Korean instructions are impossible so the feedback emails do not send. This communication will have to suffice.

A dozen machines are accessible just a floor above me in the Hanwoori dormitory, Ewha University, Seoul, Korea. I was a bit woozy when I arrived so I didn’t explore until this morning at 0530. My clock adheres to the sun regardless of where I am so I am up and running. Free shuttle bus service on campus so I’ll do fine.

Breakfast is included with my room and then the registration and opening ceremonies begin.

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