Well, i’m sitting on our bus on this last day of our Korea trip. I really love it here. Theres been no shortage of places to see, food to eat, bars to crawl to, etc… Easily the best part of this trip however, has been our daytime itinerary that Dr. Choi prepared for us. He’s called in sooo many favors from colleagues of his, as we visit 3-4 sport related sites a day. The formats are all pretty similar: we visit the facility/stadium/arena/office, they show us around and then give a presentation on their business and what they do, followed my q&a/discussion. We’ve met with everything from basketball teams and sport marketing firms to newspapers and the site of the 2018 Olympics in Pyeonchang. All awesome in their own regard.

As if it wasn’t cool enough, about half of the places we visited gave us gifts to take home. The Korean people have been so gracious and i wanted to share some photos of what we’ve received:

The folks at Coca-cola Korea gave us a really nice notebook and branded pen:

The NC Dinos expansion baseball team gave us an awesome ball cap and gorgeous moleskine planner/agenda:

Sports Toto, a Korean online sports betting company gave us a classy wallet/money clip:

The KT (Korea Telecomm) Sonicboom basketball team gave us a sweet t-shirt after the game we watched in Busan:

We visited the largest newspaper in Korea, Chosanilbo, who printed us each the front page of their paper from the day we were born, a mockup front page with our class photo in front of their facility and a really snazzy doo-rag/beanie/headband:

As you can see, we’re not talking chapstick and branded sunscreen spray here. This is some truly nice and thoughtful stuff, that we’re all gonna use. Not to mention the slew of lunches we’ve been treated to, etc…

We’re on our way to visit the SK Wyverns baseball stadium right now. Everyone’s flight but mine leaves at 5:40 pm (its 11:30 am here now). My flight to Brazil leaves at 11:55 pm and i’ve got an additional half day ahead of me tonight. After we drop my classmates at the airport, Dr. Choi and I are meeting with a sports reporter who wants to write a piece on our visit to Korea (everyone is very excited and interested that we’re here. The NC Dinos even issued a press release on our visit to their offices that was published later that day.) I’ll say goodbye to Dr. Choi at 6 and he arranged for me to then go to dinner with Sae Young Park, whom we visited yesterday at her company ‘Minus 1 Golf.’

Words can’t express how grateful I am that Dr. Choi has arranged the end of the day for me and for the entire trip in and of itself. This has been an unforgettable week and i’ve experieced more than i could’ve imagined. I’m ready for the next step in Brazil, but i already treasure the time i’ve had in Korea, the people that experienced it with me, an the people and organizations we were introduced to. What an amazing country filled with incredible people.

More than impressed,

Adrian Spinelli

Playlist:

Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
Little Brother – The Minstrel Show
Starfucker- Starfucker
Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die
Future Islands – In Evening Air
Robyn – Body Talk Part 1
Gang Starr – Hard to Earn
Hieroglyphics – 3rd Eye Vision
Feist – Open Season (remixes and b-sides)
Blind Pilot – 3 Rounds and a Sound
Spoon – Ga ga ga ga ga