After a great day at the conference a new day and new challenges started for me.
The first challenge was meeting Prof. Nam Chihyung with Jean-Yves Papazoglou (a meeting setup in Gwangju by Seunghyun Lee for Jean-Yves and me) and Chi-Min Oh discussing the option of having the 2nd International Conference on Go Studies “Go in the Era of AI” in Toulouse.
Food seems to have a positiv influence when planning events like this for an EGC.
In the end an agreement was made to work out all details and plan this conference when needed the space at the venue can be made available.

After the meeting with prof. Nam Chihyung, on our way to TYGEM, we stopped for a coffee to meet mr. Chaiwoo Choi in the Samsung building.

After a small waiting-period in a relaxroom we met mr. Chaiwoo Choi in a lovely coffeebar on the same floor in the Samsungbuilding.

After a coffeebreak and a good conversations about friends and the promotion of Baduk, we (Chi-Min Oh, Jean-Yves Papazoglou and me) left for a small walk to TYGEM.

The meeting with TYGEM was excellent and beneficial for all parties.
After Jean-Yves showed us a presentation of the EGC in Toulouse and the benefits of sponsoring the EGC in 2024, TYGEM showed us the latest version of their mobile app.
And for the second time (first was at a meeting in Leipzig) I was enthusiastic about what was shown.

After the presentations we talked not just about sponsoring and partnerships, also an exchange over the love for Baduk was part of the discussion. And so another meeting ended where strangers started and friends parted.

And so 3 friends started a new walk this time to visit the Dojang of MetaBaduk.

Once more the discusion started with Toulouse and the EGC2024 being the centre of attention.
The interesting part this time was not sponsorship, all was about having approximately 40 children from the dojang visiting the EGC2024. After we could clear most challenges and answer all questions as far as possible at the moment of the meeting, the leisure part of the meeting started, just as mr. Chaiwoo Choi entered the Dojang.

And so a constructive day ended, with 3 good meetings, new friends and new challenges.
Leaving the Dojang Mr. Chaiwoo Choi and me parted from Jean-Yves and Chi-Min.

Time to visit the Namsam tower. By car we travelled to the tower and we used the time to talk about Baduk and also exchanged personal stories.

Traveling up the mountain by cable car and than a walk in the area around Tower Namsan was once more a perfect way to exchange ideas and increase the fever called "love for Baduk".

This perfect day ended with an even more perfect dinner and additional exchanges of ideas and dreams, how to promote Baduk, Go and Weiqi in Europe.

Another day over, time to pack, sleep and move to BiBa.
Planned was to move early to BiBa and on short notice (Diana would like to sleep longer :D) the plan changed into a Korean breakfast and a walk in the mountains with mr. Chaiwoo Choi.



After a good walk and talk, the time to move to BiBa had arrived.
Another day over... Time to rest and sleep.
In BiBa resting and sleeping or playing Baduk are 2 competitive activities :D

Waking up in the morning getting a coffee is a good way to start a day.
And than learning that the planned meeting has been postponed by a couple of hours was also good news, as now i did not need to fight my way to TYGEM via public transport and was able to relax and wait for "TAXI Blacky" to arrive and bring all of us to the center of the city.

Being dropped of in the city, i was able to find my way to TYGEM, apart from the last 10 meters.
Me being so busy to find as many marking points as possible during the last few days got lost in my own pictures created in my mind to find TYGEM.
Just to find out i was drinking a coffee, waiting for Mr. Jang Hoon Hong to pick me up, just one door away from the building I needed to be :D

The meeting itself was splendid, an exchange of ideas, dreams and projects was made based on a list I made. When one meets people with the same thoughts and enthousiasm to spread Go, a meeting is so much more effective that in the end we could agree upon keeping up the good work started here and work out part of the ideas to get a more efficient start for the future both for TYGEM aswell as the European Go Community. After the meeting mr. Chaiwoo Choi picked me up and we went to a goclub nearby where I played a few games.

Afterwards I went to visit the dojang of Cho Hye-yeon 9p (PBA) with mr. Chaiwoo Choi.
This visit ended in a good dinner aswell.



The new and last day of my time in Korea sleeping longer and having a relaxed start of day with coffee and than moving to KBA.
In the KBA building a big meeting was set for the professionals. Arriving in the KBA building walking up I met many well known faces Cho Hye-yeon 9p and Chun Poong Jho 9p to name just a few I personally know.

Arriving at he meeting hall, looking inside to see over 200 professional Badukplayers sitting in one room waiting for the meeting to start and before realising I could have made some pictures, the doors were closed.
Time for a lunch has arrived and with the complete group we picked up Cho Hye-yeon Mr. Chaiwoo Choi and went for a lunch nearby, after lunch we went to a dojang where many young players where trained and a match between the European BiBa Team and these kids was organised.
One the Michael Tal from Israel said I can not lose against those youngsters, they are not strong enough yet :D. You all may guess how many games Micheal Tal won :D.



The planned sightseeing tour with Cho Hye-yeon on the last day was canceled eventhough takeoff for my plane was close to midnight. Due to the schedules and meetings and the traveling time to the Airport we decided to save the sightseeing tour for my next visit to Seoul.

Returning home satisisfied and happy for a productive week meeting old and new friends and specially leaving with good options to create a stronger bound between Europe and Korea as far as Baduk is concerned. And a new idea was planted in my mind just before I left Seoul.