May 3, 2015 (Monday).

Gangwon Province, SK.

9:35AM.

We arrived at the large conference room of the Korean Tourism Organization (KTO) headquarters in Gangwon-do, a few kilometers away from the three-bedroom apartment that our team from KCC has been provided with, for our first general meeting with KTO and MBC. For the past few months, our team from KCC has been studying the materials provided by the Korean Tourism Organization that would give us a better picture of South Korea’s Tourism industry in order to prepare us for this huge project.

It has been four days since we set foot on the soils of the Land of the Morning Calm. We arrived on a Friday and have spent the weekend exploring Wonju, where we are currently staying, and Chuncheon, the capital of Gangwon province. Everything has been really exciting and surreal, and I know that the best things are still yet to come.

The chairman of KTO’s Overseas Promotions Division who identified himself as Kim Sang Hyun and is probably around in his early 50’s sat at the head of the table and greeted everyone. A total of 26 people composing of key individuals from the three involved companies have been put to be part of this special project. After everyone has introduced themselves, Mr. Shin Dae Youn, the middle-aged assistant chairman of the OP Division, then stood and showed us a powerpoint presentation of KTO’s project proposal which could still be subject to changes.

“So, as you all know, it is impossible to capture South Korea’s sights and culture in just a single video which is the main reason why we intend to do a series of short documentary films. We will be airing it in MBC and…” The assistant chairman paused and looked at our direction, “… in your country’s national TV.”

“The title for this short film series is ‘The Best of Korea’. We will be doing the filming in different cities and provinces, and capture the best that each province or city has to offer… you know… the people, their lifestyle, the sights, the attractions, the culture…”

Mr. Shin proceeded to the next slide and showed us the administrative divisions of South Korea. “South Korea is composed of one (1) special city which is our capital city, Seoul; one (1) special self-governing city, Sejong;  six (6) metropolitan cities – Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Ulsan; eight (8) provinces – Gyeonggi, Gangwon, North and South Chungcheong, North and South Jeolla, and North and South Gyeongsang; and finally one (1) special self-governing province, Jeju.”

“We will be visiting all these places. For now, we will be forming four teams with six members each, excluding Mr. Kim and I, to have an in-depth study of each place.” Mr. Shin motioned for one KTO officer to hand him a file for the list of teams and its members. Nikki was assigned to Team A (Seoul, Sejong, Busan, and Jeju) while I formed part of Team C (Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Ulsan). We went directly to our assigned teammates for a short introduction before we were given handbooks that thoroughly discuss the places being assigned to us. We were given a month to study and conceptualize everything, except for Team A who is scheduled to present their filming plans about Seoul by Friday and have everything ready by next week so we could start filming The Best of Seoul on the 18th, a Monday.

May 16, 2015 (Saturday).

Seoul City.

3:45PM.

Nikki and I went out for an afternoon coffee break at a Starbucks in Sangam-dong, around the Digital Media City where MBC’s headquarter is located. Nikki and the rest of Team A have been in Seoul the entire week for the filming preparations, while I and the other teams have just arrived in the capital city this morning to help in the last-minute preps before we could start filming on Monday.

“It’s been a really exhausting week, but you know that feeling that even though you lack sleep and are really tired, you’re still happy with what you’re doing?” Nikki smiled as she sipped her strawberry frap.

“I know. I’ve been meeting with my team the whole week for the filming plans in Incheon which is already scheduled by the second week of June, after the filming in Seoul, and I’ve never felt so excited about work that I don’t want this project to end.”

“We’re lucky.” Nikki asserted.

“So true.”

“Hey, what’s your plan for your birthday tomorrow?”

Right. It’s already my birthday tomorrow. Flashbacks from my previo