richmond

instead of going back with the group. i made a detour to richmond on my way back to philly on sunday.  i went to richmond when i was 14 or 15 with the maccabi games (translation: teenage jewish olympics) and stayed with a local host family.  of all the maccabi games i went on, they were by far my favorite family.  the family was grandparents who had four daughters and many grandkids.  while we exchanged holiday cards over the years, i had not seen them in over 14 years!  i figured since i would be in charlottesville (and so close to them) i might as well go visit. 

it was awesome seeing weene and alvin (the grandparents).  they are such warm and nice people and catching up was so natural.  two of their daughters (hilary and adrienne) came by as well as three of their grandkids (two of which were not even alive when i was there).  many of their grandkids are now in college - crazy concept to me since they all seemed so little back then.  it was seriously amazing to see how much the young ones had changed. 

hopefully it is not another 14 years before i see them again.

charlottesville

so this past weekend, about twelve of us went down to uva to play in the mba coed softball tournament.  we dominated on and off the field.  translation: we had fun playing softball while enjoying some cold beers and then partying it up at night in charlottesville.  definitely an epic weekend and all of us are looking forward to going back next year.

kristen and i got there late friday night - i wanted to watch harvard softball play penn softball at penn park (everyone else left early friday morning).  we joined them at the bar friday night - some interesting characters down there for sure.  saturday we played softball almost all day.  we came in second place to uva, but mostly cause we thought we had to play two more games to win the championship (after round robin play) and we were all tired and wanted to go to the bar.

ace of cakes

so at wharton, the first year class is broken into four clusters (i am in cluster 3).  i think i mentioned the breakdown before, so i wont bore you here.  due to the new curriculum/structure of class, clusters did not exist until our year.  anyhow, there is a cluster competition from everything from dance-offs, to community service to intramural sports and more.  tonight's competition was ace of cakes which essentially we had to have 12 people eat cupcakes without hands and then decorate a white sheet cake with limited budget and time.  attached is what we created.  we came in third place, which i am calling BS on.  i was proud of our concoction.  we were given a theme of "flying"

parentals

my parents came to visit for the past few days.  it was great seeing them and showing them my life in philly. i was impressed that they survived the snow - yes, we got snow in late march. ugh.

anyhow, when i was not in class, we did quite a few philly things together and when i was in class they explored on their own.  our activities included, but were not limited to, the following: historical district (old town), walking around rittenhouse square and campus, reading terminal market, philly cheesesteaks, the rocky steps/statue, amish country and more (including a stop at my favorite place, the cheesecake factory, in the burbs).  i realized they took all the pictures, so not many to post here - except one of dad with rocky and pretending to get a ticket from his new ppa friend (think: parking wars)


it was great showing them philly, but more fun just hanging out.  thanks for coming!

fight night

tonight was fight night.  the boxing clubs annually puts on a real boxing match that pairs up students from wharton against other schools, mostly the law school, in real boxing matches.  everyone dresses up in cockail attire and watches classmates kick the shit out of each other.  additionally, every fighter has an entourage which does a little dance/skit before the fighter enters the ring.  watching the show was a mix of excitement and fear as you watch people about to get their ass kicked.  for the record, wharton one every fight but one.

highlight of the night - student who was ex australian special forces.  no one on campus would take him on so they found a former marine who is a semi pro boxer to take him on.  super intense.  very close fight.

softball!

today we had our cluster cup softball tournament and lets just say i felt like i was in college again since it was snowing during the games!  still will never understand outdoor sports on the east coast in the spring.  softball was a ton of fun.  our team (cluster 3) went undefeated and came in first place. woohoo! 

translation for those of you who do not know what a cluster is - each cluster is 1/4 of the first year mba class.  each cluster is made up of 3 cohorts (approx 70 people per cohort) and each cohort has 12 learning teams (learning team is approx 6 people).

wharton54

 last night was the legendary wharton54. modeled after studio54, it is one of wharton's bigger parties for the year.  many ridiculous outfits. shot boys and girls. glitter and more.

learning team dinner

not sure if i ever described my learning team.  anyhow, we were assigned learning teams in the beginning of pre-term.  learning teams are random groups of six people that are in core classes together.  during those core classes we work on group projects together.  basically they try and take a diverse group of people and throw them together and see how it works out. social experiment style but also a chance to work on your leadership style and teamwork.  my learning team is 6 people including myself. brief background below

• maria, from russia, worked at kpmg and inbev
• michelle, originally from china but lived in the states for a long time, worked at mckinsey
• jake, expat who grew up in taipei, worked at deloitte consulting and redbox
• michael, southerner who worked in investment banking and private equity
• dave, from new england, ex-engineer who worked in private equity

now that we don't have core classes anymore (only in fall term with new curriculum), it had been awhile since we got our learning team together.  we had dinner tonight and it was great catching up!

home sweet home

i made it back and i am exhausted.  this weekend i kept it low key given that i was trying to catch up on sleep. not looking forward to sitting through class this week.

exciting news of the weekend. i will be one of the co-presidents of sailing club next year.

more seoul

since i am losing steam in posting about korea, i will combine my last two days - well tuesday afternoon until thursday midday when i caught the bus to the airport.

tuesday late afternoon after the dmz we grabbed some food at a local spot - delicious soup/noodle dish, similar to ramen.  we then headed over to namdaemun market which is a local market that sells cheap fashion products, knockoffs, and weird food.  like dried pressed squids weird.  the smell of squid is so gross an so pungent.  we walked around but couldn't take pictures because the locals would yell at us - the five of us were pretty much the only non-locals there!  we tried to take them on the sly, but they didn't come out very well. later that night we hit up the night markets - essentially there is a whole shopping scene at night in seoul.  the building looks like a department store but once you get inside there are row after row and floor after floor of small stalls selling clothing and accessories.  there were so many people inside it was crazy.  the night markets located near dongdaemun opened around 8pm and stayed open until 6am.  not really sure how/why this happens.  we were so overwhelmed by the stuff and the people that we did not stay long.

 

wednesday and thursday were much more low key.  we slept in after early mornings monday and tuesday for kia and dmz.  we went to one of the local coffee shops in seoul.  every 25 feet or so there is a coffee shop (maybe to stay awake from all the shopping?).  seriously every 25 feet - i am NOT joking.  i think there are more starbucks in seoul than in nyc.  there were also coffee bean and tea leafs everywhere which surprised me since it isn't even all over the US.  it was a big deal when coffee bean and tea leaf opened its first store in nyc recently.  in addition to the big chains, there were TONS of local coffee shops as well.  and many of them served belgian waffles - so odd!  there are so many coffee shops, they cant possibly make money.  in addition to coffee, the coffee shop we went to had delicious bread dish.  it was a slightly sweet bread toasted w whip cream and berries on top. yum.

during the day i also walked around gangnam, the area the psy song is based off of.  it was interesting.  nothing too drastic - just more shopping, this time more upscale.  we learned that gangnam, which is south of the han-gang river, was more recently developed.  in fact, it was developed post 1980 and thus is a relatively new part of seoul.

another interesting fact was that to cross some streets you had to go underground through a passageway.  in these passageways there were more stalls with people selling everything from clothes and shoes to handbags and food.  clearly they LOVE shopping.

ok i think this is enough on seoul.

dmz

the dmz trip was definitely an experience.  we left early in the morning and after 1-2 hour bus ride (fell asleep so not sure how long exactly), we ended up close to the north korean border in the demilitarized zone.  on the way up there our tour guide explained that they have barb wire along the river to keep out the north koreans.  apparently in the past some swam down the river and then killed some important lady. 

our first stop for the day was at imjingak, the bridge of freedom and lookout.  since many south koreans were separated from their families in the north after the war this is where they can come to pay tribute to their relatives.  additionally, this bridge is where repatriated pows/soldiers returned from the north.

on our drive to the next stop we drove by the unification bridge (aka cow bridge). interesting story we were told was that the founder of hyundai had stolen one cow from north korea back in the day. he had felt guilty all these years since his company had become successful (thanks in part to the cow).  to alleviate his guilt he sent 1,001 cow across the bridge into north korea.  1 cow as repayment and 1000 as interest.

our next stop was at dorasan station.  i think it is totally crazy that they already built this whole train station for some future unknown date.  the station was built as the northern most station in south korea and the symbolic stop on the way north.  currently no trains go through this station to the north, only a few from seoul to dorasan for tourist purposes only.  they even had a picture of george bush (w) at the dedication.

we then went to the lookout over north korea.  we were only allowed to take pictures behind the yellow line (pictured below) which was far from the edge so the picutre i took is hard to see.  also didnt help that it was a VERY foggy day.  some highlights from this lookout included 1. a fake town the north koreans had made to demonstrate that north korea was successful and high tech 2. large statue of kim il seong 3. gaeseong industrial park and residence.  the gaeseong industrial park and residence was a very interesting concepts.  essentially, companies (like hyundai) from south korea have set up manufacturing operations in the north to leverage the cheap labor in the north.  they send up south korean workers to manage the operations.


our last stop was at the 3rd infiltration tunnel.  apparently the north has dug a bunch of tunnels to the south.  the tunnel runs south of panmunjom and was designed for a surprise attack on seoul from the north.  to date only four tunnels have been found; however, it is suspected there are many more (many years between each discovery).  before we went into the tunnel we watched this video on the dmz and north/south korea.  it was clearly propoganda - much like the whole tour talking about how nice it would be to reunite and return to one korea, etc.  very weird.  after the video and quick museum tour we went in the tunnel.  we were not allowed to take pictures in the tunnel so i will do my best to describe it.  we had to lock up all our belongings and then put on helmets before we were allowed down.  the helmets were clutch as i hit my head probably 20 times while down there.  we first walked down this really steep and modern (clean and perfect looking) ramp type part of the tunnel.  once we were down in tunnel about 300meters it became the "real tunnel."  it was dark and dingy and after we walked a bit further there was a blockade with video cameras.  we could look through a small opening and see another blockade on the other side.  apparently, they continuously monitor this and if any south koreans come they will flood the tunnel with water to protect themselves.  it was kinda creepy because as you were walking you heard lots of weird nosies from above, it was a tight space and you could hear running water.  the north koreans monitor the tunnel from the other blockade.

so why are there tunnels?  initially north korea denied building the tunnels and then put black "coal" paint on the walls to say they were drilling for coal.  who knows the truth?  i am sure the north has a different version of the tunnels - saying the south created it.

unfortunately we couldnt go to panmunjom given security concerns (a lot of verbiage coming out of north korea while we were there) and the need to register way in advance.

afternoon in seoul

monday afternoon, after the kia tour, we walked around the city of seoul.  we walked by city hall, an urban stream, gyeongbokgung palace, by the museums (not actually in them), to the historic area of bukchon with old style houses and then the shopping streets.  below i will give some detail on each.

first, a brief synopsis of the urban stream.  originally a stream through the middle of seoul where women would wash clothes.  the stream was covered up by streets during the boom of seoul.  in early 2000s in an effort to rebeautify the city, they added a lot of public art and removed the street (big deal for a city with lots of traffic) to allow for this below ground body of water to return to seoul. 

 

next, we walked from the stream up to the palace and on the way, in the middle of the road there were statues (picture of some ruler below- couldnt read the sign) and pagodas (actually, pagodas all over the city).  this street had a lot of the government buildings and the us embassy (sign hanging in front of it below).

we arrived at the gyeongbokgung palace to be greeted by guards who did not talk or move.  there were probably 8 of them in all different bright colored outfits.  not really sure why there are active guards since no one lives in the palace anymore.  the palace was originally completed in 1395 as the main royal palace.  the name gyeongbokgung means "the palace greatly blessed by heaven."  mount bugaksan is behind the palace and mount namsan is in the foreground making the palace placed in the heart of seoul.  the palace was destroyed by the japanese during the japanese invasion (1592-1598) and a secondary palace was build named changdeokgung and served as the main palace.  the palace we visited was left derelict for 270 years.  it was finally reconstructed in 1867 only to be destroyed again by the japanese during the occupation.  the current building is an effort to restore the palace and has been ongoing since 1990.  once we were inside the palace grounds we realized it was HUGE.  it must go on for acres with tons of buildings (each had their own purpose) as well as gardens.  everytime we thought we were at the end we would discover quite a few additional buildings.  there was also a section for a cemetary and statues.

after the palace we wandered by the museums and outside one of them were statues of all different animals.  i guessed correctly that they were zodiac signs.  below is mine - the year of the rat!

thought this sign was hillarious.

next we went to bukchon, the older part of the city, with historic looking buildings.  we may not have found them, but we did find a cute shopping/restaurant street with tons of locals.  taryn and lindsay decided to go for some fried veggie thing (see chef smiling in background) since the line was long.  since we couldnt really read many signs we guessed that long lines = good food.  since my stomach was still not happy with me, i was unwilling to be adventurous.

we continued to meander around the streets and came across the main tourist shopping street, insa-dong.  one thing i learned in korea is that people LOVE shopping and coffee (will explain that in a later post).  anyhow, we window shopped and came across the only starbucks in korea with the sign written in korean.  we also stumbled upon this candy making shop.  the candy they made looked like a white version of post shredded wheat cereal.  the interesting part was how they made the candy which was taking a hard piece of honey- looked like glass and really hard and continued to stretch it out and make 16,000 strings.  i wish i had videoed them - they were hysterical!  i did find a youtube video of another group so i have included that.

the power to surprise

we started off monday morning bright and early with a trip to the kia plant.  one of my classmates had a friend who previously worked at kia and hooked us up with a visit to kia (the car manufacturer).  kia actually picked us up in seoul on a "kia" bus, drove us to their plant in hwaseong (about an hour away from seoul) and hosted us and then drove us back in the afternoon.

at hwaseong (location of the plant), we met one of the assistant managers of the general affairs team who provided some background on the company and their ascent over the past few years.  we learned that hyundai and kia are actually sister companies as hyundai has owned a majority share in kia since 1998.  hyundai and kia share r&d facilities but have separate design and marketing departments and production facilities.  essentially, these companies can cut many of the expenses that places them at a significant advantage to other car manufacturers.  additionally, the plant we went to is located 10 miles from the port and thus provides a significant cost savings for the company.  the plants in south korea produce cars for the local market and globally.  however, they do have plants in other locations around the world.  in the plant we visited, they made three models (similar to toyota).

kia is a very fast growing company with double digit growth in cars sold over the past 5+ years.  a majority of their growth has been overseas (except south america due to recent taxes imposed in brazil).  kia is now a top 100 brand according to interbrand (and they were very proud of this fact).  kia's slogan is "the power to surprise" and surprise they did.  after the intro talk and a tour of their showroom (electronic visitor book pic included), we had lunch in their cafeteria, a tour of their production facility (huge! and we got to go on the floor, right next to the workers) and then around their test track.  they even gave us model cars as gifts.  note: we were not allowed to take pictures at production facility or on the track.

some (clearly not all) differences between the toyota and kia production facilities that i noticed:1. kia mass produces cars and holds inventory whereas toyota has a just in time system
2. kia production line is more manual than toyota.  i assume this will have to change with time as kia produces more and more cars
3. kia has a racetrack (we actually got to drive around it) in which they test all of their cars where as toyota tests their cars' acceleration and brake system indoors

i am sure i have bored you with information on kia, but it was really interesting!  i want to see other car manufacturers now!