Always about the health

Today was the first of three sambok, days set by the lunar calendar to indicate the beginning, middle, and end of the summer. Koreans eat a certain meal for stamina, called samygetang. To give you the stamina to last the hot season, they eat this white chicken soup where a whole chicken is stuffed and boiled. It wasn't bad, but somewhat bland. The bones of the chicken were so tender I ended up eating more marrow than I realized. Only the larger long bones and spinal sections were too tough to accidentally chew.

Chicken ginseng stew.

The bones I was fortunate enough *not* to eat.

Hello, labmates.

I went to the gym in the basement of my building (in the parking garage, actually) and paid 30,000 won ($25) for a one month membership. It's great! The place is small but cool, clean, and quiet. The equipment is fairly new, and they provide a clean shirt, running shorts, and towels for everyone. All I need to bring is shoes and I can exercise, shower, and leave with only my socks getting sweaty. The hours are a bit odd; noon to 2pm and 5pm to 9pm, but the price certainly makes it worth it. I'll definitely be trying to come here 3-4 times a week for the duration of my stay. Several of my labmates go there regularly, another good motivating factor.

Um, I don't have pictures of the gym. But this was tasty!

My final chemical came in a day early. I'm a little bummed out because I was hoping to go do some shopping today at Hongdae, another university just one stop away. I'll have to wait until after Wednesday I think, once I've finished my presentation on scaffold fabrication. For now, I should run my assay and see if I can figure out how it works.

My assay! Too bad it's not working as expected yet :(