Journey of Mi[rna]

What I love about this city

1. Modern: the buildings, the gadgets. People are so free using and wearing mobile phones, MP3, etc, on the street.

2. Clean & green

3.  Geographical location:

• There are parts where the city is hilly
• Seoul is divided into two parts by Han River, South and North

4. Organized: Bus, subway.

5. Good habbits:

• Your your food tray must be returned to the counter after you finish eating.
• Must smoke outside the buildings.

5. Fashionable people: the girls are pretty, wearing cute shoes and boots, they wear fancy clothing in any occassions.

But Young, my friend who is a Korean, said that he didn’t like living there. Everything is expensive. Yep, correct!

Last day of the conference…..Pfewww…Some of the booth have been already empty….Few doctors only in the exhibition, and mostly Korean doctors….

I wish Gary dismissed us early. Nothing to do there. When we sit, he said why we lovely ladies just sit and watched while others were working. Well….There were five guys were already packing the goods and we would be just on their way. He kept telling me and Jeonine to do more sales, everytime! I’m bored to death…..Hahaha…..Just kidding. I know my responsibility.

They started to pack around 2 PM. Gary let us go at 2.45PM. Somchai hasn’t came up yet from his morning tour. My feet still hurt. We carried a lot of stuffs back to hotel: brochures, newsletters, CDs. We haven’t had our lunch. Since it was late in the afternoon and probably we would have heavy dinner, so we just ate the bread we took from hotel.

Went to "Wonders of Human Body" exhibition. Very very interesting! Just see my photo album. We found out that Somchai got lost to hotel.

Farewell dinner at some Korea restaurant…. Mmm, I’m not a fan of that. To me it’s not a real food. No rice, only vegetables, kimchi, BBQ beef, and cold noodle at the end of meal. Jeonine shared her Bimbimpab with me.

After dinner, I and Jeonine decided to go to Myeong Dong. It’s our last night in Seoul and Jeonine needs to buy souvenirs. Went to Myeong Dong night market with Kate, Ricardo, Jeonine, and Somchai by subway……There was only street fashion. No souvenirs…..Poor Jeonine, she didn’t find what she was looking for. I bought 2 broches, Kate bought a pair of lovely earrings. Ricardo bought us Baskin & Robins ice cream. Very nice!

Hotel has been provided breads, tea, and coffee since yesterday. I didn’t take them, but I took bread today and save some for snack in the booth. The tea and coffee tasted awfull….Maybe the staff used hotel water to make tea/coffee, the water contains chlorine….Ewww…..We were late going to the booth. Kim was already there, and prepared the booth.

Lunch with Lynn and Jeonine. Ate sushi and tofu soup with many items inside: carrot, beansprout, fried egg, seaweed. TASTY ! I love it.

Won a doorprize from a pharmaceutical company. Gary got upset when saw us brought the prize……" Are you working or playing here???". Gosh…..Gary…..

Kate has made an apppointment for me at  the foot massage shop in COEX mall at 4 PM. How nice of her….

After closed down the booth, we ran to the mall…..It cost KRW 30,000 for a basic foot massage, 30 minutes. Man……I’m doing this just for the sake of my feet. I’ll have my spa when I’m back in Jakarta.

Jeong and Young took us to Suma SamChain vegetarian house for dinner. It was my first time to eat at a vegetarian restaurant. Then hung out awhile at Dunkin’ Donuts….Because I can’t go to the bar where the guys actually wanted to go.

Showed Jeonine how to use Friendster, LOL. She has the account but never used it.

September 26, 2005

God….I slipped my step when I was in bathroom last night. I fell hard on my right knee and my toes of my right foot may hurt. My feet and toes are very sore……Can I stand up all day???

Lunch at ASEM Food Court, at "Umato Tomato", fusion umorice….The dishes diplay looks yummy…..The price is quite expensive, but myself needs a reward. So I choose umorice with deep fried king prawn with peanut croquette….Very very tasty, I spent KRW 8,900 for the rice and KRW 1,900 for Sprite. Big porsion. Last Sunday, I saw many people were queueing to get the table in that restaurant.

Check e-mails from office in hotel…..Susan asked many questions and informed the situation that was going on in the office. Oh, I hate it. I can’t do anything since I’m far away.

Dinner was in Yong Su San restaurant, a traditional North Korea food. We were taken by Jeonine’s principal, Minntech, where Nejim works there. So it was 5 of us: John, Lynn, Nejim, Jeonine, and me.

I’ll show you the menu we chose: No pork for me and Nejim, no beef for Jeonine. The waiter that served us is very particular and  understanding about what we requested. Two thumbs up!! Unfortunately, I didn’t notice his name.

We were a strange funny group there. We made jokes about anything. John was sooo funny…..

I’ll scan the menu and show it to you what we ate there.

The charge was KRW 257,000. John paid it.

Went to Hard Rock Cafe, near by the restaurant. Jeonine bought two T-Shirts. Took some pictures.

We walked along the street, found a bakery shop. I bought chocolate cake and some breads, then we went back to the hotel by taxi.

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Went to the booth early… Met Dr. Nur Hayat and Dr. Bahtiar at hotel’s lobby. Set up the brochures. Greeted the doctors. Got 4 Indonesian doctors filled in the leads form…

Met Jeonince, finally. Lunch with Jeonine at COEX food court…..Had sushi for my lunch, KRW 4,000…..

Damn, My shoes are killing me!!!!! Need foot massage…..Went back to hotel. Planned to have a dinner at COEX food court with Joe and Sornmchai but the korea distributor (RNL)  invited us for dinner at "bizbaz", german style buffet restaurant….It must be expensive. I needed to be choosy and be carefull of the dishes, I won’t wanna have pork/beef/chicken as they probably not halal. Seafood and vegetable are safer.

There was a 1st birthday ceremony. A korea family invited their family members and friends to celebrate their soon’s 1st birthday. It was not just a common birthday. They had some rituals.

Went back to hotel with Kate. Haven’t had my shower, and still writing the blog.

OK, I’m finished. C yaaaa

Woke up. Prepared breakfast, instant noodle I brought from Jakarta.

Went to Oakwood Premier Hotel for pre-show training. I walked there from hotel. I realized that KCAT is near to the hotel. I could walk yesterday to hotel.

We had an English translator as those Korea distributors don’t understand English.

Booth was still being built at 17.00.

Dinner at Korea House and watched performance (Opera singing, Fan Dance, Sam gam mun, Samgul Nori). Kate and Ricardo didn’t come with us. They had to finish the booth. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside. I fell asleep for a moment, Gary slept all the way. We were too tired. Susan has canceled the city tour for tonight.