Yesterday marked the final day for all the site visits and cultural visits for the Plus 3 Korea Program. Because there were no places to visit today, unstructured free time was abundant. As it usually goes, my roommate and I took this time to sleep in and relax. Once one o’clock came around, we got up and immediately got ready for the beach. With my towel in one hand and my phone in the other, we hailed a taxi from the front of the hotel. The taxi driver did not speak English, and we had to point on a map to where we wanted to go. When the taxi driver knew where we were going, we were off. In total, the trip took around twenty-five minutes, and we arrived just in front of the beach.
Having paid the driver, we joined several of our other friends on the beach and relaxed for around two to three hours. The water was freezing cold, meaning that today was a non-aquatic beach day. For those of you who do not know, a non-aquatic beach day is comprised of laying on towels and enjoying the sun without going swimming. Overall this beach day was great and gave the Plus 3 Korea group time to talk and become closer as friends.
Knowing that we needed to return to the hotel, we all decided it was time to leave. Again, the ride was about the same distance. However, this driver took us another route, and we were able to see all of Busan in its glory with thousands of ships and the inlet to the Pacific Ocean. When we arrived at the hotel, we all took showers and prepared for the final Plus 3 Korea dinner and presentations.
Each group was responsible for completing a business model for a company that could be formed in the United States or Korea. My group presented an application to increase business communication across international borders. This program, named Halo, would partner with NAVER and implement their technology to produce a program which boasted immediate voice to text, as well as document translation. At around five o’clock we all went to the restaurant for the final dinner. This dinner was amazing and included traditional Korean food, sushi, streak, and more. After the presentations and a closing speech from Dr. Yun, we began eating. This dinner was the perfect way to end our trip and gave the Plus 3 Korea group a sense of unity and how we were now a family.
Following the presentation and the final dinner, we all went back to the hotel to pack for tomorrows travel day. When I had everything packed and ready to be zipped, I finally was able to fall asleep. Tomorrow we travel back in time, leaving the Korean time zone and going back to the United States. I don’t even want to talk about jet lag, but I will be sure to let you know when I get back home.