Well, having recovered from our experiences at the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday have brought us the joys of District 3640 Conference. The conference was held inside the district at the Intercontinental Hotel, Seoul.

Friday began by visiting Hansung for some last minute presentation 'practice'. You just don't know how difficult it is to translate for someone who doesn't present from a script - poor Hansung, he really did have to fine tune his English/Korean language skills!

Eventually having satisfied our double act, we met the team at the conference hotel; changed into our uniforms, stuffed down some Club Sandwiches and headed for the opening events. The room layout was an informal carousel style, 10 to a table. I still can't get my head round the cultural difference of it being acceptable to be chatting whilst Keynote Speakers, the District Governor and others are giving their addresses! Oh well, no body seemed offended so I guess it really is OK.

Because of the GSE Team being here in Seoul, one of the Rotarians thought it would be good to invite the British Ambassador! So, Martin Uden gladly accepted and gave a presentation on Global Warming. It was an interesting presentation, but I have to say the lady providing translation services (Heewon Kang - Senior Climate Change Officer) was rather more animated than Martin! Anyway, we were introduced after to Martin and his delightful wife Fiona after the presentation which was quite something - more VIP photos and filming this time!

Four O'clock came round quickly and it was time for the GSE presentation - I feel we did a good job and certainly the feedback after would indicate that we have been well received. We were only scheduled to give a 7 minute presentation to it wasn't exactly taxing!

It was good to see video and still shots of the activities of Rotary in District 3640, they really do 'get stuck-in' and I was able to see that the money they donate is put to good local causes.

The evening entertainment was brilliant. We had a four course western style meal and listened to a cross-section of musical styles which included a Hand-Bell Music Choir, an All Girl Drum Band and five highly energetic singers who gave renditions from Abba, Cabaret and Grease - when you listen to a song you know being sung in Korean, it's a great way to learn new words! Throughout the evening, we were supplied with my favorite wine Montepulciano, so all in all a fun time was had by all...!

I returned to the conference today (Saturday) to do my bit as a 'good' Rotarian. It was great to see so many people that we have been hosted by over the past three weeks and Yi-Joon acted as my personal translator so that I could really enjoy the presentations. 

The team have been hiking in the mountains this morning so I'm sure they'll share their experiences with over the coming days. I'm now looking forward to an evening listening to an open air concert - we're being collected in about 15mins, so I'll sign off now and let you all take a break from reading about our adventures. Just six more days to go and we'll be home again - can't believe it really! Keep tuned in, I'm sure they'll be tales of the unexpected...