Day 6: Once Again Another Inspiring Lecture Event with an Amazing Dinner Afterwards!

Hello this is Alina Huizar writing from Korea!

Today we went to a high school and Great Grandmaster gave a meaningful lecture. As we entered the students cheered and reached out their hands while we ran through the walkways.

While she was giving the lecture the demo team performed for the students, which there was about a thousand or more students. When we finished Great Grandmaster had a few students break some boards. Not all boards were broken on the first strike, but with some encouragement from Great Grandmaster they finally broke their boards.

Later on, after the lecture had finished, we started cleaning up. As we were cleaning a huge crowd of students swarmed us and asked for pictures and autographs!

We were more than happy, some more than others, to give them what they wanted. After a few minutes the crowd slowly died down, and we continued cleaning up and moving stuff back to our vehicle. When everything was finally done, we got in the car for a nice drive to dinner with Great Grandmaster, the rest of our team, and some special guests from the event! :D

At the dinner they had all sorts of food! There were some foods that I’ve never seen before! Everything looked delicious and so well presented. They had food like rice, clams, soup, shrimp, and fish. All the food was awesome and I will eat it again anytime! When we finished eating the food they gave us this sweet rice drink for dessert and it was really good. One of our demo team members asked for a jar of it because it was so good! When everything edible and drinkable was gone Great Grandmaster gave some gifts to her guests (a feather shaped button with diamonds all over it for a couple, and other beautiful gifts for others). The demo team got gifts too! We got cute little towels that said different things on them. After we put away our gifts we went outside and watched great grandmaster leave. We did the same as we walked back to our cars ready for the long and relaxing trip back to our hotel.

Day 5: A Day of Touring & Demo at Young CEO Group

Hello everyone! This is Venkatesh Balaji writing from the subway in Korea! Today is October the 15th and it has been an awesome day.

We started it off with a tour of Gyeong Bok Gung Palace. It was an amazing experience that taught us a lot about traditional Korean culture. We learned that it was painted in four major colors that represented the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. Then, we were shown where the king would stay. There were 24 pillars, 12 of which represented the 12 months of the year and 12 of which represented heaven, earth, and man.

It is apparent that the ancient Koreans who built this beautiful palace did so with meaning behind their work. The pillars were not built just to support the structure but as symbols. This is similar to what we learn at Jung SuWon. Breaking a board isn't a display of strength, but a symbol of conquering a fear or achieving a goal.

After the tour, we stopped by a restaurant where I tried a traditional Korean dish called shabu shabu. It was basically a piece of chicken in soup that also had some rice and noodles. It tasted really good!

Then, it was finally time for the demo. It was a relatively small crowd of about 60 people, but it was a very distinguished group of people. They were all young CEOs of established companies that were said to be the future of Korea with their innovative technology.

They attended to be inspired by our Great Grandmaster so that they would be able to succeed like her. Dr. Kim started with her lecture and even though I couldn't understand the language, I could still see how involved the crowd was. They were very responsive and showed a lot of emotion throughout the lecture. They were also very enthusiastic when Great Grandmaster called four of the CEOs up to demonstrate the "Can Do" spirit with breakings.

Overall, I could tell that the audience was very inspired by Dr. Kim's "He Can Do, She Can Do, Why Not Me" spirit!

Jung Su!

Day 4: Lecture & Demo with Dr. Tae Yun Kim at Church, Then a Tour of Itaewon!

Hello all from Korea,

The Jung Suwon Demo Team has just finished an exciting day where we met interesting and important people!

We first started our day with an energizing early morning workout. Afterwards, we dressed into different attire from our normal routine: formal wear -suits and ties. For today's event we went to a church runned by Head Pastor Chang called "Jesus Town Church."

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim gave an inspiring lecture on her life story and how she struggled to get to where she is today. The lecture was to help inspire the members, and most importantly the young adults and teenagers, to keep working hard.

After the lecture the demo team had a chance to perform. We did routines including: the bully routine featuring Nabi White and Jonathan Palmer, Elbow strike with myself (A.Z Saigal), spinning roundhouse combo break by Luke Amador, and special head breaking demonstration by Mr. Daniel Koh.

All of these breakings were followed up with a backflip breaking and matrix done by Jonathan Palmer and Nabi White. Then we all finished with Dr. Kim and Jung Su Wons famous motto: “HE, CAN, DO! SHE CAN DO! WHY NOT ME!” Afterwards, the Demo Team had lunch with Pastor Chang and his team. He explained how much of an inspiration we were to the youth of the church. We told the pastor that we were grateful to be in that position, and that we were thankful for the pastor to share his time, his hospitality, and setting up these events for Dr. Tae Yun Kim and her team.

Once the team finished our meeting at the church, we were all left with an open schedule to enjoy the sites for the rest of the night. Fortunately, Itaewon had a festival going on, and we were able to enjoy the events with a live concert, many different street foods to enjoy, and souvenir shops where we could buy items for loved ones at home in America.

After all the fun and festivities, the Demo Team was ready to head back to the hotel to rest up for the upcoming events the next day!

Through all the hard work we put in our demonstrations, the team really feels like we are making a difference in the crowd and fulfilling our mission to help save lives. REMEMBER WHEN YOU'RE RUNNING INTO DIFFICULTIES, THIS IS WHAT YOURE GOING TO SAY!!!

HE CAN DO!

SHE CAN DO!

WHY NOT ME!!! JUNG SU!!

A.Z. Saigal

Day 3: Inspire to Save Lives! Second Lecture and Demo with Great Grandmaster Dr. Tae Yun Kim!

Hello everybody, this is Luke Amador from the Jung SuWon Demo Team! We are currently in Korea making an amazing difference under our One and Only Master, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim! As for today's blog post, I am going to be writing about our experience on Saturday, October 13th, 2012.

Every single day of my life is a very special day but after having the opportunity to come to Korea, with an incredible public figure like Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, I have to say I feel extremely fortunate for this opportunity. I value my life so much from this experience. Truly, this is all thanks to the energy and the work of Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim.

One thing I really want to emphasize about this past Saturday's event was the energy from those attending. We went to a huge church named Sarang Church translated as "Love" Church in English, which was within the boundaries of Seoul. I found out that people from Korea were driving many hours from different parts of the country just to come to the event and listen to Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim share her teachings and wisdom. The response from the crowd was absolutely amazing! They were all clearly engaged by Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim's speech. They responded with really loud applauses, "amen," "hallelujah," and continued to show their gratitude by personally thanking us afterwards.

One thing Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim really emphasized though was that this event and her teachings having nothing to do with preaching about the religion of Christianity that she believes in. It is about the "He Can Do, She Can Do, Why Not Me" spirit that has moved her throughout her life and has brought her to this day to save lives and touch people.

With the hundreds to a thousand or more people that attended, they instantly connected with Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim and what she taught! It was just amazing! The Demo Team also received an opportunity to do a martial demonstration and then share their stories about how they struggled, but succeeded through Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim's guidance. The response to this was also amazing!

I really wanted to do a great job. I did my best and applied what I had learned from Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim. I told my story clearly with spirit, conviction, and stated what I faced and overcame with the motto: "He Can Do, She Can Do, Why Not Me!" I really want to thank our Great Grandmaster for giving me this incredible opportunity to follow my dreams and represent her in saving lives!

This event and the other upcoming events as well are definitely going to be a memorable part of my life! I look forward to share these experiences with many, many people for the years to come. I hope you enjoyed reading this and have learned something! You will hear from me again soon! Thank You! Jung Su!

He Can Do, She Can Do, Why Not Me

Day 2: First Lecture and Demo with Dr. Tae Yun Kim!

Hi, this is Daniel Koh writing from Korea! Today we had our first demonstration performance in Korea and it was definitely a memorable experience for me. Thousands of people gathered to listen to Dr. Kim speak and it was a packed auditorium. I was full of excitement and anticipation.

First of all, I want to say I love Korea. I am a Korean myself, so I feel very connected with my ethnicity. I am proud of being a Korean-American.

However, one of the current social issues that Korea is facing is a high suicide rate. In fact, Korea has the highest suicidal rate in all of the world. The younger generation of Korea are suffering with feelings of depression, anxiety, stress, and pressure. Also, there is a lot of school and family issues as well, resulting in the high suicide rate.

For me, it saddens me when I hear the statistics, and I would love to do anything I can to help. Luckily, Dr. Tae Yun Kim has provided me with a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel with her to Korea and perform on her demonstration team. I am very grateful that I can perform and inspire others to achieve the goals and dreams in their lives.

Tonight was a very memorable night for me. There was a crowd of about 2,000 people and the crowd consisted of many diffferent ages. There were young students, young adults, and adults as well. They were all eager to listen to Dr. Kim speak. Prior to her lecture, she allowed us to perform. I had such a great time. There was a lot of practice and preparation involved prior to coming to Korea. Now, the time has come. We performed just like we practiced, with great transition and showing our can do spirit. Then Dr. Kim did her lecture. People were screaming and applauding throughout the whole night. I felt her can do spirit throughout the whole auditorium.

By the end of the event, I saw that the people were moved and inspired. That struck me very powerfully. Our mission coming to Korea was to inspire and motivate the youth, and tonight I felt like we achieved that. This is only the first of the different events and I am very excited for the upcoming events.

He Can Do, She Can Do, Why Not me!

Day 1: Arrival to Seoul, South Korea!

Hello, everyone! Jonathan Palmer here. It's about 5:00 AM here in Seoul, South Korea! We had a very exciting journey coming to this country!

Going to SFO, two of our JSW instructors were very kind to take a couple hours of their day to transport us to the airport. Thank you to Sabum-nim Karen Heart and Bu-Saubum-nim Alvin Sojourner!

After dropping us off and making our way to the terminal, we made it onto the plane without any problems or delays. Our designated seats were pretty close to each other too! The plane ride was scheduled to be a 12 hour flight, but it turned out to be 10 hours. Not sure what happened because most of us were alseep. :)

We finally arrived to Seoul, and the weather wasn't bad at all! It's like the weather in Fremont!

We were greeted not only by our team members (Chief Master Sarah and Veronica), but other people as well that were Great Grandmaster's fans and helping to coordinate the whole mission tour (Danny, Ailie, So Jung, Professor Oh, and many others).

To our surprise, we were given gifts of flowers and sweets for our arrival! You definitely wouldn't get this kind of greeting if we arrived on our own and were not part of Great Grandmaster's team.

A couple of hours later, Great Grandmaster and the rest of the team arrived, and wow there were a lot of people to greet her! Many people from different organizations, Korean press, and fans came for the chance to just see Great Grandmaster! Great Grandmaster was like a rock star, being mobbed and greeted left and right!

After the welcoming reception, we made our way to the vehicles that would be transporting us. The Demo Team and our other team were treated with a bus all to ourselves, while Great Grandmaster had a personal escort and car for herself! We departed from the airport and made our way to the heart of Seoul.

We came to our next stop at a restaurant in Itiwan for a authentic and modern style Korean dinner! Oh man, was the food good! :) We had a chicken dish, kimchi, sol-long tong (beef soup), etc. The food was amazing! Afterwards we concluded for the night and made our way to the hotel.

Overall, we had an amazing welcoming! For myself personally, I've heard the stories of Great Grandmaster's grand welcoming in Korea, but experiencing it first hand was even more amazing! I'm honored for the opportunity to be on this trip, and most of all, the treatment I received as Great Grandmaster's team member. I know this is just the beginning of our journey, but seeing the impact that Great Grandmaster has on the people here of this country blew my socks off!!

I have to conclude for now and begin getting ready for our day. I'll keep everyone posted of our adventure here in Korea! The next plan for our day is Great Grandmaster giving a lecture (and our first performance in this country) in front of 1,500 or more people! Until then, we will see you soon! :)

Jung Su!

- Jonathan Palmer

A view of Seoul, South Korea in the early morning from our hotel room!

Hello, South Korea!!

Ready to go to Korea! This is going to be an amazing trip! We'll keep you posted!

Jung Su!

- Jonathan Palmer