Korea, Day 8

my view in the IT room

Day 8... have I really been here that long?

It's cold. I think it's even colder than it was when we first arrived. Even indoors, I'm feeling the cold in bones I never knew existed. I got a kick out of a text, from Mike, letting me know that his printers at the Alpine venue were frozen. Not "frozen" in the technical sense. They were actually, physically frozen.

Another day in the office. Not a whole lot to report but, I would like to reiterate how incredible this team is. I talked before about the knowledge and skill that we all bring to the table, and how our skills compliment one another. These Games really epitomize the power of working as a team. The high level of trust that we have in one another is why we can operate as efficiently as we do.

Yesterday, Johnny (Mike's translator) took me to our hotel medical room to get some medicine for my head cold. It's a little unnerving to receive two red gel-pills from someone and not know what they're called or what any potential side effects are. But, I was desperate, and the nurse was very warm and helpful while I was there. They did help as I'm feeling much better today.

Sharon is still helping me plan out our group's "tour" of Seoul. Though we already have a hotel booked (in Gangnam), we're all talking to people to get recommendations on cheaper places and different neighborhoods (Gangnam is the Beverly Hills of Seoul). Sharon did find a motel for cheap but there were some... stipulations.

She called to check availability for 7 rooms, which they have. The "stipulations" were that, 1) over the weekend, we would have to move all of our luggage into a single room so that they could rent our rooms out to others during the day... at an hourly rate. And, 2) we would have to pay the hourly rate for the room that our luggage was being stored in while we were gone.

Needless to say, I felt quite comfortable speaking on behalf of the others by promptly turning that down. I just don't think I could sleep in a bed that has been rented out multiple times in one day. *shudder*

So, the lesson learned is that there is a HUGE difference between a Hotel and a Motel in Korea. We will stick to the hotel options.

Just a reminder: you can view my photos on Flickr (click here). I haven't used my "proper" camera yet, as it's much easier to carry around the iPhone to grab quick shots as I go. The camera will get its use when we get to Seoul.