So as most of you know, I work for Kia Motors, and they decided to send me on a global training trip for 2 weeks in a small city in the hills of Namyung. Namyung is about 2 hours outside of Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. This weekend we will get to travel in to Seoul, one of the largest cities in the world with approximately 10 million people.
I'm spending my days during the work week at the Hyundai Kia Research and Design Center. A lot of people are not aware that Hyundai and Kia are of the same automotive group. The 2 companies merged in 1998.
Without the risk of sounding like I work for the CIA, I really cant talk or write anything about what I have seen while at the R&D center. But it has been very informative and positive for my career to see a vehicle life cycle, from design conception, all the way to and through mass production. The technology and genius minds that work there mesh at an unseen level. R&D employees approximately 10,000 people at the site. Most of them live in Seoul, and catch the buss every morning to the country side site of rolling hills.
So, the cleverly named resort that Kia sent me to, built by Hyundai exclusively for their visiting engineers, is called Rolling Hills, a five star resort less than 10 minutes from R&D. Getting to Rolling Hills was a bitter sweet adventure.
Sweet: Get a once in a lifetime chance to visit Korea and the top secret hub of their global corporation.
Bitter: Having to get out of the car at Hartsfield International in Atlanta and leave my wife for 2 whole weeks.
Sweet: Meet with all the members from each of our global plants, including HMMA (Hyundai Motors Manufacturing Alabama), HMI (Hyundai Motors India), KMS (Kia Motors Slovakia) just to name a few.
Bitter: The incredible toll my body took on the horrible experience of a 15 hour plane ride and 2 hour bus ride to Rolling Hills.
Sweet: Exploring Korea! So far, I've spent some time at the Resort, and small town near by called Namyung. I also took a cab ride to Osan, which is the location of a US Military base.
Bitter: Horrible, awful, crippling jet lag. I arrived on Sunday (Korean Time), and it was Wed night before I actually got some sleep at night.
Still ahead on my agenda, other than work stuff that I cant talk about... Saturday is excursion day, no work, just enjoying the BIG city of Seoul. Seoul Tower, Itawon, and Suwan. Next week, I have to get on another plane and fly to the other side of the country to visit another plant for benchmarking. Then I fly back to Kempo the next day and back to Seoul for our farewell dinner at one of the ritziest restaurants in Korea. Back to R&D for one last day, last night at Rolling Hills, and finally to Incheon airport and back home Kristina!!!
I could go on a while longer, but I'm so excited to report that I'm getting sleepy, and I'm not passing the chance to get caught up on some much needed rest. The days have been very draining mentally.
As my instructor says, "and blah blah blah" here are some pictures.
Good morning America, I hope you enjoy your today, which has already become my yesterday.
Good night from Korea.
