Japan vs Korea (for research experince anyway)

I know I should really try to avoid comparing my Korean experince to my Japanese one, but I can’t help it really. In a couple of ways I am already clearly better off then I was in Japan.

1. I am not isolated as I was in Japan (which was both a good thing and a bad thing, but did make several things harder).

2. I have actually gotten to know several of the other participants better than the ones I knew in Japan. I never really clicked with a lot of people in the Japan program (I think the huge size overwhelmed me a bit, plus I realize that I am a bit of a different person now). There are only a few from Japan that I have kept in touch with, but I think (and hope) that number will be far greater for this trip. The women of the group all seem awesome and I like all the guys (though I admit one or two of them got on my nerves a little after spending soo much time together during orientation-but I think that was just a result of spending too much time together).

3. The lab here understands what I do far better than I think Kubuto sensei ever did-mostly because they use nematocysts in their studies too. I don’t think that they completely understand though, and a few comments have been made about cnidae which make me wince…but I’m not sure how to correct some of the misinformation they seem to have.

4. The women in the lab talk to each other! Some of it is seems to be small talk, most of it I think is related to work, but either way, it is not silent in the office or lab during the day. Any no one brings their lunch so I have someone to eat with every day. In my Japanese lab, people rarely talked to each other and the constant silence nearly drove me crazy (although I don’t understand what they are saying in the lab here, I find it comforting that some social interaction is going on). And I rarely got asked to go to lunch. Of course in Japan, every one was technically in different labs (as is often the case at marine stations) and everyone cooked for themselves for lunch (as going into town would be quite a hassle), but still, it is a big difference.

5. Another thing, while most of us have been wearing pants to the office simply because it is a little chilly in there, I have seen some women wearing shorts. This makes me happy because I will occasionally wear shorts too (I wore them all the time in Japan because it was just soo hot everywhere) and I will not be the only one wearing them as I was in Japan!

So overall, my experince has been a good one so far. The one major down point is that I was much better equipped with Japanese than I am with Korean. I just don’t know as many words/phrases in Korean as I do in Japanese and the whole language is harder for me for some reason. I will need to force myself out of my shell to go out and try some things here (which to be honest, I had to do in Japan too-I think my memory is making Japan seem easier than it was).

We have planned field work for the 15th so I will do light microscope data with the samples I brought until then. And I have a paper that I am finally getting good work done on. So I’ve managed to keep myself busy..except today where I haven’t been able to focus. I blame the fact that it’s Friday and my feet have been wet all day. Who can focus with wet feet?
Okay, this post ended up being a lot of nothing, but there you go. You all know that I tend to ramble…