The final day. (Weeps are heard in the distance) I know, it seemed like we only just arrived. Today was unscheduled free-time until the final dinner and presentation, which we chose to spend wisely: beach day. We hopped in our taxis and made our way back to the ‘business casual beach’ (or Haeundae Beach if you were actually wondering the name), likely the most famous beach in all of Korea. We arrived and noticed the huge piles of sand from the other day have now been turned into magnificent sand “castles” or more accurately just sand “art.” Some of them were still in the works, and we got to watch the masters work their craft.
We continued on and found a nice place in the sand to settle down and the relaxing began promptly. After a few minutes, someone had the genius idea to go in the water and, well, spoiler alert it was RATHER cold. A few of us ran straight in, making it out pretty far before agreeing it was freezing and retreating to land. We then continued to chill out and enjoy the weather, the sun, and some nice beach vibes. When lunch time came around, we went to a place with fancy (and huge) burgers loaded with things like egg, bacon, and veggies. I basically needed a fork if I was going to keep it from being messy and needless to say we went through quite a few napkins at the table.
Next up was the final dinner and presentation, where each group was to present a business idea or invention that would be benificial to Korea or back in the States, based on our experiences here in Korea. Ours was the “Self Contained Cardinality System for Other Languages and the Lost” (SCCSOLL – pronounced as “Seoul” with a very long “s”). While the name is humerous, our idea means business: additional small tablets in subway stations that can provide and print directions and transfers from currentl station to any connected stop. While you wave your smartphone around and say that is unhelpful, I will just inform you now that your data plan will likely not work in South Korea, and even if it should, Google Maps and Apple Maps are no help here, and finding English directions can be quite difficult. That’s where SCCSOLL comes in to save the day with free directions in any language with the push of a button. This would be extra beneficial in places such as Seoul where a subway map can look like the following:
