Our day started off with a company visit to Trainor. Trainor is a company that specializes in training and certifying workers mainly in electrical engineering. The manager of the Busan branch gave us a brief overview of what the company does and why it is so important. Busan is a huge port city with many factories such as Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Motor Company, so it makes sense that there is a need for training. The manager was Swedish, so he also talked to us about his perspective on life and business as a foreigner who lives and works in South Korea. Afterwards, we headed to another company visit at Busan New Container Terminal (BNCT). This was a very interesting visit and one of the best so far. The CEO, who is from North Carolina, gave us a great presentation. He also gave us his perspective on living in South Korea. After he explained a lot about what BNCT does and he let us go up to the control tower and observe all the activity from a higher perspective. One thing that stood out was that BNCT was built differently than many other ports because it had a vertical layout rather than a horizontal layout. This port layout allows for a more efficient loading and unloading process. Also, some of the process was completely automated with little human attention needed. The size of the port was breath taking, and they are still expanding the port! We all napped on the bus back to the hotel and then split into different groups for the evening. A group of us went in search of a Korean BBQ restaurant. We found one and the food was amazing. The waitress spoke almost no English, so it got interesting when we tried to order. But it all worked out. After dinner, we walked around the streets and visited the many shops. We bought some mementoes to remember our trip. I purchased metal chop sticks for my parents.
