IFEZ

On our last day in wonderful South Korea we visited the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ). The project is South Korea attempt to get a create a major business hub in Asia, the whole idea behind IFEZ is creating a global city. The site is set to harbor the worlds largest building, many of the world's best companies, and premier entertainment. The whole thing would not even be in the works if it was not for the reclaiming of land from the ocean surrounding the peninsula, which is very amazing in its self. The project is set to be complete in the year 2020.
After our tour of the IFEZ project we were given the freedom to rome the streets of Seoul and do any shopping we needed to get gifts for our family and friends.

DMZ

Today we visited the DMZ or as the Korean's call it Panmunjun. This was one of the strangest places I have ever been in my life. At the beginning of our day we arrived at the tourist site where you hang out before the tour guides actually take you to the DMZ, this was quite interesting, because the Dean of our university had actually fought in the Korean war, and even though it was no longer a conflict area anymore, it once was. As the Dean and I walked around the area he began to share a part of his life I'm sure he would much rather forget, he told me about the death and destruction that once had consumed this area that now had a restaurant and amusement park rides. The Dean even went as far as telling me how he still found his self shaking sometimes thinking about the experiences this foreign place had brought him. We had a early lunch and then headed to the DMZ. We first arrived at a base camp where we had the rare chance to see American soldiers, which was great, except they handed us the waivers that said they were not responsible for us getting killed if something happened. The ride to the DMZ then got a bit more interesting, you see all the land basically around the DMZ is covered with land mines and snipers so it wasn't exactly the most pleasant place. Once at the DMZ things didn't get any easier the North Koreans stared at us took pictures of us and had their weapons pointed at us (lovely day in the neighborhood). I had never been so happy to leave a place. The DMZ is one of those bragging rights's places I really didn't see the point in going their other than being able to say I've been their.

We concluded our evening with shopping near the U.S. Air force base, and dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

Hyundai Department Store???

Another day another factory, or so we thought. Today we visited the Hyundai motor company in South Korea, it was quite fascinating , in comparison to the site in Montgomery it was problably 3 times as big, but because it's so old it doesn't have anywhere near the technology. We watched a short video about the whole operation, and then got to take a look at the future of Hyundai motors. In the near future they will be introducing a new vehicle titled the Genesis, which is being produced to compete in the market with Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW. Like I said the plant was huge they showed all the different aspects from the paint shop, to the final assembly, to the lot where the vehicles are loaded on to the ships. Once we finished the tour we headed to Mc Donald's for a little lunch, and piece of mind. We had a couple of minutes after lunch so our tour guides told us we could go look around the Hyundai Department store, I thought the cars were nice, the department store put sham to anything I had seen in the States, In a nut shell they had all the top designers, at all the top costs.

Next we headed to the Hyundai Heavy Industries for a tour of the shipping yard. I have a personal interest in ships which made this part of the trip all the more exciting. We saw everything from propellers the size of houses to ships the size of malls. In the museum inside the tour area we also got a look at the world's future cities which was very cool cause i had just watched a program the week before we left documenting the same concepts.

The Heat Wave

We began our day with a short one hour bus ride to Ul San where we visited the POSCO steel plant. It's funny how sometimes small events are an indecation of what the rest of the day will bring, the reason I say this is that morning on the bus it was really cold and I had the bright idea to ask the bus driver to turn on the heat. Korean buses work a little different than American buses, in short the heat was on full blast for the entire hour long bus ride to Ul San and everbody was staring at me pissed off. Well how that connects to the rest of the day, we were visiting the World's third largest producer of steel, and if you don't know anything about steel let me help you, it's very hot. Aside from the high tempretures the plant was really amazing, for instance South Korea has relatively no raw materials so all of the materials have to be brought in from ohter countries. The plant is basically a small GREEN city, the are very big on taking care of the environment. The company is also filthy rich cause on the loaction of the steel plant I guess they got bored and decided to build a Soccer stadium. At any rate the steel plant was very nice and after we left the took us for another authentic meal at the Pizza Hutt,(finally home cooking).

After Pizza hut we traveled up into the mountians to visit the birth place of Korean Buhdism. There was a bit of a walk, but it was well worth it. The view from the mountian was amazing, and in the mountian the Korean's had carved out a huge cave with a what had to be a 20 foot Buhda statue.

We concluded the evening with lounge singing in the Hilton hotel lobby, where we sipped on some local favorite cocktails.

Chung Ang University

Today we visited Chung Ang University a major University in South Korea, and also the university of Dr. Sang Man Lee Alabama States Emanate Scholar. We visited two campus locations one in Seoul and another a few hours away in An Sung. At the location in Seoul we were all present as the Dean signed a document that was supposed to start in not so many words an exchange program between Alabama State and Chung Ang. At the second location in An Sung we sat in a class as the Dean of COBA gave a lecture on North Korea. Once the lecture was complete we also got to say a few words and chit chat with the students, this ended up being kind of funny since one of the girls I talked had just finished studying abroad in my home town (Kansas City, MO). We concluded the major events of the day with a authentic lunch at a Korean restaurant where we ate fish that stared back at us and clear soft noddles that crunched when you bit into them.

Bellagio..Vegas...Korea??

Today we went to the Geyong Bok Palace. The building from over a century ago still remain and are as well kept as if today's Koreans were living in them. The Palace has a special place in Korean society as it was one of the few palaces not destroyed during the Japanese take over of South Korea. It was a different experience, but hey when your in South Korea most experiences tend to be a little different. We were dressed in old fashioned Korean attire, and listened to a live performance of a Korean Empireal Band.

After the Palace we enjoyed an authentic lunch of Bambibok at a little underground Cafe in the middle of the popular shopping markets, then we proceeded to the live show, "Jump." Jump was quite an impressive show, showing off the Korean martial art of Tae Kwon Do with a comical twist. The play was partially in English and Korean, however not to much speaking was needed to understand what was going on as the actors did a wonderful job through their acting. After jump it was off to the Bellagio for dinner, this was pretty funny since almost all of us were expecting a large casino similar to the one in Las Vegas. The Bellagio was a wonderful buffet with all sorts of foods to give us a little taste of home, unfortunately it the American foods didn't look that tasty so we pigged out on the Korean food instead, "Viva la Sashimi."

Greetings from South Korea

Well let me start off by saying thank God we finally made it, as you know we left for South Korea last Thursday however we didn't make it until Sat. Upon arriving in San Francisco are plane was delayed 2 hours, however two hours later the whole flight was canceled and what ensued could best be described as a hot ghetto mess by the United airlines staff. Needless to say we eventually left the next morning at 8 without any sleep, from there it was a short 12 cruise across the Pacific and next thing we knew we were in South Korea. This place is truly amazing from the people, to the food, to the buildings, this place is outta this world. We are currently staying at the Lotte Hotel which also contains the World largest indoor amusement park ($7 after 9p.m.), is located in the South side of Seoul. The food is ..... different... exotic.....it just is I have at raw fish just about every night since I have been here, and don't plan to stop. Anyway time is of the essence time for bed... Good Night
Rags

Mercedes Benz and ZF Manufacturing

I recently visited the Mercedes Benz facility in Huntsville, AL. The visit to the porduction site was a very interesting look at one of the premier car makers in the world. The massive size of the facility alone is quite amazing, it's a small city in its self. The facility has everything employees need including, health care, child care, two cafeterias. The facility does everything you could imagine for a brand new vehicle, from paint to road testing everything is done inside the confines of the two plant building.
After visiting the Mercedes plant we the proceeded to the ZF plant also in Huntsville. ZF is one of Mercedes just-in-time suppliers, they make the
chasis for the M-class in Huntville, but also have offices around the world. The production site was alot smaller than the Mercedes, however within the building the attitudes were of the team members were very different. The ZF people looked like they truly enjoyed their job and at mercedes no one really happy, they were just little worker drones.
The trip to the two plants was very enjoyable, and very informational.

Alabama Automotive Manufacturing Association (AAMA)

The trip to the AAMA quarterly meeting on the 2/29/08 was an interesting occasion. Upon arriving at 9a.m. we sat in a workshop to listen to some of Alabama's top manufacturers talk about how they had instituted lean within their organizations. Lean is a process in which the an orginization tries to get rid of the non-value added processes in the dialy routine. The key note speakers for the event included representitives from Lear a company in Montgomery, ZF a compnay that supplies chasis for Mercedes in Huntsville, and several others. The second half of the day was spent at a luncheon where a key note speaker talked about site selection for the large automotive makers. His speach was extremely informational, there are so many aspects of the site selection that a normal person would never think about. Overall the trip was very interesting, and I'm sure that other students will enjoy the opportunity to go to the AAMA meetings in the future.