It's been more than a month now since I've posted. Each day has been been very full, and often quite satisfying. I suppose I haven't written much here because I've been processing my experiences internally. Also the Japanese disasters have been on my mind a lot. I've been through shock, some loneliness, frustration, exhaustedness; and also (sometimes simultaneous with the previous list) joy, curiosity, adventure, and peace. The things I've been experiencing out here sometimes feel like they have no analogue to life in the States. Korean culture is very interesting -- I am most fascinated by people's relationship to nature, food, and each other.
Many Koreans love to experience nature, as evidenced by the jam-packed bus to Palgong-san (Palgong mountain) this Saturday. It's not unusual to see large groups of people walking together on the mountain trails. I was actually in one of them -- I joined the Yeungnam Alpine Club. I am the first foreigner to ever have joined their group (and it's been active for several decades!). I am very grateful to be a part of this group and to have the chance to go on adventures with others. The students are extremely friendly and seem to share my passion for the outdoors. What a great fortune that I met up with them.
It is no news to confess that Korean food is still AWESOME. For instance, I had a delicious lunch today of strips of steak with mushrooms and onions grilled over coals that sit inside the table that I sit at, served with myriad side dishes: radish, kimchi (pickled cabbage), garlic, lettuce, peppers, bean sprouts, sauces, and something like cole slaw. And as always, there's free refills on all side dishes :) a delicious vegetable soup with rice was served to me afterwards, then a coffee and fresh strawberries. Heaven. And this sort of stuff is not unusual in my daily routine (!!!).
I tried to order delivery service for the first time tonight: fail. It should usually take 30 minutes. I figured my Korean is good enough now to order. Below is a translation of my conversation with the restaurant guy:
Me: Hello. I want food.
Him: Ok, what do you want?
Me: po sham jong shik (some pork and vegetable soup with rice). I live at 501 apple one room, in shin dae ri.
Him: <stuff stuff something stuff> [I can't understand]
Me: [thinking: 'uh-oh.'] ok, so everything's good? You understand?
Him: Yes.
Me: Ok, thank you so much!!
Him: <click>
With that I really was hoping that delivery guy would come to my door with a delicious meal, but instead, I boiled some dumplings from my freezer after waiting for an hour. I'll try again next time. :)
I can go on and on about my knowledge of Korean interpersonal relations, but my concepts are poorly formed and I am still learning. The way of relating between friends, colleageus, family members, friends, etc., is no doubt dramatically different than Western styles. But it is tough for me to concisely say how. This is one of the points where I can't quite articulate what I am experiencing in a way that I think people will be able to grok what I'm talking about. For one though, Koreans have a strong sense of connectedness. Here my analogy with bees is quite a good one. Koreans refer to each other as family members, as if they are all part of one giant family. At the restaurant, if the server is an older woman, you would call "aunt!" to her, which feels funny to me because I am a foreigner :) But I like to follow these customs anyway.
So, if you have any questions for me about life in Korea, please ask me! I am excited to share my experiences and what I am learning, but I'm not sure about the best way to go about it. Sometimes I think that one just needs to come to Korea to understand this culture.
Pictures are worth a thousand words each, right? Here are a few that capture a narrow range of my recent experiences:
Me with my boss, Jong Su Kim. In the background in the famous Gyeongsan bridge in Busan. We visited Busan in late Feb for a weekend conference on solar cells.
Me with Domenico--a graduate of Georgia Tech, now working as a post-doc in Busan. Busan is at the far south of Korea, about 1.5 hours by train from Daegu, where I live. Domenico and I walked around and played ping-pong in the evening at a ping-pong club. He played for the NCAA at Tech.
[image removed so I don't get body-snatched]
I remember the slogan "don't leave home without it." In this case, "don't start living in Korea until you have it." Alien Registration Card. Waited for weeks for this card. Then,within an hour of receiving it, I opened a bank account and got a cell phone. It felt like my Korean life officially started when I got this card.
Some of the Yeungnam Alpine Club. I am the first foreigner to ever join this club. I didn't mean to be crushing Tae-un -- I just thought we needed to get close for the photo :)
Spring is here! I took this today when I was sitting outside my apartment studying Korean.
On the hike with the Alpine Club, we came across a beautiful Buddhist temple. If you zoom in, you can barely see that there was some kind of ceremony happening inside. There are many in the mountain areas. I hope to visit one soon.
Stone Buddha statue, about 3 meters high. This was quite impressive.
A couple more short comments:
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I walk down the streets past a group of Korean military soldiers in their eary 20s. It appears that they don't have any deeper understanding than I do about why they are wearing those uniforms.
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I've been failing at my attempt to take a step back from research. I find that I am interested more and more in all kinds of physical phenomena. I stayed up with my colleague past midnight on Friday trying to chase down a calculation for an optics problem. It's fun to be doing physics again :)
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