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Category: Events
Korea is hosting this year’s A.P.P.U (Asian Pacific Postal Union) Congress in Seoul from May 30th to June 4th. Honorably I am taking part in the Congress as one of the organizing staff. So before the actual congress, I had to get some training.
The training was for three days and started on this past Monday. There were 13 people for training. I had already met them before when we had pre meeting at the head quarters. The training centre is located the middle part of South Korea. It is called training centre but we think of it as a resort place cuz while we stay there, we can have a lot of fun. no left over work, no seniors, and no lack of sleep. We were supposed to learn so many things for three days. That means we didn’t learn so many things.. hehe.. we learned “International Manners, Convention English, Process of Communicating in International Convention, Public Speech, and Negotiation”.
Yesterday, when we, the 13 organizing members, heard what we should tell the guests from foreign countries about the congress registration, I thought it would be nice if everything is written on paper. Later at night I wrote something with a lot of asking to sikander… I was thinking I would make a small casual note for guests. He urged me leave the note and to go to bed as it was very late at night saying he will be online in the morning as well. I took a deep deep sleep and woke up to find this wonderful, beautiful looking guide on my monitor. It looked very neat and official looking. My co-workers were shocked that I made that very careful and so useful writing. But the funny part was that they praised me for the official look of the document… but I didn’t tell that sikander did it… hehe he wouldn’t take a credit for it cuz he can’t.. he is all the way in Canada.
My first responsibility was to meet and greet the delegate from Kiribati which is a collection of 33 islands somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. At first I was very nervous to meet this Mr. Williams from Kiribati. No matter how small country he is coming from, I am meeting him as a representative of korea. I took care of my hair and clothes when I saw the “Arrived” sign on the flights arrival board. Then I waited, waited, and kept waiting… and waiting.. I thought I missed him and worried about him so much. But finally a bit dark middle aged old man in casual clothes (a bit disappointing looking, I expected someone either very decent looking in a luxurious suit or in traditional pacific ocean looking clothes) gave a look to the picket my partner was holding. thanks god… we finally found him.. no room for nervousness anymore.. just happy to find the representative from kiribati. so so nice to meet you, mr. kiribati.
I had learned “Ko na mauri” which means “Hello” in Kiribati language. I also had the small guide for him about what he should do after he reaches his hotel. After the meeting at the airport we went in the limosuine bus to the Sheraton Walker Hill Hotel for check-in. Tomorrow, while some of the other staff are at the airport meeting other delegates, I have to know about all the facilities and their locations in the hotel and figure out how to run the VIP room. Oh, did I tell you that I am responsible for the “VIP Room” ? I don’t know how many VIPs i can meet once the Congress starts on Monday but I hope I can take pictures of every VIP who visits here.
“happy birthday” from my cell phone. wow, sikander, thank you. the cell phone showed a local phone number so i guessed sikander was using an operator to connect me. “heajoo, stay at the place where bikes are… outside of your post office building”. hmmm o.k, so i went outside and there now i am standing here. “hmmm are you making a surprise for me sikander? i am in korea, far away from canada. what surprise can you make for me? i doubt if any surprise can surpass my last birthday surprise”. it was so so cold where i was standing outside of my post office building.
soon i saw a guy walking toward me in black jacket and pants… my eyes are deceiving me. it can’t be sikander.. it can’t be him.. there is no way sikander is walking toward me in korea. he is in canada, of course. wow, very realistic dream. i will talk about this dream to sikander later when i get home. he would say “i wish i could do that”. but i can’t wake myself up and my dream seems to continue. and sikander walked up to me and said “hi heajoo, happy birthday”. i couldn’t speak properly and everything seemed to stop. i asked him if this is real and he came closer to me and said it is not dream, it is real.
yes, it was real. unbelievably real. sikander left korea just a few hours ago. he stayed here 12 days with me in korea. when sikander came to my office, i couldn’t believe it, and now he is gone to canada, and i can’t believe it either. oh someone tell me everything from 13th january was real and even now is real.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
if i ask sikander when was the best day in korea i am sure he would say “everyday, lunato” but if i say “no, you should choose only one day” then he would choose last saturday as the best and so would i. after our strawberry milk and yogurt breakfast, we went to visit the old palace in north downtown seoul. contrary to western concept of downtown, we have many downtowns in seoul. i like the north downtown the most. it shows the very good harmony between old and new, calm and busy.
since it was saturday, we meet a lot of korean and foreigners there. oh, speaking of foreigners.. it is funny how sikander slowly changed his attitude as a foreigner here. unlike westerner who are sick and tired of immigrants, foreigners are relatively rare here and koreans are willing to help them to give them a good impression. sikander, in his early days in korea, was so helpless and scared as a different one here but soon he realized people are doing him favors a lot. later when we had to ask for someone’s favor he said “no no, i will ask for it”. omg, he is learning so fast. i don’t like to be with sikander here in korea. people are treating him special but not to me :(:(
after old palace we walked to Insadong where a lot of gallaries, antique shops, restaurants are gathered together. we had so many different street vendor’s food while walking down the street trying to find souvenir for sikander’s family and friends. i didn’t know how much fun it would be idling there eating on the street… we found nice souvenir for sikander’s family and friends and left there to go to the city hall for ice skating.
we had to wait for ice skating until 9pm so we decided to watch a movie in the meanwhile. the time was not good for both movie and skating so we had to chose between movie and skating. we chose movie cuz watching movie in different cities has been our custom and i didn’t want to miss the chance. of course we have popcorn and softdrinks inside of the theater, but it is not as popular as canada. instead of popcorn, we have some other snacks like dried fishes… i thought sikander would never like dried fishes.. but really he is becoming accustomed to the snacks here. i thought it would be “ewwww” from his point of view but he said it was not bad at all.. he ate a lot of fish cakes (oden) with passion, a lot of dukbucki with crazy spice, and a lot of fried buns with love. oh, the movie we saw was “Vanity Fair”; i doubt if reese witherspoon was the right actress for it but overall it was enjoyable.
after movie it was over 10 pm at night. should we call it the end of the day.. nonononono, good thing comes at the last. both we were working so hard, especially sikander.. even when i was taking days off, he had to work like all day long. heh what the hell? he came all the way to canada and is still busy ? hyuuuu. but comming to korea from the opposite side of the world should compensate for any of his unsincreity and unattentiveness for now right ? i will forgive him for now hehe.
i booked a late night sports massage for us to ease our tensed muscle and sikander was sooo happy to go there. the place was open 24 hours but what if it is some perverted weird place.. what if we should take our clothes off.. hehe but i only relied on the word “sports”.. it is not just massage.. it is sports massage and sports is related with some healty stuff.. right? yes, it was totally unperverted and very relaxing… sikander and i lied on the beds next to each other. the massager kneaded my muscle like flour… ohhhhh so good. i heard sikander’s relaxing melting sound as well. if his massager was a woman i would be so pissed… but hold on… it was a man and he was still making melting sounds… oh no, i guess there is all the time some possibility we never expected…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
there are so many other things i want to memorize forever. the super nice room of hotel queen, the fun we had in my friend’s place, sikander’s very good deal of new shirts and jeans in myeongdong, shack meet in s.korea (sikander, lunato and xphil), NANTA “Crazy beat” night, walking in seoul at night, the seoul tower, the main islam mosque in Itaewon, the numerous restaurants we visited, sikander picking me up at work, the subway rides, etc etc. i felt like i haven’t lived in korea cuz i hadn’t explored all the places before. kind of like sikander who never knew ottawa has such a nice bike path around the city before he met lunato.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
sikander.. continuing with my birthday last year, you got me completely this year as well. you again ruined the rest of birthdays and somewhat ruined my reality as well. hmmm well, being so sad is not my job i guess. i am a project manager of my imaginery “the apprentice” from now. i achieve everyday goal like keep busy, meet friends more often, read more, eat healthy, sleep regulary, etc etc. my boss is watching me. internet will be his eyes and ears.