Daily Log 3

Where was I?  Oh yes.

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Friday (6/4)

Early to lab, going through my printed research and looking at related articles cited in them, then my first real Korean class.  Class is a lot of dictation and repetition, but I can tell that it's working because the letters and words run through my mind as I fall asleep at night.

For dinner, Sara, Mike, and I went to the weekly KAIST International (KI) House social and an introductory Korean language tutoring session.  We all squeezed into one room to sign in and sign up and get name tags before being moved into a bigger space for dinner.  I had been warned ahead of time that Korean pizza can be strange, with random toppings and strange sauce substitutions like cheese whiz, but the pizza was actually pretty tame.  KI House served cheese pizza with perhaps some unusual spices in the crust and side dishes of fruit salad and rice cakes.  After dinner, the whole crowd moved outside for an unfamiliar game similar to musical chairs.  One of the tutors played a guitar and sang while we formed groups and did circular conga lines, then, when the song ended, he would call out a number and we would have to reform groups with that many people.  Anyone left out had to kneel in the center of the field.  The game made me comfortable with everyone, and I was settled in when we went back inside for tutoring.  Sara and I originally identified ourselves as beginner level Korean learners, but got kicked out of the beginner group for knowing the alphabet.  We ended up with our own tutor, who went over two of the Korean number systems with us.

After dinner and tutoring, a bunch of our KISS friends in attendance organized a group to go out into Daejeon, so Sara and I tagged along to a norabang, or karaoke place, for a couple of hours.

Even after karaoke, we went out to the international bar in Daejeon, the Santa Clause Bar.  I had the good fortune to team with the pool shark of our group in a friendly game of pool against a couple of guys from France.  With my partner's coaching and expertise, we won and I got just a tiny bit better at pool.  Then we called it quits and I was among the stragglers going back to the dorms for the night.

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Saturday (6/5)

I slept in, then started on my second adventure to Seoul for Sara and me to see the Korean musical Hong Gil Dong!  It started with some last minute scrambled planning with our Korean friends Bill and Yumi, but then catching the express bus with Sara and Liz went smoothly.  It is ridiculously easy to manage public transportation in Korea, and taxis are wonderfully inexpensive.  I feel so empowered by the simple ability to get where I want to go without being afraid of getting lost or feeling unsafe.  Anyway, we got to Seoul early and did some trinket shopping in the subway station before meeting Yumi.  We had no trouble meeting up and making our way to the National Museum of Korea (http://www.museum.go.kr/EngMain.do, if you want to learn more) where the musical was being performed.

The four of us had dinner in the Museum restaurant (my first fancy Korean meal- so much food!).  I had a pork rib soup/stew and successfully asked the waiter for more water in Korean (Mool chooseiyo.  Kamsamnida!) and Yumi was impressed.  It was a proud moment.

Sara and I split up from Liz and Yumi after dinner and made our way to the theater.  The performance was spectacular, even though we couldn't understand the language.  I thought the costumes were beautiful and elaborate, but in retrospect, they were most likely traditional historical outfits, as Hong Gil Dong is basically a Robin Hood legend based on real historical figures in Korea.  The musical had dancing, martial arts, and spectacular scores and vocalists.  Sara and I were so blown away that we hung around after the show.  On the way out, Sara did her friendly approaching-and-talking-to-strangers thing that I am too shy to do.  We ended up talking to one of the show's sound booth technicians who was delighted to hear that we were foreign fans of the musical.  He spoke enough English and we spoke enough Korean to introduce ourselves and have a short conversation.  He gave us his contact information and the go-ahead to talk with the show's director about the show possibly going to America.

We waited to talk to the director, and as we did, the cast came into the auditorium for a staff meeting.  It was exciting and nerve wracking to see the behind-the-scenes business, but we weren't really sure if we were supposed to be there.  In any case, the meeting was short, and we got to talk to the main female lead, Yoojin.  It was our luck again that she spoke fluent English and that she was so friendly and kind.  We got a couple of autographs from the cast as well as Yoojin's contact information and an offer to give us a 50% discount on tickets if we wanted to see the show again.

When the cast and crew left for the night, so did we.  We met up with Liz and Yumi who had gone shopping during the show, and decided to go home rather than try to find a bathhouse or hostel to sleep in.

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Sunday (6/6)

My first true down day of sleeping, eating, reading, and Korean homework.  Of course, that night was the beginning of my illness.  My fever started that night, but friends on the hall found medicine for me and I borrowed a thermometer from one of the KISS advisors upstairs.  My temperature wasn't too high, and the campus clinic is closed on weekends, so I stuck it out in bed.

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Monday (6/7)

My fever broke in the morning, but then the congestion and exhaustion set it.  I slept all day.

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Tuesday (6/8)

Still sick, but I felt better after sleeping in and eating lunch.  I made some headway on reading through my research and finally met Peter, who had arrived that Sunday.

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Wednesday (6/9)

Early to lab, lunch with lab friends.  Caught up on my Korean homework and went to class.  Class was difficult to get through because I was still exhausted and coughing, but the time went relatively quickly.  I went to bed soon after class.

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Thursday (6/10)

Back in lab early to make some headway on my research before going back to Seoul for our encore viewing of Hong Gil Dong.  Sara and I were lucky to make it to this showing, which was the last one with the cast that we loved.

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Friday (6/11)

I went to the clinic on this morning and was given a medical goodie bag with twice-daily pills, cough syrup, and cough drops.  Then back to bed.

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Saturday (6/12), and Sunday (6/13)

Still sleeping.  Lots of coughing.  I was sorry to miss the first World Cup game that Korea played on Saturday night, but I heard really cool things about the cheering all around Daejeon and Seoul.  

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Monday (6/14)

Back to the clinic for medicine specifically for my irritated tonsils, then back to work!  I made a good amount of headway on my research reading, homework, and blog before class.  Class was difficult because I didn't know the required vocabulary and so it took me longer to pick up on the sentence structures that we went over using that vocabulary.  Sara helped me through it, though, and after class we headed straight back to lab.  Dinner was uneventful in the undergraduate cafeteria, but I'm starting to see the patterns in the menu, and I am discouraged by the short cycle in the variety.  I think we will be exploring other food options on and near campus in the next couple of weeks.  

We went to the weekly presentations meeting in the lab, which was illuminating in that we got to see the presentation slides in English, but was less helpful in that the Korean students in the lab speak Korean to present and discuss.  In any case, I was very productive in that setting and stayed late to continue my catch-up marathon.