Photo Journal 6

This is a picture of my screen when I sit down to write a blog post, and it is significant to me because I have spent a significant amount of time looking at it.  As any reader could surmise, I have had my difficulties in keeping up with my ambitious mission for this blog (the thoroughly thorough documentation of my time in Korea).  My program director tells me that almost none of the students that he has sent to Korea has kept up with the weekly blog; firstly, this means that I am in good company, and secondly that there is most likely something about blogging itself that leads to shirking and procrastination.  I have spent a lot of time musing about the act of blogging when I couldn't bring myself to actually write.

Blogging is a strange creature.  It exists along a fine line between private journal and public account.  In any writing, there are the constraints of time and space and language, and so you must necessarily choose only a few topics from the infinite supply of life experience.  In blogging, as in private journaling, you choose subjects that are significant to you in order to be genuine, but blogging differs in that you have to choose and address topics with a wide audience in mind, not just the self.  Thus the blog is not entirely candid, not entirely censored, but rather the best of the self, that which you want to share.

Of course, without feedback from readers, especially academic feedback, it is easy to lose the audience and write for and to oneself- that is, to fall too far to one side of the line.  On the other hand, getting too caught up in the anonymous general audience that is the internet puts you too far on the other side of the line, inciting anxiety and creating confusion about which voice to use or which subjects to address.  In my mind, this tenuous balance of walking the line creates a unique self-consciousness when writing a blog.

Essentially, a blog is a publication that represents you both in substance and in style.  It is writing that is both by you and about you.  At least for me, this means that I want to be in the right mindset and in the best state to produce my best work, and it is extremely challenging to find this mood with enough time and resources to sit down and blog in the midst of the busy, disorienting, and exciting setting of life on KAIST's campus.

Without practice, comfort with the medium of blogging, and dedication, it is easy for the assigned weekly post to give way to procrastination or anxiety.

Photo Journal 5

This photo is actually from our third week at Hubo Lab, but it has been a while since I took pictures in a weekly meeting.  I want to write about this picture now because I made huge progress on my research this week, and it has made me think about my academic life here.

I was thrilled when Dr. Jun Ho Oh introduced me to Cheol Son as a mentor/partner in the lab as someone who could both use my area of expertise (psychology) and help me to apply it to robotics.  It turned out to be perfect that he had just begun a project aimed at creating personality in robots by programming them to react with specific emotions in different situations (for example, a crowd of ten people versus only two).  He explained that he needs more research to support the more subjectively known characteristics of body movement specific to each emotion that he wants to express in the robot.  My research paper, therefore, is most like a body language key; I combined and distilled a lot of prior research on the subject until I had the most quantitative, specific, and supported description of each emotional expression written up in a table.

When I had completed that request with Cheol, he created a simulation program through MATLAB and let me simulate the emotions myself.  It was rewarding and challenging work, and I really value what I feel is a collaborative relationship of mutual respect with Cheol.  In fact, I feel like all of the students in the lab and especially Dr. Jun Ho Oh were welcoming and willing to help whenever I needed materials or an answer to a question.  Sara, Liz, Peter, and I were given a separate room (formerly a storage room) with a large desk and its own AC unit to work in, but we were given access to all other working areas of the lab and to the weekly meetings where students present their work progress.

Of course I felt like an outsider, being a Western undergraduate woman in a lab of all academically elite Korean males, but I was treated as a valued member of the lab.  The real barrier between myself and the students of the Lab was language.  Although they spoke a good amount of English, which, luckily for me, is the current language of academia in Korea, it was sometimes very difficult to ask questions of Cheol without creating misunderstandings.  Weekly meetings were also alienating because the members of Lab presented in Korean; however, the slides were in English, which allowed us to follow at least the subject and objective of each presentation, and, if my topic of research is worth anything, also gave us context for the body language and tone of voice cues that we could still read.

Photo Journal 4

This is a picture of the sign for the National Folk Museum of Korea, as you can most likely make out for yourself, attached to the Gyeongbokgyong Palace in Seoul.  It is a standard sign, but I took note of it for the three languages written on it.  I love this picture for the font of the Korean text, but to a Korean friend of mine, "it's boring."  In some sense, I'm still a foreign outsider in this country, wide-eyed at the novelty and mystery of the language and customs here, but I do also feel some familiarity with Korean now.

I started learning Hangul about a month before I flew to Korea, so the language started out as something of my own rather than something purely academic that I would be graded on.  I think that set the stage for my fondness for the language, but really it was Korean itself that has gotten me so interested in it.  Walking through Seoul, I can recognize the cadence of Korean and I can read emotion and inflection in people's voices, even if I can't understand exactly what they're saying.  I feel like I have some grasp at the pronunciation of Korean letters; when I say something simple to someone, like "hello, how much does this cost?" in a shop, they don't hesitate to say a stream of Korean to me.  So it must sound like I know what I'm doing.  And I've mastered the essentials, like "hello," "thank you," "goodbye," and some question words.  It's a powerful feeling, to be able to have an entire (simple) conversation in the language- to have some taste of fluency.

Beyond that, I've never felt that Korean was particularly difficult.  And maybe that thinking is the reason that it never has been.  Of course, the elegance of the alphabet makes a huge difference.  I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be able to read the language, even if I don't know what the words mean.  Of course there is always a thrill when the Korean word is the same as the English word.  I've had such a great time making the language my own, even if ends up being a small taste of actual classroom learning, including the vocabulary and grammar structures that I haven't been able to pick up in real world interactions.

Weekly Report 6

1. What did you learn about Korea this week?

This picture is from our trip to Gyeongju last week, but I didn't learn the significance of the pig until this week.  This week, after flying back to Seoul from Jeju Island, Yee Ling, Sara, Mike, and I shopped in Myong-dong for a while.  This time, I noticed all of the pig keychains and charms everywhere.  There were actually keychains for every animal in the zodiak, but the golden pig especially.  I asked around, and learned that Koreans put a lot of stock in the Chinese zodiak.  The year of the golden pig is especially lucky, and parents even plan to have their children in that year in the hopes that the children will have lucky lives.  There is also some belief in reading blood types like horoscopes; they believe that some blood types will be better paired with some blood types than others.  It is common in Korea to ask someone for their blood type.

2. Summarize your project status.

This week, I collaborated with Sara, Liz, and Peter to gather photos, videos, and ideas on content for our 3 minute video.  We split up the work by topic and made plans for combining our work later.  I then started drafting my culminating report on the program.  I also packed and said my goodbyes to everyone in the lab and at KAIST.

3. Take photos and select one to be the photo of the week.  Describe it and why you shot and selected it.

This shop is the convenience store on every street corner all over Korea.  I chose it for my photo of the week because, over my time here, this has become a familiar and dear sight to me.  I'm surprised at how much South Korea has come to feel like home.  Despite the language barrier, I have come to feel like less of an outsider, to feel like I belong to some extent.  I know my way around KAIST, Daejeon, and Seoul, and that makes them feel like they are my own.  

4. What did you learn about yourself this week?

I learned that I enjoy speed and danger and the accompanying rush of adrenaline.  Sara, Mike, and I rented ATVs on an island off of Jeju and had a hell of a time tearing around along the coast.  I've never had the chance to do something like that before, and I really loved it.

5. Who are the new people (Koreans not affiliated with the Hubo Lab) that you met this week?

Our last day in Jeju was a bit rainy, but we were determined to find a waterfall, so we caught a taxi and had him drive us out to a remote one on our tourist map.  On our way off of the site, though, we realized just how remote it was.  There was a mile walk back on a dirt road just to get to a paved one.  And then it started to rain harder.  We made our way to a parking lot (also dirt) and found someone in his car.  He came out and asked us where our umbrellas were (in broken English).  When we shrugged, he pulled umbrellas out of his trunk and gave them to us, then offered us a ride.  While we drove, we chatted and our new friend told us that he had an American friend who had been in Korea to teach, but had gone back home.  He said he missed his friend, and that's why he offered to drive us.  We talked more about his life (he was born and raised on Jeju Island) and said our thankful goodbyes at our next stop.  I will miss that kind of kindness and sense of community when I leave Korea.

Weekly Report 5

1. What did you learn about Korea this week?

This week's weekend adventure was a trip to Gyeongju arranged by the KISS program at KAIST. We (a small group of KISS students and a student mentor of the program) had the luxury of our own tour guide, van, and van driver to take us around and teach us about a bunch of the historical sites in this historical city. I learned that, of 307 national treasures in South Korea, 36 of which are located in Gyeongju. One of these treasures, and one of our stops on the Gyongju tour, was Cheomseongdae (meaning 'star gazing platform' in Korean), an astronomical observatory built under Queen Seondeok of the Silla dynasty when Gyeongju was the capital of South Korea.

Another stop, the Bulguksa temple, houses seven national treasures:

Dabotap (Many Treasure Pagoda),

Seokgatap (Sakyamuni Pagoda),

Yeonhwagyo (Lotus Flower Bridge) and Chilbogyo (Seven Treasures Bridge),

Cheongungyo (Blue Cloud Bridge) and Baegungyo (White Cloud Bridge),

and two Bhudda statues that we were not allowed to photograph. It was awesome to see monumental pieces of Korea's history in their actual ancient architectural setting, rather than preserved within a museum as some treasures were.

2. Summarize your project status.

This week I finished my robot simulations for the emotions sadness, anger, and disgust.  I also wrote up the research behind my decisions in the process.  Here is a sample. the simulation and write-up for Anger:

Anger

            I began with the forward transfer of weight (de Meijer, 1989; Coulson, 2004) and a backwards tilt of the upper body in order to create the angular posture of anger (Coulson 2004).  I chose many intermediate positions both directly and indirectly forward to simulate the aggressive movement characteristic of this emotion.  The inclusion of both direct and indirect movements reflects de Meijer’s inconclusive findings on directed movement in anger (1989).  I included an upward head tilt to create the jutting chin characteristic of anger (Coulson 2004).  I chose the fastest time step (1) to make the motions as fast and strong as possible (de Meijer 1989).

3. Take photos and select one to be the photo of the week.  Describe it and why you shot and selected it.

This is a picture of drinks that I collected from the campus convenience store, campus vending machines, and the cafeteria.  I took the picture because I wanted to capture at least some of the awesome variety available to the thirsty student.  The canned drinks range from oaky teas to soda to coconut juice drinks with chunks of coconut in it.  I love how vending machines here are so reasonably priced, but at first I was put off by the drink can size.  It may be hard to tell from the picture, but the cans are a bit taller than those in the US, but much slimmer.  As I came to realize, Koreans are smart about their food.  They don't drink water during meals because that dilutes the stomach acid and impedes digestion.  They treat soda as a dessert.  And they have very reasonable portions for their food.  After a while, I realized that I was getting just as much drink as I needed and no more.  The same went for meal portions, which were also shockingly small to me at first, but that I found to be more filling than I expected.

4. What did you learn about yourself this week?

While in Korea, I've been treated as an honored guest both in the lab and as an American foreigner in this country.  I've been stared at, I've been told that I'm pretty for my height and my blue eyes, and I've been approached with interest more than I ever was in the States.  It is a lot of positive attention.  This week, I've been tempted to dye my hair blonde to achieve the trifecta of desirable foreign features, but I realized that I wouldn't want to get attention that way.  It is one thing to be appreciated for what I am, but I believe it is something else to go after that attention, to change myself for it.  I learned that I wouldn't want to do the latter.

5. Who are the new people (Koreans not affiliated with the Hubo Lab) that you met this week?

Our Gyeongju trip included an overnight stay in a traditional Korean guesthouse, with sliding paper panels for doors, mats on the floor for beds, and a gracious host living with her family in the next house over.  Our host also served us breakfast on picnic tables between the two houses, which is where I met this young girl.  I asked her for her name (in Korean, thanks to my language class at KAIST!), but I couldn't understand her speech.  I spoke to her a bit more in Korean, which I could tell that she understood, but she didn't answer.  She scooted over right up to me on the bench and watched me eat.  It was sweet.

She is pouting in this picture because her mother (our host) was demanding that she go inside and leave us alone.  She whined and refused and dragged her feet but eventually did as she was told.  It was funny to see, because I knew the gestures and the script from so many similar interactions in the States.  I could make out a few of the words, such as 'Ande!' (which means 'Stop it!'), and JB translated the rest.  "She's being stubborn," he narrated.  Little kids really are the same the whole world over.

Weekly Report 4

1. What did you learn about Korea this week?

This past Saturday, Sara and I stayed with her family friend, Sonia, in Dongnimmun, Seoul.  Sonia also had a close friend of the family, a doctorate and scholar on Korean religion, staying for the weekend.  We four walked up a neighboring hill/mountain (something in between) to a Bhuddist temple.  The doctor gave us some history on religion; I learned that 90% of Bhuddists in Korea belong to the Jogye Order.  The temple we visited belonged to a small order that branched from Jogye because the monks married there.  At one point, the King visited the temple and was shocked and disturbed by the Bhuddist children running around the temple as a result of the marriages and demanded that something be done.  The only thing to do was to split from the larger order.  The only different thing about the temple we visited was that it does not have residences, again because of the marriages.  Monks instead live outside of the temple with their families.

2. Summarize your project status.

I have a new project plan!  It is an ever-evolving creature.

Lauren Neudorfer Plan, as of 6/25/2010

---------------------

The Psychology of Humanoid Robotics: Robotic Body Language

Week 1

   Research project conception with advisory on campus

   Write a proposal and plan

Week 2

   Orientation at Drexel

   Meet Jaemi Hubo, and Drexel Team

   Research Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in order to

   understand the key issues therein

Week 3

   First week at KAIST

   Meet KAIST Team

   Gather research materials

Week 4

   Read research materials

Week 5

   Write up literature review

Week 6

   Learn to use MatLab robot simulation program

   Begin work to simulate the six universal emotions: happiness,   
   anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, and fear by collaborating 
   with Sara

Week 7

   Finish my simulations

   Do simulation write-ups

Week 8

   Last week at KAIST
   Work wrap-up

   Summary write-up

   3 minute video

Week 9

   Project debrief with advisory back in US

   Presentation

Week 10

   Project debrief with Drexel

 So, this week, I made myself familiar with Cheol's simulation program and began simulating three emotions: sadness, anger, and disgust.  Sara chose fear, surprise, and happiness; we consulted each other intermittently.

3. Take photos and select one to be the photo of the week.  Describe it and why you shot and selected it.

This is a picture of one of my random picks from the campus snackshop.  It is a bag of cuttlefish-flavored chips; as Sara put it, the thing smelled "like a lizard or a pet shop."  The taste was strong and offputting, but slightly sweet.  After half of the bag, I got used to the smell and enjoyed the rest.  I chose this picture because I'm proud of how much I've tried during my travels.  I have always heard that traveling is a skill, but I'm learning that a big part of it is being comfortable just outside of your comfort zone.

4. What did you learn about yourself this week?

Staying with my American family friend living in Korea opened my eyes to the possibility of living anywhere in the world.  I think it's funny how so many people grow up and stay close to home when the world is so small and connected these days.  I learned that I'm interested in living in a different country at some point in my life; I seriously started thinking about teaching in South Korea for a year after this week.

5. Who are the new people (Koreans not affiliated with the Hubo Lab) that you met this week?

On our way back to Daejeon, Sara and I shared a taxi with a businessman.  He spoke more English than we realized, so we exhausted our knowledge of Korean conversation before turning to broken English conversation.  I brought out my Korean vocabulary flash cards at one point and he found them funny; he quizzed us on the words, which was such a bizarre and wonderful way to learn them.  I am always surprised how easy it is to get into fun and genuinely friendly conversation with people here, despite the obvious and sometimes crippling language barrier.

Weekly Report 3

1. What did you learn about Korea this week?

I have learned of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, whose statue I saw outside of City Hall in Seoul.  He is famous and beloved in Korea for staving off Japanese invasion for seven years.  He never lost a battle.  

2. Summarize your project status.

This week, I wrote up my research report, or literature review, on emotions attributed to specific body motions in order to create emotional expressions in the mobile platform robot in KAIST lab.  

3. Take photos and select one to be the photo of the week. Describe it and why you shot and selected it.

 This is a picture of the Gyeonghoe-ru Pavillion in Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul.  I went sightseeing with Liz, Peter, Sara, and Danielle this past Saturday, and it was simply awesome.  I felt like such a tourist, but I was awed by every perspective of the palace grounds.  I must have taken about 200 pictures, but I chose this one for my photo of the week because it has not only the architecture that I find so fun and colorful, but also the nature that gave the palace such a serene feel and the mountains that gave a backdrop to the whole scene.  The first thing I ever heard about Seoul was that it is set in one giant valley ringed by mountains, so it was exciting to really be there and see the mountains surrounding us at a distance.

4. What did you learn about yourself this week?

I learned that I really love sightseeing, but only when I do it for myself.  I have gone sightseeing with family on vacations before and ended up miserable and hating the experience, but now I believe that that was because I wasn't discovering things for myself.  I enjoyed just being in the place when I visited Gyeongbok Palace, and that was possible because I went (more or less) at my own pace and for my own benefit.  

5. Who are the new people (Koreans not affiliated with the Hubo Lab) that you met this week?

When I went shopping at Myeong-dong market in Seoul (also on Saturday), I spent a long time at one of the wallet displays.  A Korean man came over and started talking to me in English, but I switched to Korean to introduce myself.  He kindly stuck to elementary Korean, and I was able to understand and answer a few of his questions about myself.  It was my longest conversation in Korean with a citizen, and I'll admit that I was proud of myself.

Photo Journal 3

This sweet little building is Mr. Kim's Friends Guest House, a hostel in Seoul where travelers "come as a guest, leave as a friend."  It's true- the staff and guests were the nicest and warmest group of people I've met in a long time.  The hostel itself was great, but Saturday was an awful night for me.

These pictures are not my own- they're from the hostel's website; on Saturday night, I went out with Peter, Liz, Danielle, Danielle's friend Loanne (I don't know how it's spelled), and a couple of her guy friends visiting from Singapore.  I took nothing but my money and ID so that I wouldn't have to worry about losing anything; this ended up being a terrible decision, in part because I didn't have a camera with me to document the night.  We went out drinking (Soju is deadly), then to dinner (meat and cheese is delicious always), and finally (at about 2am), we went to a club where foreigners get in for free.  I enjoyed the club for about three minutes, then decided it wasn't for me.  

Peter did what he could to make sure I knew my way back to the hostel, and I was pretty confident that I understood.  I was just really ready to get out of there.  I was fine getting from the club to Hongik Station (the first landmark on my route to the hostel), despite not knowing where the club even was.  It involved asking several strangers and a couple of taxi drivers for directions ("Hongik University Station odi-iitsoyo?"-  "Where is Hongik University Station?")  From the station, I followed Peter's directions within a block of the hostel- but then I just could not find it.

For a while, I retraced my steps and tried to think of anywhere along my short route I might have strayed.  It was 2:30 in the morning at this point, and the area was very quiet.  I started asking people if they knew of the hostel ("Mr. Kims Friends Guest House arrayo?") so that I could ask for directions, but no one did.  And passersby were becoming fewer and farther between.  Seoul becomes less and less bilingual at night.

Finally, I wandered through a nearby hostel (hotel-style with an elevator and bleak white hallways) until I heard English or found the check-in room.  I ended up waking and getting directions from Ann of Anne's Guest House at three in the morning.  Mercifully, she spoke English.  With a printed map, I had no trouble getting to my hostel a few blocks away, where I gathered my things, curled up in a bunk bed, and slept in.

That night shook me up.  For the first time, I was alone in Korea.  I had no phone, no directions, and no adaptive knowledge of Korean language.  For the first time, I felt far from home.  

I don't think I ever felt unsafe, but I did panic a little.  It seems silly and tame to look back on it now; I was unprepared, exhausted, overstimulated from the night, and lost just across the street from my hostel.  But without the security blanket of another English speaker or my electronic device, I felt completely in that moment, as scary as it was.  

Next time, I'll make sure I'm prepared for inner city adventures, no matter who is leading the expedition. But maybe I can go without quite so many safety nets in the future.

Photo Journal 2

This is my view of Myeong-dong market in Seoul, taken from a third-floor shop window.  It's exactly what I had hoped to find and experience when I imagined my trip to Korea not too many weeks ago.  It is almost bizarre to come to a foreign country and actually have my expectations met.  Of course, Seoul isn't quite as crowded as it was made out to be, and the customs aren't as different as I thought they would be (or at least not around me.  I can only see how people choose to act around a foreigner).

Anyway, when I was packing for this trip and imagining what it would be like, I'll admit, I had a very romanticized idea of travel.  I've heard about all the great writers being inspired by Parisian fountains or Grecian ruins, and some part of me anticipated that kind of artistic inspiration.  And drastic change within myself as a result of being in a completely different place.  But what I have found instead is even less time to reflect in solitude here than at home for a summer.  I think the Greats had such transformations as a result of complete immersion in a new place with no communication with home.

It's obvious that technology in the world today makes cutting all ties impractical, and damn near impossible.  If I was taking this trip only for me, I would forego the blog in favor of my leather-bound journal, and try out paper mail for a while.  It's hard to be completely in a new place when I'm so thoroughly grounded in my support system at home.  Of course, there are advantages.  I'm never in danger of losing myself, and I'm never homesick.  I have the world at my fingertips as long as I have internet.

Then of course there is globalization.  While I love the security of falling back on English in this practically bilingual country, it doesn't feel like a complete language immersion.  People recognize my home state when I tell them where I'm from, and they know more about American politics than I do.  It means that I don't feel like I'm away from my world at home- the world is so much smaller than I imagined.

I'm sorry not to have the life-shifting, self-reforming adventure that I had romanticized, but I can't say I've been too willing to give up my language or internet connections either.

Daily Log 4

Tuesday (6/15)

Workworkworkworkwork.  In lab all day.  We also got to see a few of the graduate students work on a point-light display recording for one of the quadruped robots.  I was thrilled to see the setup because I have seen a few recordings in my psychology classes focused on body movements involved in behavior and recognition.  We also got to see the autonomous mobile platform in action with a foam head attached, and everyone agreed that it had a lot of personality.  That was inspiring, because my research is meant to define the specifics of body language in order to construct specific personalities for the mobile platform robot.

~*~

Wednesday (6/16)

A lot of time spent on blogging and Korean homework before class, then class where we learned how to ask where things and people are (which is going to be very useful as we start traveling further from our relative familiar surroundings in Daejeon) and how to read numbers like addresses and telephone numbers, then out to dinner with Dr. Oh and the rest of his American guests to a Korean style Japanese restaurant with Professor Dong-Soo Kwon of the HRI (Human-Robot Interaction, if you recall) Research Center.  Dinner was fantastic, complete with soju, a wide range of raw fish, live octopus tentacles, whole anchovies, sea urchin, and bottom crawlers.  

Of course, after dinner came the entertainment; we all walked down the stairs and into the back of the building for more norabang!  I love Korea.  

Weekly Report 2

1. What did you learn about Korea this week?

I learned that Korea is one of the few countries that can name the inventor of its language.  The Korean alphabet, Hangeul, was invented by King Sejong the Great and his scholars in 1443 in order to improve literacy in Korea.  

According to my Korean language reference book, "Hangeul consists of 40 letters, of which 21 letters are vowels and 19 letters consonants.  The vowels of Hangeul were developed according to Confucianism's three basic components of the universe: Heaven, Earth, and Man.  ㅇ, ㅡ, and ㅣ represent the circular shape of the heaven, the earth, and man, respectively.  The consonants of Hangeul were designed to reflect the place and manner of articulation.  For example, 'ㄴ' represents the shape of the tongue body when it is pronounced.  For these reasons, Hangeul is widely acclaimed by linguists as an ingenious invention."

Learning this was an epiphany for me.  It explained why ㄴ, the n consonant, and ㄱ, the k consonant, are represented with those symbols and why they are the inverse of each other.

2. Summarize your project status.

Being sick was a setback, so I am about a week behind in my Research Plan.  I did get a few articles printed and read the week of 6/7-6/13, but I won't have a written consolidated report for Choel until the end of this work week, 6/14-6/18.

3. Take photos and select one to be the photo of the week. Describe it and why you shot and selected it.

This is a picture of my health clinic goodie bag, its contents, and the vitamin C candies and green tea lozenges that I have lived on for the week.  I took this picture and chose to include it here because it represents how I spent the week and how well people took care of me here.  The doctor in the clinic was very warm and eager to help.  When I first went in, she only took my temperature and my description of my symptoms, and gave me the bag and description of the pills.  Sara brought me food once or twice, and the girls on the hall were happy to lend me the thermometer and flu medicine before I could get to the clinic.  People in the lab were also supportive when I couldn't come in to work and welcomed me back enthusiastically.

Here's the cute detail on the bag:

4. What did you learn about yourself this week?

If my body's shutting down and recharging this week is any indication, then I can conclude that my first week in Korea was too much adventuring.  This second week was too uneventful, so I'm trying hard to find the balance that I need in the third week of my time here.  I now know how much I can put myself out there in terms of socialization and planning, but I also know my limit.  

5. Who are the new people (Koreans not affiliated with the Hubo Lab) that you met this week?

I met the mother of the male lead in Hong Gil Dong after Thursday's performance.  She was an older Korean woman who did not speak any English, but was very happy to hear that Sara and I were fans of the cast (we told her through a bilingual audience member who we also chatted with after the show).  It was so cool to find a real use for the introductions that we learned in Korean class, and I felt like we really did make her happy.

Daily Log 3

Where was I?  Oh yes.

~*~

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.

~*~

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.

~*~

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.

~*~

Monday (6/7)

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

~*~

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.

~*~

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.

~*~

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.

~*~

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.

~*~

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.  

~*~

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.