One week left and boy do I miss HOME

I thought I'd write a post, not about Korea and what I've been doing here, but instead what I miss from home and what I am looking forward to the most.

1. My family--

I was fortunate enough for Dad, Mom-mom, Pop-pop, and Matt to come visit me whilst in Australia but that was in April and it has been a couple of months since then, but I still miss all of you desperately. I cannot wait until my birthday party with the family, sitting around the Bucca de Bepo lazy susan looking around at everyone, taking in everything that I've missed in the past half year, all while enjoying some great italian food (so excited!) I haven't seen Mom since February 7 and I have to say, I miss you the most. But guess what, despite all of the worrying and paniking, I am one week away from home, and I am still in one piece, healthy, and happy. I am looking forward to the clam bake more then I can even describe. Besides all of the wonderful, home cooked food that is always present, I can't wait to spend time catching up with everyone, and even playing the aunnual game of baseball. Grammy and Pop-pop, I am so excited to see both of you. I can't even tell you how much I appreciate the hand written letters and emails (you have finally mastered the computer!) that I have received while away.

I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, relaxing and watching AMERICAN television, and seeing my family as much as possible before I leave for my next adventure, Argentina.

2. Friends-- Although I made plenty of friends in Australia, it has been really difficult being away from all of my friends at home. Our college years are winding down, and there isn't a lot of time left before everyone goes their seperate ways and it will be much more difficult to see each other. I missed an entire semester with my best friends/roommates/teammates at RPI but I intend on making up for lost time this fall. I can't wait to play RPI field hockey again after learning a thing or two in Australia. This is our senior season, last chance. Phoenixville friends, have been there for years and years. Unfortunately we chose schools far away from one another, but whenever we reunite at home, its like nothing has changed. I have no doubt that it will be the same upon my return.

3. Food--

Australia really did have great food, most of which was similar to the states. Korea on the other hand, also has good food, but nothing like the states. I like Korean food, but eating it every day is a little tough. There are certain things that I have not had since I left the states that I am absolutely dying for.

American Pizza- Australian pizza was decent, but it was small, and they don't have buffalo chicken topping. Korea only really has Dominos or something similar but it tastes a little bit different then American Domino' s and who likes Domino's anyway?

buffalo wings- don't exist in Australia...Football, wings, and pizza, can't wait.

Cheesesteaks- self explanatory

Hoagie- I haven't had a real sandwich with real meat in far too long. Wawa would be wonderful but I really crave a true hoagie from a local pizza place (like Sal's Pizza box..they make great ones, or Maselli's at RPI)

Ben and Jerry's Phish Food Ice Cream, DQ blizzard, Pertucchis milk shake, Snowman's, etc

Blueberry Pie- I never had it often at home, but when I did, it was amazing. Especially when Grammy makes it. Pie as we know it doesn't exist in Australia (or at least I didn't find any)

Funny Cake- I think I got used to one every so often compliments of Grammy and Poppop. Six months is far too long without funny cake.

Steak- I had steak in Australia, but meat is reserved for special occasions in Korea. I would love a nice, medium steak, or any meat in general would also be accepted.

Cheeseburgers- for some reason I had a hard time finding a really great cheeseburger in Australia, and in Korea they are non-existant unless I go to burger king, which isn't happening.

Zucchini Parmasean - my all-time summer favorite...no one makes it like Mom, since she made up the recipe...

Corn on the cob - my other all time summer favorite

Ritas water ice- yum.

There are probably plenty of other things, but those are the ones that came to mind first.

3. Miscellanous things

Phillies - I got really into them in the past couple of years and EPSN.com just doesn't cut it.

Football- Sunday games with pizza and wings are the best.

RPI field hockey- the girls, the game.

Sunday morning breakfast at the diner with Mike

Saturday nights running around freezing cold troy in heels trying to get to the next party.

Apple picking

My cats- even though they probably don't even know who I am anymore

Flavour cafe- my favorite study spot with my favorite study buddy (KATE!)

The Rensselaer Union

Dunkin Donuts- although I've learned that their iced coffee sucks compared to Australian iced coffee, I still miss it.

Arnold Palmers

Snow

King of Prussia mall

Browns and Panchos



I guess that about covers it...sorry got a little bit sentimental haha. Can't wait to come home!!!

Gyeong Ju (for the second time) and Busan

This past weekend was my second to last in Korea. I guess it is bittersweet that I will be leaving in just ten days, but definitely more sweet then bitter. I am finally starting to appreciate this country for what it is and might actually be having a little bit of fun!?!?!

Friday night was an international student trip to Gyeong Ju. Yes, I was there last weekend but this experience was a little bit different. First stop was traditional fan making. I'm not the most artsy person anymore but I definitely enjoyed getting in touch with my childhood roots, playing with paper and gluesticks. There was one instructor per three or four people who helped to show us the correct way of decorating the fans. The sample we had was of four flowers and leaves, all connected by a vine. The kicker though is that the designs were made of ripped paper, no scissors. I decided to use the sample as my inspiration just with color changes and five flowers instead of four. Let me tell you, making flower petals actually look like flower petals by ripping paper is easier said then done. Some were too small, large, round, square, never just right. My instructor didn't laugh at me too much, instead she offered her assistance (that is her in the picture holding my completed fan). In my personal opinion, my fan didn't turn out that badly. It might even be considered kind of good...good enough to give Mom as a gift? I completed the fan with my name written in Korean on the bottom and the date.

Next stop was a traditional Korean dinner. It wasn't my favorite meal I have had so far. Something about eating just rice, no meat, with some random things thrown in (most of which I can not accurately identify) is not a completely satisfying meal for me. Again we sat on the floor, but the atmosphere was nice and it feels great to be immersed in a culture so different from mine.

Our final stop was another temple (what Gyeong Ju is known for). This one was my favorite by far. Maybe it was the fact that it was night time and the lights beautifully illuminated the temples, but something about it was so peaceful. There was relaxing Korean music playing, people were very quiet, and it was easy to take in the sites and imagine what it would have been like hundreds of years ago when everything was in its original form.

Busan

Saturday morning, a Scottish guy named Callum, a Spanish guy named Enaut, and me, left Pohang for Busan, only an hour and a half bus ride away. Many more people were supposed to come but for various reasons couldn't at the last minute. No big deal though, we still had a great time. Getting to Pohang bus station wasn't too difficult and neither was finding the correct bus to get to Busan. Once in Busan, though, we sought to find the subway (first destination-beach). This task was fairly difficult in that every sign in the entire station was in Korean. Luckily we were able to find someone at an information kiosk who pointed us in the right direction. We made it successfully to the automated ticket machines, challenge number two. You could change the language to English, which was very lucky for us, but then it was a matter of figuring out what line we needed to take and what station we needed to get off at. We pointed on a map to our desired destination, and a nearby employee hit a couple of buttons, I put in the money, and out popped my ticket. The nice man showed us down the stairs to the subway tracks where we managed to get on the train going the right direction. We were sitting on the train for a few stops when I realized that the stop names were not corresponding with the map I had in my hands. Turns out, we were on a completely different line then we thought we were on because we started at a different station then we thought we did. That's what happens when everything is in Korean. To make a long story short we had to change trains twice before arriving at our destination...Haeundae Beach.

Haeundae Beach

Haeundae Beach is the largest beach in all of Korea at a whopping 2 km. I don't really think that is exceptionally large but I guess for Korean standards... We were greeted with the site of hundreds of various colored umbrellas and of course standard American food chains like Starbucks and TGIFridays. The western restaurants tend to be located near the extremely touristy sites. Apparently, Koreans are very conservative at the beach. Very few wear bathing suits and no one lays out in the sun...thus the umbrellas. The best though, is that they go in the ocean fully clothed. I'm talking jean shorts and a tee-shirt. Needless to say, when I refused an umbrella, spread my towel on the sand, and stripped down to a bikini, I got a few stares. I read in a guide book that a ton of westerners come to the beach and sport bathing suits so it was okay if I did. The two guys I was with don't enjoy relaxing on the beach (can't imagine why) so they went for a walk instead. As I was laying there, getting the only sun I have seen since end of summer in Australia, three Korean boys come up to me and ask if I would take a picture with them. Of course, I oblige, and as they are leaving, one of them says to me, "you are so beautiful". Clearly that is the reason they wanted the picture, not because I was on the only non-Korean on the beach or anything... Later he came over again and offered watermelon!

After a couple hours on the beach, and some serious sunburn later, we made our way into the city in an attempt to find our hostel. I had the address written down, but of course it made no sense to any of us. We found an information station with some employees who spoke English. They were able to tell us how to get in the general vicinity of our hostel which was great seeing as we had no idea which direction to head before that. After 45 minutes on a bus, we got off in front of a church (our landmark according to the information people) but didn't have a clue as to where our hostel was from there. We asked a lady on the street who managed to point us in the right direction. We walk into this complex of high rise buildings (Korea is full of these complexes due to the high population, small livable land ratio). The "building number" written on my address sheet was 106 so we wandered over to that building. We apparently looked confused (maybe because hostels usually aren't located in high rise buildings) because a woman walking into the same building beckoned us to follow her. She seemed to know why we were there. We got off at the 18th floor and knocked on an apartment door. There was a sign that said backpackers so we knew we were in the right place. The man who answered the door, directed us to an apartment on the 13th floor which had been converted into a small hostel that slept about twelve. The three of us had our own room which was composed of two sets of bunk beds and was exceptionally clean. We had a wonderful view, and I have to say that of all the hostels I've stayed in recent months, this is definitely one of my favorites.

Once showered and changed, we made our way towards downtown. First stop - fish market. I have been in fish markets before, but not quite like this one. Besides the very strong fish stench, there were skinned but still alive fish wriggling around, out of water, in bins. It seemed pretty inhumane to me. On top of the skinned fish, there were buckets of fish heads sitting around everywhere, and women were chopping their heads off right in the open as we walked by. There were types of fish and non-fish in tanks that I've never seen before...snails, grub looking things, huge crustaceans, etc. Each fish stand had a restaurant of sorts set up in the back where they served their own catch. Callum decided that we should eat in one of these places. Despite the smell and the feeling I had in my stomach, I agreed and we sat, traditionally, on the floor. The menu was in Korean so we pointed to what looked like sashimi (raw fish) and a few minutes later she brought a plate of it with various other Korean dishes. In Australia I had developed a taste for sushi, so sashimi was not much different. Just sushi without the rice, veggies, and seaweed. Just the raw fish. Dip it in soy sauce and wasabi and it is actually very tasty. Korean meals always come with soup, no exceptions, so of course when the woman placed a bowl of soup on our table, I investigated. There seemed to be a large mass of sorts in the soup, so I poked at it a little with a chopstick to help identify it. All of a sudden the mass flips over, and a fish eye is staring at me. Well needless to say, I didn't eat soup that night.

After our fish market experience we walked around the city for awhile. We manged to stumble upon an area with a ton of lights, stands selling food in the middle of the streets, western restaurants, bars, etc. It seemed to be one of the main entertainment areas in Busan. We wandered around there for awhile, stopping for some Baskin Robbins ice cream (!!!). Callum wanted to check out the Busan tower in the worst way so we made our way to the large white monument visible from most places in the city. Up a giant hill we went to the base of the tower. It was pretty with the lights of the city reflecting onto it and the view was great. Callum and Enaut decided to go to the top while I opted to wander around the bottom and check out the sites. This area seemed to be popular for couples and those looking for a quiet drink or ice cream. I sat on a bench overlooking the city when this feeling came over me. I realized that in that moment, I was so lonely, yet so happily inside of my own head. I was sitting there trying to listen to other peoples conversations as you often do when you are by yourself. Unfortunately, not one couple was speaking in English. So not only was I physically alone, I couldn't understand what anyone was saying either. This made me realize how truly out of my element I am in Korea. It is definitely a wonderful experience to step outside of your comfort zone and try to conquer a language you do not understand and communicate with people who do not understand you. However, in that moment, at the base of the Busan tower, I felt extremely lonely. Some people enjoy that feeling because you are so within your own head that it doesn't matter how physically alone you are. But for me, it was not a feeling that I enjoyed very much, I'd rather have someone there that I care about to share the moments with me. I respect those who can travel on their own for months at a time meeting people as they go along. I could do that for a period of time but eventually would long for the company of someone familiar.

After the Busan tower we stopped in a bar for a drink then made our way back to the hostel. It has been a long day as we left Pohang pretty early that morning. The next day, after meeting some of our fellow hostel stayers and enjoying a breakfast of toast and jam, we made our way back towards the bus station on the subway to head back to Pohang. On the way, we stopped at one of the most famous temples in Busan called Beomeosa. This was definitely the largest temple I have seen so far and it was really beautiful. It was an active temple in that there are monks that live there. Don't get me wrong, temples are amazing and I love seeing them, but once you've seen a couple, you've seen them all. They are very spiritual places for many Buddhist visitors, and I experienced a little bit of that, but I can understand how these places mean more to them then they do to me. Just as a visit to Washington DC or historic Philadelphia means a great deal to me, while foreign visitors just take it for what it is. After exploring the premises for awhile, Enaut and Callum decided to hike to the fortress walls which was about 30 minutes uphill. If had sneakers with me then I definitely would be up for the hike but I was wearing flip-flops and decided it wasn't best for me to try it anyway. I took the bus back down the mountain to the town center alone and when I arrived I needed to figure out which bus took me to Busan central bus terminal. I pointed on my map to where I needed to go to an employee and he politely showed me to the correct bus. Two bus rides and a cab ride later I was back in my dorm at POSTECH. I finally got to put my extensive Korean to use in the cab...Pohang coundee kitusa...or Pohang University Dormitories.

Back to lab this week...but next weekend is the Pohang light festival!

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It's been a week, I guess it's time for another update

So I've officially been in Korea for ten days and I go home in seventeen (can't wait). In that amount of time, I have managed to begin and complete a polymer chemistry course, but don't let the short amount of time fool you. We spent four hours per day on it...so all in all, I'd say I learned a fair bit of polymer chem, more then I ever wanted to know and more then I'll ever need to know. We had our final today and tomorrow's class officially marks the end. Dr. Ryu is heading back to the states tomorrow for a conference which we celebrated tonight with a little Korean Barbecue, but more on that later.

Gyeong ju

Yesterday, Charlie, Giwon (my grad student), Giwon's girlfriend, Hee-Sung (Charlie's grad student), and I took a bus to Gyeong ju, one of the most historical cities in Korea. Once in Gyeong ju, we boarded a tourist bus which would take us to five temples/tombs around the area that are of historical significance to Koreans.

It was a great day but the fact that our tour guide spoke only in Korean left me staring into space and wandering around a bit during her long informational talks. Luckily, Giwon and Hee-sung translated the important parts for us so at least we had a little bit of an idea of what was going on.

My personal favorite part of the day was lunch (shocker). We ate at this very traditional sea side restaurant where they served sushi (without the rolls or rice), mussels, snails, soup, fish, vegetables, rice, etc. We all sat on the floor and in Korean style, everything was shared and of course only chopsticks were used. In Australia I had become a huge fan of sushi, so the raw fish was right up my ally. We did have to watch out for small bones though. Giwon was sitting across from me and was politely guiding my way through the meal, explaining what various unidentifiable foods were and how to eat them properly. After lunch we wandered outside onto the beach where it appeared that somewhat of a celebration was going on. There were various families sitting on the beach enjoying their meals and candles were lit up and stuck in the sand. I found out that the body of water I was looking at was the East Sea of the Atlantic ocean. Just off the coast there was a land mass which appeared to be made of mostly rock. Apparently this was another tomb to an ancient king.

After lunch, we had two more stops (check out facebook for more pictures of the tour). The second of which was a temple which was situated at the top of a mountain/hill (not sure which). Luckily, our bus could drive most of the way up, but the last little bit was ours to climb. It wasn't so bad until we reached the rocky, rope lined pathway that apparently they did not do a whole lot of work on to make it easily accessible by tourists. This probably had something to do with the fact that it was a highly religious area. On our assent, it started to rain a little, and me being the brilliant person I am, decided to wear flip-flips. I held on for dear life but successfully made it up and back down without any accidents. At the top, there was a small temple in which a monk was actively praying. Upon our return to the bottom, we ran into a rather old, but very cute dog. Giwon informed me that he was a monk dog. If your thinking, what is a monk dog, don't' worry because I thought the same thing. Giwon explained that he has been trained to climb up to the temple every morning to pray, and then come back down again. I had two problems with this. The first was...if I had trouble getting up there without falling off, how does a dog do it without injury? The second....I didn't know dogs could pray. Learn a new thing every day I guess.

After the final temple, the bus headed back towards Gyeong ju where we boarded yet another bus to return to Pohang. Once back at POSTECH I settled in with my Polymer chem notes for the night. Joy.

Korean Men

After spending an entire day with Giwon and his girlfriend I decided that I needed to write a little blurb in here about Korean men. Over the course of the day, I witnessed Giwon, holding an umbrella over her with his other arm around her just to be sure she isn't getting wet. I saw him hold her bag on numerous occasions, let her sleep on his shoulder on the bus, open every door they walked through for her, and constantly hold her hand, among numerous other things. On the bus ride back to Pohang, I asked him if he is just especially polite and considerate or if all Korean men treat their significant others in that way. He responded by telling me that it was all Korean men. Okay, no offence to American guys, but I don't think I've ever had a guy treat me in that way. Not saying that I would want my boyfriend to hold my umbrella for me, but still. There is clearly a respect for women in this country that does not exist in the United States. Chivalry has long gone in the states, but not so in this country. So all men who are reading this, next time your girlfriend walks through a door, open it for her, or if she asks you to hold her bag for a minute, just do it, without the 'aw come on' look.

Korean Barbecue

Tonight, in honor of Dr. Ryu's departure from Korea tomorrow, Charlie, Dr. Ryu, Dr. Jung, and I went out for Korean Barbecue. This is a style of Korean cuisine where they essentially put a barbecue in the middle of your table and you cook your own sliced beef. Along with the meat, they give you dipping sauces, soup, shredded onions (I think), mushrooms, garlic, sliced octopus (so yummy), and salad. I am probably missing a few things, but you get the picture. The beef was some of the best meat I have ever tasted. Apparently it is from the ribs of a Korean cow which is rare so you have to preorder it so that they have enough when you arrive.

In traditional Korean restaurants, you sit on the floor. Not on a nice pillow that makes your butt comfortable, but on a very thin straw mat. I have come to learn that Koreans are much more flexible then I am. Every day, while walking to lab, I pass these Korean women who are pulling weeds in such uncomfortable looking positions, that I know I couldn't hold for longer then three minutes. They are like that all day and it doesn't seem to phase them. Well, it seems as though this flexibility is necessary at the dinner table as well. While I was changing my position to Indian style, to legs bent to one side, then to the other side, then back to Indian style the entire meal, our Korean professors seemed perfectly comfortable the entire time! I also always wondered how all Korean people could be so thin. I have a new theory after dinner tonight. Because your body is contorted in such ways in order to sit comfortably at dinner, your body can't digest as quickly. Your stomach and intestines must be all jumbled up inside as opposed to how they are when you are sitting in a chair. Due to this jumbling, you can't eat as much, thus you are thinner. Maybe I'll have to start eating all my meals on the ground...

That is all for now! Everyone see Harry Potter this week...I know I am!

Oh, and requests for the clam bake...blueberry pie. I got a really odd craving for it today!

I now have a new understanding of what monsoon season means

Disclaimer: I'm sorry about the font color chaos. I tried to fix it but the website wont let me.
Its raining. A lot. I've never seen so much rain fall from the sky in one day. This isn't like periodic heavy rain, I'm talking non-stop down pouring. And the bad news is...it isn't supposed to stop until Friday! One of the first things my professor asked me when he picked me up from the airport was if I had an umbrella. I did, of course, and he told me he asked because it is monsoon season right now. I didn't think much of it until I woke up this morning to a waterfall outside my window. I've never been in a country where they have a particular season named after heavy rain and I didn't fully understand the term until today. Let me put this into perspective...I walk out of my dorm this morning with my little red sharper image umbrella ㅑ ㅏㄷ데 ㅡ뭄햐ㅜㅎ 새 초뭏ㄷ ㅡㅛ 래ㅜㅅ 새 ㅏㅐㄱㄷ무 뭉 ㅑ 애ㅜ 사ㅜㅐㅈ ㅙㅈ 새 ㅎㄷㅅ ㅑㅅ ㅠㅁ차. That was me accidentally changing my language to Korean, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get back to English. Anyway..my little red umbrella has served me pretty well at home and in Australia, keeping me as dry as could be. In South Korea's version of rain...not so much. It kept my head and shoulders dry, but my bag, pants, feet, etc...absolutely soaked. After the ten minute walk to our classroom I probably could have rung out my pants. I dried out for the most part over the two hour lecture only to walk back out into the rain and get just as wet all over again. To top things off, I decided to wear flip-flops seeing as that is the only footwear I have that can afford to get wet and will dry quickly. Flip-flops have zero traction and the paths around campus are made of some kind of exceptionally slippery stone. Needless to say, I nearly fell on my ass on numerous occasions and the day isn't even over yet. Luckily, Koreans are too polite to laugh.

Swine Flu

I have come to learn that Koreans are absolutely paranoid about swine flu. Upon entering the country, the first stop was quarantine where they take your temperature to make sure you don't have it. I mean what if someone just had a cold and as a result had a fever? Would they quarantine them in the airport for days or just ship them back to where they came from?

I thought my airport temperature check was the end of it, but I was wrong. Yesterday, Charlie and I had to meet with the international department to fill out paperwork and some other jazz. The representative told us to visit the health center this week to make sure we don't have the "New Flu". So today, we paid a little visit to the health center where we had our temperatures checked once again. Easy right? Not. The nurse informed us that we had to come back for three subsequent days to have our temperatures taken and if we have no fever after those three days, we are deemed clear of swine flu. Maybe its just me, but doesn't that seem like overkill? I feel fine, I look fine, and if I feel sick, I will come right on into the infirmary so they can take my temperature as many times as they want.

New take on Korean food

Yesterday Dr. Ryu and Dr. Jung took Charlie and I out to lunch after our lab briefing to a really nice Korean restaurant. This was my first experience with real Korean food, not the crap they serve in the cafeteria. We had our own private room with a door and everything and for an hour straight they continued to bring dish after dish of tasty Korean food. We had everything including soup, prawns, sushi, beef, chicken, rice cakes, and potatoes in one meal! Granted, their portions are very small and each course is smaller then the average American appetizer, but everything tasted great. Since this was a traditional Korean restaurant, there were no forks or knives in site, only metal chopsticks. Over the past couple of days I have been trying to use chopsticks as often as I can just in case something like this would ever happen. I have gotten pretty decent at it for almost anything type of food but I still have some trouble with rice. Also, I never really understood how you use chopsticks to cut things. It turns out that Asian meat is usually served in bite sized pieces and the only foods you will ever need to cut are potato pancakes, rice cakes, and other relatively soft things. Dr. Ryu taught us the correct method which involves using a spoon and one chopstick. After this meal, I had a completely different opinion of Korean food. It is actually great if it is cooked well and the ingredients are fresh. I guess I can't judge an entire countries cuisine from one lousy cafeteria.

I'm a biologist, not a chemical engineer

Yesterday morning begun my Polymer chemistry class and research. My class schedule is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday lecture 9-11 AM (but it began two weeks ago so we are a little behind). The class is composed of Charlie and me, along with 14 Koreans. The lecture is given in English which is great for us but not so great for the Koreans who clearly don't speak it very well. How well do you think they understand what Dr. Ryu is saying when they can't even formulate questions in English, they have to ask in Korean? Dr. Ryu is making each of them give a 15 minute presentation on the material in ENGLISH! And for some reason, Charlie and I don't have to do it, nor do we have to write the paper, and he is giving us a different exam on Monday because we haven't had most of the material! Dr. Ryu is leaving for a conference in North Carolina at the end of next week so we only have three more lectures! He said he wants us to focus on our research so that we can get published. I'm getting three credits for this plus my four research credits...not a bad deal if you ask me.

After class we had our lab briefing. One of the graduate students (the one who I will be working with) gave a presentation on the projects that we will be working on. I don't want to go into a lot of detail but basically it involves finding the ideal polymer matrix for capillary electrophoresis of single stranded DNA conformational polymorphisms. The lab is part of the chemical engineering department so needless to say, I am not familiar with many of the techniques that are used. Luckily I'm a fast learner and have lab experience so it shouldn't be that bad.

Later in the afternoon, after lunch, Dr. Ryu had a private polymer chem sesh with Charlie and I to help catch us up with the class. It is great to have the one on one time because we have the opportunity to ask questions and he goes at our pace, not his own. I am actually understanding the material fairly well so far. We had another one of these sessions today and have another planned for Thursday and Friday. Hopefully we will be caught up by the end of the week.

Today I actually begun lab work with my graduate student who's name is Gi won. He is pretty much the head honcho of the lab and seems to take his work way too seriously. I guess that is a good thing when it comes to research but I think it might be a little too much when you spend literally 14 hours per day (I wish I was joking) in lab. The first step in our experiment (over two days) was UV spectroscopy which involves a lot of pipetting. UV spec and pippetting happen to be two techniques that I have extensive experience with. Despite this fact, Gi won insisted on checking every single thing that I did from making sure there were no bubbles in the cuvette to checking the pipette setting after I adjusted it. Does he really think that Dr. Ryu would recruit an absoulte idiot to stick into a lab like this one? I'm a pretty good sport so I joked with him about it, but hopefully he will learn to trust me soon, or this could be a very long four weeks.

I'm officially homesick

Korean word of the day - hello - An nyoung ha seh yo

It's only taken me two and a half days in Korea to become homesick. I was in Australia for over four months and not once did I long to go home. Maybe it was the fact that in Australia I was constantly busy, I lived in a real city, they speak English, the food is normal, and and made some great friends. In Korea I am living in a dorm on a campus in Pohang, South Korea which isn't exactly one of the main cities. They do have a downtown, but it is nothing like Melbourne, the city I have become so accustomed to. So not only is there not a lot to do, but when you look around and realize that you are the one who is different and everyone is looking at you, you feel isolated and lonely. It is nice to have someone that I know from home here, but when it comes down to it, it wouldn't matter if he was here or not.

The AIR CONDITIONING just turned on. For the first time since I've been here!!! Korea is more humid then PA and pretty hot too. One of those places where if you walk 100 feet outside you are already sweating.

Anyways....

Charlie arrived late Friday night. We agreed to meet the next morning at ten for breakfast because I could have sworn that breakfast was from 9-11. Well it turns out that I was wrong because we show up in the cafeteria only to get shooed away by a small Korean woman. The only other place to find anything remotely breakfasty was in the campus convenience store. They had a pretty wide variety of pastry looking things but the only one I actually recognized was a muffin. I went with that, some bananas, and OJ. As we are talking over breakfast, Charlie informs me that they don't eat normal breakfast food. They eat fish, rice, and other random things. So we decided to go to the grocery store later that day to find some food that will sustain us for breakfast for awhile.

Next on the agenda was a trip to the gym. I have a feeling I am going to be spending a lot of time there over the next couple of weeks seeing as there is so little to do here and the gym is state of the art. They even have a beautiful turf field (luckily I have my hockey stick and an MUHC stolen hockey ball), racketball courts, tennis courts, ping-pong, an indoor track, and a basketball court.

My first trip downtown

I've been in Korea for two and a half days now and have managed to expand my vocabulary to three words or phrases, hello, thank you, and university. Hello and thank you are important for obvious reasons, but university is vital if you are anywhere off of campus and are trying to get back. For example, yesterday Charlie, his roommate named Awesome (that not how you spell it but it is how its pronounced), and I went into town to the grocery store to get some basic food like bread, peanut butter, and fruit. They do have a bus system but we decided to take a cab because split between the three of us it was actually cheaper then the bus. Charlie was able to convey our destination to the cabby (E-mart...pretty simple) and off we went into the most crowded grocery store I've ever seen. Now this grocery store was normal with the exception that they had samples of food everywhere. If you are starving and don't have money to eat, go into the grocery store, grab a sample of everything, and it will probably be as filling as an average meal. Granted, I didn't know what most of the samples were, but we tasted the safe ones. As soon as we entered, I headed straight for the fruit because no matter what country you're in, bananas look like bananas, apples look like apples, etc. After a lap around the store, I ended up with bananas, plums, apples, peanut butter, jam, bread, and granola bars. These are pretty much the only items that I could accurately identify that did not need to be refrigerated. Clearly, I plan on eating fruit and PB & J for breakfast for the next few weeks.

Paying for the food was an experience. The cashier (who didn't speak a word of English) rang up my items and then grabbed a plastic bag and started waving it at me. I was looking at her like, lady why are you waving a bag in my face. But then I realized she was asking me if I wanted a bag or not. No why would I want a bag, I only have six items to carry in my arms.... yes I want a bag and she hands it to me. So there I was trying to come up with the nearly 30,000 won to pay for my items. I figured it out eventually, she gave me my change and I take my bag and start filling it with my food. I am later told that they charge for bags in Korea. So you better either bring your own or you will have some serious trouble getting all of your groceries home after a big shopping trip.

We exit the grocery store and start walking down the street. This is where I realized how truly different we look and how obviously we stand out in this country. We are standing on the corner waiting to cross the street and these young girls (not even ten years old), walk right up to us and say hello. We say hello, how are you, back to them. And they respond with, I'm fine. Next, the girl says "I'm hungry" and starts rubbing her stomach. I realized then that these kids spotted the white people, assumed we were English speaking, and decided to practice their English on us, whatever random phrases they may have been taught. Then I felt really dumb because these young kids know more English then I know Korean...

This is where university in Korean comes in. We hail a cab and Charlie says Pohang University (but in Korean) so that the cabbie knows where to take us. Apparently if you say POSTECH, they take you somewhere completely different, even though that is what the University is called. I will definitely not forget that word, or else I might end up in Bumblefu** Korea and who knows if I'd ever made it back again.

Dinner was better last night. I still couldn't tell you what I was eating, but it was better then the night before. Less spicy items, and nothing that tasted like old fish. I guess it is going to be hit or miss with the meals, but that is okay, Korean food really isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Last night, Professor Jung took the majority of his lab members to the movies to see Transformers. Luckily, the movie was in English but subtitled in Korean. I think that would really bother me if every movie that came out in the states was in another language and subtitled in English. It would get annoying after awhile, right? The movie theater was state of the art, but located on the seventh floor of a building. This seems really stupid to me because other then climbing 7 flights of stairs, the only way to get up there was to take the elevator. But a zillion other people are trying to take the elevator too, so it was a very slow process. Coming down after the movie was even worse.

Class and lab both start tomorrow so stay tuned!

I really wish I knew more then .5 words in Korean.

Before I begin, a shout out goes to Anika for giving me this idea. I should have done it for my family and friends when I was in Australia but never got around to making one. I figure this is an easier way for everyone to keep up to date with my Korean experiences compared with mass emails.

That being said, on to Korean craziness day number 1. Yesterday afternoon I departed for Melbourne airport only to arrive at check-in and have them tell me that the total combined weight of both my bags was nearly 30 kilos overweight (A 20 kilo limit and mine were about 50 kilos total). Now let me explain that when flying into and out of the United States, they have a per piece weight limit of either 50 or 70 pounds (23 or 30 kilos give or take). So flying over to Australia wasn't an issue. I even mailed a box home, sent some clothes home with my grandparents, and Matt when they came to visit so that I wouldn't have this problem. Well, on wonderful Thai airways there is a 20 kilo limit for all bags combined. At $24 AUD per kilo over, I was looking at something near $460 to get my freaking bags to Korea. Thank god Alex was at the check in with me because through his sweet talking the lady behind the desk, I was able to put some clothes in my purse to carry on, and overstuff one of my bags to 28 kilos and she would only charge me for the weight of the other bag, which after moving a lot of stuff around came out to around15 kilos. This saved me $100 bucks. Slightly relieved (but still pissed I had to pay that much money to get my bags over there, reason number one why the United States is the best country in the world), we walked over to the entrance to the customs area.

I never realized how hard it would be to say goodbye to all of the friends that I have made over the last couple of months, because I don't know for sure when I will see any of them again. Some tears were shed by all parties (spaced out through the previous couple of days), but I eventually made it through the gate to customs. With red puffy eyes, I said goodbye to Melbourne and the life I knew there.

My nine hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand was at 4:05 PM. Thai Airways, despite their dumb baggage policies was actually a pretty nice airline. In my experience so far, I have learned that only do US airlines charge you for drinks and food, while most other international airlines (Qantas, Thai, etc) feed you every few hours for free. You get on the plane and they give you nuts, three minutes later they come by with drinks (any kind of alcohol you want), another half hour goes by and in comes dinner number one (yes, number one of two). You are even given a choice of lamb or chicken and as far as airplane meals go, it wasn't that bad. In between hot towels, you are served more drinks, coffee, tea, etc. Oh I forgot to mention that this flight was EMPTY. I literally had the entire row to myself to sprawl out and sleep which was pretty awesome. Unfortunately there were no personal televisions so we all had to suffer with their poor poor movie selection of Dragonball-Z or whatever it is, some Julia Roberts movie (the only one I watched) and Monsters vs. Aliens. Luckily I had my laptop with me and it had just enough battery left to watch Dirty Dancing, my all time favorite. After a two movies and some sleep they served dinner number 2...garlic prawns. Again, not bad for an airline.

So finally we get to Bangkok which is three hours behind Melbourne, so it felt like it was around 2:00 AM to me. Bangkok airport is a lot bigger then I thought it would be. I get off the plane, and spot a departures board to check my gate number. Figures it isn't up there, so I go to the information desk to find out. Here begins hand gesture/non-English speaking experience number one. I try to explain that my gate isn't listed, but naturally, she didn't understand and told me to go check the departures board (which I already did). Finally after a lot of pointing and the lady conferring with the other chick behind the desk, they tell me that it is B4. They point me in the right direction and off I go. After walking for what seemed like half a mile, I made it to the security checkpoint before the B terminal. I didn't really understand this because I was already in the International terminal and there were tons of other gates that were accessible without having to go through security so I wasn't sure why only those traveling through the B gates needed to be re screened. Anyway, I got through the checkpoint and made it to the terminal. Now this is where I officially get my "your not in English world anymore" welcome. I was literally one of two non-Asians on the entire couple hundred person flight. Of course since I was the one who looked different, everyone seemed very interested in staring at me, probably trying to figure out why the hell I was going to Korea (at this point I was asking myself the same thing). We board the plane, which was smaller and older then my first flight and a lot more crowded. I was sitting very snugly next to this pretty big guy. Luckily I was able to sleep most of the flight (in between feedings of course).

So I arrive in Busan, South Korea after a 6 hour flight at 7:15 AM. Before you get off the plane they make you fill out three forms, customs, quarantine, and something else I'm not sure of (maybe declarations?). Well on each of the three forms it asked for my Korean address. I only knew that I was going to be staying at POSTECH university. So it began at the quarantine stop where they took your temperature (paranoid) and took form number 1 from you. Of course they questioned me on the fact that I didn't know the address but I tried to explain the best I could and they let me through. Second was customs, again I got questioned about the lack of address, and after a five minute conversation of me trying to explain why I was in Korea and how I can take an entire class in one month, she let me through too.

Finally I met up with Dr. Ryu (RPI professor) and Dr. Jung (POSTECH professor) who were there to pick me up and take me to POSTECH. Apparently I got special service because it is a 1.5 hour drive from the airport and they usually make students take the bus. On the way we stopped for coffee which was more like US coffee then Australia coffee (I am going to miss their coffee so much). We eventually made it to the university where I was shown the classroom where my lecture will be given as well as a short tour of the lab I will be working in. I met a bunch of the graduate students in the lab that I will be working with but here lies my first problem. They all have Korean names so I can't remember them for the life of me. I was thinking of giving them nicknames, but I don't know if they would like that so much. Getting used to this lab should be interesting seeing as I am doing experiments and using equipment that I have absolutely no experience with. On the bright side though, the lab is in the midst of some big work so there is a good chance Charlie and I could get published.

Next, I was shown my dormitory. I am on the fourth floor which is all female, and there is no elevator. This isn't a big deal except for we had to carry my enormous bags up all four flights. I carried the lighter one and Dr. Ryu opted to carry the heavier one. He was struggling a little but we made it. I got to my room where I met my roommate. She happens to be American (from NY) but I'm pretty sure her parents are Korean because she speaks fluently. Its a relatively small room with a hall bathroom but its alright for the month I will be here. A member of Dr. Jung's lab showed me the cafeteria and student center with the primary objective of finding an ATM. I had no Korean won on me and felt like it was a priority to get some. The first two ATMs we came to did not take international cards but the next two did (thank goodness). The exchange is somewhere around 1 USD to 1200 Korean won. Kind of weird if you ask me. Their bills are in 1000, 5000, 10000, and 50000 denominations. I made my way back to the dorm where I spent the afternoon unpacking and emailing. I'd kind of been living on the pack of Tim-tams I bought before boarding the plane in Melbourne (couldn't leave the country without them), because I was too afraid to go figure out the food situation (I've never had Korean before). I brought sheets for my bed with me but did not have a pillow. After first going to the housing office to ask them where to borrow one, they sent me to laundry. I found laundry and asked the lady for a pillow. Naturally, she didn't speak one word of English. So there I am doing the sleeping charade so that she might have an idea of what I am looking for. She walks back into some room and lo and behold comes out with a pillow AND a blanket. I was pretty stoked about the pillow success so I decided to go back to my room and reward myself with a nap because I felt like I hadn't actually slept in a very long time. Two hours later, I wake up and realize, I'm starving. I decided to brave the elements and find some food. I walk down to the Cafeteria that Gina (Dr. Jung's grad student- I remember her name because we have it in America!) showed me earlier in the day. I walk in and there is this glass case with three different meals in it. Two were 2000 and one was 4000 won. This is the equivalent of less then 2 and 4 dollars which is dirt cheap for food in my opinion. The descriptions were all in Korean of course so I chose the one that looked the most appetizing (letter B meal). Next to the case there were these machines that people were putting money into a receiving a ticket back. I figured that is where you bought your meal and the ticket is how you redeemed your food. I walk up to the machine, and guess what, it is all in Korean! So i stand there looking like a freakin idiot because I don't know which option to push. I ask this guy next to me for help but he didn't understand me really. I ended up just guessing and pushing a button, sticking in my 2000 won and taking my ticket. I walk into the cafeteria where there are three windows, one for meal A, B, and C. I thought I pushed B but I wasn't completely sure and the ticket was in Korean so that didn't help me. I walked up to window B and put my ticket in the little box. The lady is motioning to me to take something but I had no idea what she was talking about. Thirty seconds later I realized she wanted me to take a tray and then grab all the miscellaneous food items on the counter. Unfortunately the silverware was composed of a spoon and chopsticks. For those of you who know me well, you know I can't use chopsticks no matter how hard I try. I desperately looked around for a fork and luckily I found one. Thank you POSTECH for considering your non-Korean students. On my tray was some kind of clear soup with something that looked like seaweed in it, a bowl of steamed rice, some tuna looking thing, a cabbage dish with what appeared to be tomato sauce on it, and a vegetable noodle something or other. I went to find a seat, and begin investigating my food. I start with the soup. It tasted something like really old fish. In otherwords, I didn't eat it. Next I tried the tuna concocktion. That actually tasted like tuna to my suprise, so I ate it. Next was the cabbage tomato sauce thing which turns out wasn't tomato sauce. I actully couldnt tell you what it was because it was so spicy that it burned all of my tastebuds. I'm not a huge fan of spicy food so this was difficult to handle and I didn't have water, so I used rice as a substitute. Next was the vegetable noodle thing. They weren't noodles as it turns out, I think it was more of a vegetable like legumes or something. It wasn't too bad but didn't have a whole lot of taste. Needless to say, I ate my bowl of rice with some soy sauce and I have a feeling that is going to become a serious staple in my diet during the next 28 days. I will continue to try the crazy food that they give me but will be much more careful of spiciness...lesson learned. After I was done eating, we had to return the trays. This seems like a pretty simple concept but of course the directions on where to put what was in Korean. So I stood there again, like an idiot, until I could watch someone else put their tray away.

On my way back to the dorm I stopped at teh campus store to purchase some shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Seems simple right?? NOT. The shampoo was easy but turns out in Korea, conditioner is called rinse. It took me a minute or two to realize that they were the same thing. Lastly, I sought out to find body wash. I found a dove bottle labeled body wash so I went with that. Well, this body wash bottle was coupled in a little package with another smaller bottle that said light moisture lotion. I needed lotion too so this seemed perfect. I paid and went back to my dorm where I decided to test out my lotion. Here another lesson was learned....in Korea, light moisture lotion actually means SOAP, and body wash means SOAP, so I ended up with two bottles of SOAP. Of course, I am expecting lotion to come out of the bottle labeled light moisture lotion, so when I start rubbing it into my hands, it is just smearing around and getting all sticky and soap like. Somewhat of an annoying experience, but live and learn.

That is when I decided that this blog had to be written and that if today is any indication of my experiences to come, it will make for somewhat of an interesting read.

Enjoy!