Blogs have always seemed a bit weird to me and I've never been much of a writer, but seeing as I am required to keep this up, we'll just have to see how this goes.
June 6, 2010:
After a hectic return from Dartmouth and packing for Korea, I boarded the bus in CT and headed down to JFK. It didn't take long for me to realize that I may have been the only non-Asian boarding Korean Air flight 082 direct to Seoul. I got some funny looks, my favorite being a little Korean boy who was talking to his mom when I sat down next to him. For the next 5 minutes he went absolutely silent and stared at me as if in shock. Once on the plane, "How To Train Your Dragon" (great movie actually) kept me occupied for 98 minutes of my 14-hour flight. I was sitting next to an non-English speaking elderly couple from Seoul who continually stared at me and kept saying "Seoul?". I would reply "yes, Seoul" because I couldn't seem to get across to them that I was actually going to Daejeon. At one point, the woman suddenly grabbed my wrist and proceeded to drag it over to her husband while staring very closely at what appeared to be my watch. So now I am sitting there with m arm stretched across three seats having no idea what this couple wants with my wrist/watch. Finally, they gave me my arm back and began the whole "Seoul?" conversation again. After landing, I had some trouble meeting up with my contact in Seoul, but eventually found him and got on the bus for Daejeon.
After 30+ hours of travel, I finally arrived at my dorm. Not even 5 minutes in my room, and I was already getting yelled at by the check-in man for wearing my shoes inside. I guess you can only go barefoot or wear flip-flops when you're in your room. My roommate is from Hong Kong and seems very nice. He speaks some English too and seems to like speaking it. At this point I was pretty wiped, so I hit the showers (locker room style) and then bed.
June 7, 2010:
Woke up and met up with Beth (another Colby) for breakfast. The other students in the program arrived a week ago, so they have a better idea of what's going on. Food is interesting but very inexpensive. I don't really know what I'm getting half the time, so I guess it's a good thing I'm not a picky eater. Getting my Kaist ID card took a little while and required walking all over the campus, but I had Beth with me to show me the ropes. I haven't really got a sense of the campus yet, but I do know that there is a sick gym right in the middle of campus that is being build. Apparently it was supposed to be done a few weeks ago, so I'm really looking forward to checking it out.
At 2:00, I set off for three hours of Korean Language class...wait WHAT? This wasn't in the job description. I've never ever heard of a class that meets for that long, not to mention actually attend one. I have zero experience with speaking Korean and already missed the first week of class...lovely. For the next three hours I sat and listened to
write and repeat meaningless sounds over and over. I swear there is no distinguishable difference between "cooh" "coo" and "cuh", but she seems happy as we repeat them back to her. As if all the weird characters and sounds aren't enough, our teacher starts using French to explain a question asked by one of the other American students. Surprisingly, the French was about all I understood in that three hour span. In all honesty, Korean language is certainly not my calling, but I am starting to get the hang of it slowly.
In case anyone is wondering about the title, the Hubo Lab is where I will be working on the robotics and will be spending most of my time by the looks of things. I don't know much about it at this point, but it looks pretty amazing from what I've seen. Lots and lots of gadgets and machinery (my kind of place). From what I have seen and heard, the other workers in the lab are pretty much machines themselves. It's currently 10:00 PM and nobody has left yet. I'm not even sure if they do leave. I guess I'm a wimp, but I'm heading out to go hit the weights before I call it a night.
I thought that the gym might be the first place I actually feel like I know what's going on. Apparently, the US is still the only place in the world that does not use the metric system, so again I found myself out of my element trying to lift some random number of kgs. rather than the familiar lbs'. After 20 mins or so of fussing around with odd sized plates, I convinced myself that I was jet lagged and gave up early.
That's all I've got for now. I'll try to get some pics up soon.
-OAO
After 30+ hours of travel, I finally arrived at my dorm. Not even 5 minutes in my room, and I was already getting yelled at by the check-in man for wearing my shoes inside. I guess you can only go barefoot or wear flip-flops when you're in your room. My roommate is from Hong Kong and seems very nice. He speaks some English too and seems to like speaking it. At this point I was pretty wiped, so I hit the showers (locker room style) and then bed.
June 7, 2010:
Woke up and met up with Beth (another Colby) for breakfast. The other students in the program arrived a week ago, so they have a better idea of what's going on. Food is interesting but very inexpensive. I don't really know what I'm getting half the time, so I guess it's a good thing I'm not a picky eater. Getting my Kaist ID card took a little while and required walking all over the campus, but I had Beth with me to show me the ropes. I haven't really got a sense of the campus yet, but I do know that there is a sick gym right in the middle of campus that is being build. Apparently it was supposed to be done a few weeks ago, so I'm really looking forward to checking it out.
At 2:00, I set off for three hours of Korean Language class...wait WHAT? This wasn't in the job description. I've never ever heard of a class that meets for that long, not to mention actually attend one. I have zero experience with speaking Korean and already missed the first week of class...lovely. For the next three hours I sat and listened to
write and repeat meaningless sounds over and over. I swear there is no distinguishable difference between "cooh" "coo" and "cuh", but she seems happy as we repeat them back to her. As if all the weird characters and sounds aren't enough, our teacher starts using French to explain a question asked by one of the other American students. Surprisingly, the French was about all I understood in that three hour span. In all honesty, Korean language is certainly not my calling, but I am starting to get the hang of it slowly.In case anyone is wondering about the title, the Hubo Lab is where I will be working on the robotics and will be spending most of my time by the looks of things. I don't know much about it at this point, but it looks pretty amazing from what I've seen. Lots and lots of gadgets and machinery (my kind of place). From what I have seen and heard, the other workers in the lab are pretty much machines themselves. It's currently 10:00 PM and nobody has left yet. I'm not even sure if they do leave. I guess I'm a wimp, but I'm heading out to go hit the weights before I call it a night.
I thought that the gym might be the first place I actually feel like I know what's going on. Apparently, the US is still the only place in the world that does not use the metric system, so again I found myself out of my element trying to lift some random number of kgs. rather than the familiar lbs'. After 20 mins or so of fussing around with odd sized plates, I convinced myself that I was jet lagged and gave up early.
That's all I've got for now. I'll try to get some pics up soon.
-OAO
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