Project presentation

Woke up at about 7 to get some breakfast and walk (hike?) to lab. I heard quite a bit of English chatter last night. Seems a lot of foreigners stay in the dorms for the summer.

Breakfast in the dorm cafeteria. At least it's cheap, just 2,500 won ($2.10).

I sat through about 5 hours of presentations today. All in Korean. I did get to write everyone's name down and learn a bit about their work, but only if their project title was written in English. I cut out a lot of my usual presentation to make it simpler to understand, but I think even with my slower tempo it was difficult for the students to follow. I know all of them speak English, but most are too embarrassed to try and speak to me at this point. I'm making a point to talk to each of them and try to help with any writing related questions they have. Already met a guy who likes StarCraft and another who likes to lift. So far everyone I've met, including the professors, lists "drinking" as an interest. It should be a crazy time here, to be sure.

Some of the staff and faculty at dinner after a grueling presentation session.

The lab culture here is quite different from what I'm used to. It seems very laid back, and the professor-student relationship is very friendly. I've been treated to some good meals already and students are already offering up free lunches & dinners in the future. Another example of the hospitality here; during the break in presentations, one student came back with a bag of cold iced coffee cans for everyone, some 25 people. They also take a *lot* of smoke breaks. Coming and going during the day seems to be open, though to compensate most of the members stay at lab very late. My roommate didn't get back to the room until about 11 pm last night, and he plans to do the same tonight.

Yeah, buffet!

Some of the supplies I ordered have yet to arrive. I'll be writing my protocol and trying to finish up some work from UT HSC (both Texas and Tennessee) in the meantime.

First day at lab

Abby and I split a cab to get to Ewha Women’s University and Yonsei which are right next to each other. I checked into my dorm which is very reminiscent of my college freshman dormitory. Except that it’s a 20 minute walk to lab up and down some seriously steep hills.

I barely have room for my empty bags!

I spent the day at lab trying not to pass out and having my laptop configured for the dental department’s internet. The professor took me out for lunch. We had dolsat bibimbop, and I impressed them with my chopsticks skills. I guess because I look white and they figured I'd never used them before. I had a dinner of cold naeng myun with Sungmin before returning to my room to shower and unpack.

Lab members at lunch.

Just me and Professor Lee!

It’s settling in now, the work I’ll have to do while I’m here. I hope I can keep myself motivated with all the amazingly distracting things there are to do in this country.

Monk Visit

We were allowed to sleep in today before heading out to the Gyeongju National Museum. I was definitely glad for those extra hours of sleep after the previous evening’s discussion.

The museum was swarming with children. Most were wearing yellow vests for some sort of co-ed Red Cross club. Most of the artifacts were from the Silla dynasty.

A famous artifact from the museum. Maybe a woman's face?

Lots of Buddha statues.

We arrived at the Golgusa Templestay office to pick up our outfits and check in to our minimalist rooms. We were given a lesson in meditative sitting and bowing, then walked up to the Buddhist temple on the mountainside.

Eight abs? This guy's a champ.

Joe translates the monk's explanations for us.

Walking up a wet rocky mountainside was probably a poor idea.

That dude is picking his ear!

At the top.

The boys pose for their K-pop band album cover.

Upon returning, we had a simple dinner with no meat and a sign that asked not to waste any food. I grossly overestimated my hunger and was very embarrassed when I dropped off my tray. We had a Seonmudo lesson, a Korean martial art that was almost lost during the Japanese occupation, followed by a performance by the local monks. A professional photographer from the Korean Tourism Bureau was there, so maybe I’ll end up in a travel book someday.

Seonmudo pros.

In the evening, the monks dragged an internet cable across the training room and set up a projector so we could watch the Korea vs. Uruguay game. Not much will beat partying with monks. I never expected monks to be so patriotic and chill. Well, chill until Jisung missed a shot.

Projector in the training room. Sweet.

Return to civilization

All the missing out on sleep caught up with me. We were supposed to wake up at 5:30 AM for a ceremonial breakfast and meditation session, but Viktor, Casey, and I didn’t wake up until the others returned at 7:10 AM. Oops. I really wanted to check it out, but from the sound of things I didn’t miss much. We did make it to the tea ceremony where a monk answered questions with Joe Kim translating for us. Next was the 108 bows. It took about 40 minutes, and we did full bows, standing with your hands together at chest level, going down to your elbows and knees, touching your head to the floor, raising your palms up, then reversing the steps to stand up. I had a sheet in front of me with translations for what each of the bows represented and despite how sweaty I got, it was actually a very good experience. Buddhist meditation is to reflect on oneself. I couldn’t help but think about Michael and how he must have seen something like this during his trip to Korea to spark his interest in Buddhism. If I had to choose a religion, it would be this one. But not as a monk. I can’t go that long without meat.

Your building is missing a pagoda.

We returned to Seoul in time for dinner. A rest stop had Hobbaek, those fried dough patties filled with brown sugar. I bought some and let people try, and pretty soon another half dozen people ordered them. I’m glad I had some prior knowledge of tasty Korean foods!

Yum! Just like mom makes.

Our last meal together was at TGI Friday’s. A mundane choice, but a welcome one from the 24 hour vegetarian stint. Not that the monk meals were bad, I just got hungry in two hours instead of my usual four.

Even though Korea and America were knocked out of the World Cup, England and Germany were playing at 11 PM. I went to do some shopping after dinner then went to a pub to watch the game. We met a Korean there who spoke more German than English, and he talked with Casey in a near perfect German accent. That was weird. I spent most of the final evening of orientation on the roof of the Artnoveau City hotel. So, yet again, I forsake sleep for straight chillin’.

Gyeungju

We stayed around Gyeongju for Friday, visiting a nuclear power plant and a number of temples.

Tons of schoolchildren were at our hotel for Aquaworld.

The power plant would’ve interested Dad a lot. Unlike most plants, they use seawater for cooling and recycle as much of their resources as possible. Korea uses nuclear power to supply about 40% of the country’s electricity at a very high efficiency rate, or so they say. The promotional video they had was the most ridiculous yet, with [bad] hired actors and a storyline that could’ve been in an episode of 24. They tried to sell nuclear power as the salvation of mankind from global warming and as the logical progression of technology from the Silla dynasty, Korea’s last united Kingdom. I mean, I’m all about nuclear power, but they really wanted people to like it. Also, there was a video of an F-15 being rocketed into a sample of the outer wall of the facility. It disintegrated and the wall merely had a char mark. I love science.

The newest arm of the power plant under construction.

The city of Gyeongju is maintained as an historical location with the old style tiled roofs everywhere and lots of ancient structures around. Our first temple stop was Seokguram Grotto. No pictures were allowed inside the hut, but it had a giant and impressive statue of Buddha. The feeling of mysticism was broken by the glass wall a dozen feet in front of it and the guard eating a melon next to it. The hike up to it was nice, and I picked up some gifts for the family there.

The base of the shrine.

Outside the shrine.

Leaving the shrine, Viktor got another of his under-the-arm stealth shots off.

Next up was a temple, the Gyeongju Bulguksa, a sprawling city of shrines. Most of it had burned down at some point, but the remains were still quite interesting. Nothing like it in the States, and there was plenty of tradition to be learned. In one corner were small stacks of stones, meant to grant wishes when balanced atop one another. Pagodas with tigers guarding them, fish bells, goblin faces, and colorful Buddha shrines speckled the place.

The original Korean rockstars.

Look, stairs!

Everyone was trying to figure out what the hell...

...this guy was all about.

My wish? For you to be happy :)

Before heading home we visited a ceramics street. I picked up some handmade coffee mugs as gifts for 5,000 won each ($4.15). Dinner was bulgogi, and I spent my evening in a sauna with another guy from our group. Yes, I had to get naked to enter the bath. Yes, other naked old Asian men were there. Yes, they had a green tea hot tub. Will I do it again? We’ll see.

A totem for a store on the ceramics street.

North Korea had a football match against the Ivory Coast team, and I was hungry so we got some fried chicken and stayed up to watch the game. They got stomped, but we wondered what Korean’s attitude towards the People’s Republic of Korea was like. We guessed it was similar to ours, a mix of sympathy and pity for having to put up with such a backwards ruling government.

Of course the night wouldn’t be complete unless I stayed up past 4 AM again, so I kept the tradition rolling and talked religion and beliefs with Abby, Lindsay, and my roommate, Viktor until about that time. I’ll maintain that it was a worthwhile discussion. It was certainly a welcome throwback to my younger, more philosophical days in college.

East Coast Road Trip

On Wednesday, we went to Pohan to visit a steel mill and the Hyundai heavy manufacturing factory in Ulsan. Both were great tours where we saw raw steel stretched and milled into sheets and the dry docks for freighter construction, but we weren't allowed to take pictures.

A view of the Rose Garden bar from the roof of our hotel.

It seems that Korean history focuses on the lives of individual men rather than specific events. The founder of Hyundai, Assan, had his own memorial museum praising his family values, work ethic, humbleness, and patriotism. It felt overdone, but the old Korean tourists there seemed to love it. It became apparent from the tours that company pride and propaganda are regarded in a much different way than the States. Every company or institution we visited had an introductory movie about itself. They tended to make very broad and almost philosophical claims, like steel production and nature are meant to exist side-by-side. The companies do hold environmental concerns quite highly (there was an impressive amount of trees at the manufacturing plants and a lot of recycling going on), but many aspects of their advertising were jarring.

We had lunch at a vegetarian buffet restaurant, and I was full off just one plate! At all the other buffets I had been getting at least three plates of food before hitting the ice cream and coffee. We made some stops along our road trip by the Sea of Japan (known to Koreans as simply the East Sea) including a beach near the underground tomb of King Munmu, buried to become a dragon and protect the eastern shore from invasion.

Viktor does his camera pose.

And takes the shot.

We also visited a hill grave containing an unknown man, significant because the unmarked grave is for royalty and some of the statues have Caucasian features.

Viktor's picture of the hill grave.

We sat down to another traditional Korean meal, this time with 11 (!) courses. It was as amazing as it sounds. They all were tasty, but there were too many to put here so I’ve put them on the web album.

Enjoying the third to last course.

People were up for norae bang (karaoke) back at the hotel, so we got some beers and belted it out in our room. We went back to the Rose Garden on the lake and watched football over drinks before retiring for the evening.

Blogtime.

Farzad befriends the Russian children.

Karaoke time.

Ending the evening. Or morning, rather.

Korean style football cheering

The Korea game (chanted with their full name, day-han-min-gook or Republic of Korea) was a lot of fun. Easily the most entertaining sports event I’ve ever watched, with I would guess tens of thousands of people just on our street. Probably millions out across Seoul. We got a great sitting spot right as the police closed off the roads for us, then ate snacks and learned an awesome dance while we waited.

Waiting on the train for Samseong station.

Sunny gives his best thug pose.

Will and I show our K-pride. Sprinkled with a dash of inebriation.

Half the crew. Me, Viktor, Sunny, Joe, and Farad.
A half Korean, Russian, Indian, Caucasian, and Persian.

The crowd shortly before the sun comes up.

The streets lights went out shortly before the game ended, but it wasn't long before natural light reminded us of our folly. There were some tense moments when Nigeria blundered their shots, but Korea tied 2-2 and will advance to the next round. Obviously, everyone was excited about that, cheering and jumping and hugging one another. But the most amazing thing: as soon as people started leaving, they all picked up their trash and either threw it away or pushed it into piles in the street for easy cleaning. I wish I could be that impressed in the States, but I fear the environmental awareness and tendency towards frugality here will not influence the West in my lifetime.

Morning breaks, the game ends, the crowd cheers sleepily.

Yurianna and Joe.

Viktor leads us to the subway.

A trash pile! How nice.

For the game, we had left from the hotel at midnight. On the return, the police were very helpful in managing the subway crowd. We returned just in time to shower and get breakfast at 7:00 AM. I was super sleepy all day, but we got to take a nap on our way to the KSTAR facility in Daejeon (대전), a nuclear fusion research facility. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but they had a giant magnetic coil to create their fusion process. I wish I were awake enough to remember the details, but the facility was massive and clean. Reminded me of the Anomalous Materials laboratory in Black Mesa.

Next up was the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, where machines to fabricate machines and also LCD screens were developed. Only one picture was really interesting from that visit; the rest were of nerdy lathes, drills, and lithography tools.

Examples of their fabrication techniques.
The numbers are minutes of machine time.

After lunch we walked around town and tried our hand at essentially a crane machine. It was only really noticeable for it's 8.0 MP Love Web Cam and Sexy Beauties Lighter Lights. After four tries of failing to move the plunger vertically, we decided the machine was rigged.

500 won for a try, or about 50 cents.

We drove for about 3 hours to our resort in Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Korea. At a rest stop I enjoyed a fish-shaped ice cream bar with red bean paste. Very tasty. The city is kept authentically ancient except for the tourist resort where we're staying, and it's a beautiful part of the country with an artificial lake next to our hotel and walking/biking trails all around. We took it easy and had a steak with a great view of the mountains. We all stayed up late watching America play Slovenia at a nearby bar. We won 1-0, but it wasn't scored until the last minutes of injury time.

Sunny makes more friends. Russian this time.

Watching the football game over some beers.

I'm roomed with Viktor at this hotel, and getting to know the whole crew a lot better. I already know I'll be sad when we all have to split paths after the weekend.