Final impressions of Korea:*Public trash cans are difficult to find, particularly when you need one (like walking around with a popsicle stick ( Read more... )

Started the morning with a lecture on computer graphics and animation. It was pretty interesting. Afterwards we got to see where they did their motion capture and stuff. Lots of big robotic cameras ( Read more... )

Museum day. First stop was the currency museum, which we weren't really given enough time to explore thoroughly. I was also shoed away from the first exhibit I tried to look at because there was a film crew and I was in the way. Of course I didn't hear what they were saying to me because I had a virtual tour guide in my ear (so I could learn ( Read more... )

Morning lecture on social media in korea. It was ok, but I started dozing off again. Then we had lunch with some korean students. We were served pizza and coke. Yes, the only thing to drink was pumped full of sugar. Like I really need that - I think I'm currently the heaviest I've ever been. The pictures of me during the last week+ are proof ( Read more... )

I started my morning by slipping and falling on my butt on the way to the bus. It's still sore. I only brought one pair of shoes with me and they get very slippery when certain surfaces are wet. I... regret not having a second pair of shoes with me ( Read more... )

First full day in Daejon. We were driven to KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), where they served us bagels, muffins, and coffee. There were also tea bags but no hot water. Later they brought in other beverages, so I was happy ( Read more... )

Last day in Seoul. Yesterday was our free day. I went with 2 of the other girls and shopped til I dropped. We first went one subway stop away to this new mall, Lotte. At the subway station on the way we were offered directions by a man who turned out to be from Tacoma, whose son just graduated from UW. Small world ( Read more... )

Another day jam-packed full of activity. We started with our cultural lecture at 9:30, which I was having trouble following for the majority of it. It wasn't until the end that it started coming together for me. She kept talking about two seemingly unrelated topics - south korean pop culture, and world politics ( Read more... )

Yesterday was jam-packed full of activity. We gathered at 9:30 to go to the Changduk palace. Apparently the royal family lived there until the last surviving member died in 1989. The grounds were beautiful, but we couldn't go inside any of the buildings, just peek inside the windows of a few. A lot of it's been rebuilt because of a fire in 1917 ( Read more... )

We had a later start today, not having to be anywhere until 10am. I walked to the little bakery on campus and had another of their rolls that are filled with cream cheese. They are gooood. Our language and culture lesson started next door at 10. I feel I can introduce myself now, at least. And apparently korea is the only asian country to use ( Read more... )