DMZ

Two weekends ago, I along with several other people in my program (from here on out called EAPSI people) made a trip to the DMZ. This was a very unique and surreal experience which makes it kind of hard to describe to others. I had a vague understanding of the history of the Korean War, but really next to no knowledge as to what happened after the ceasefire. This trip included a very helpful overview of both of these so I know a lot more about them now.

The way the tour works is that the morning of the tour, you head to the USO in Seoul. From there they bus you to the DMZ and take you along to various areas around there. We had a tour that went to the Camp Bonifas for a slide show history lesson (which was really good-brief but very informative) then on to the JSA (joint security area), then we stopped at a few guard posts where we could take pictures of the huge N. Korean flag and flagpole (both of which are just gigantic) and see the so called Propaganda village which seems to have lights on but no one home. Then we went to the 3rd tunnel (one of 4 tunnels the North Koreans apparently dug to infiltrate S. Korea), some viewing area that was outside the DMZ, I believe, and then to the Dorasan train station.

Visiting the DMZ reminded me of visiting Hiroshima in that it was a bit jarring to be around all these people that are joking around when you are in such a historically significant and sad spot. Of course, I have no way of knowing how others feel and people express there emotions differently so I certainly don’t mean that as a judgment statement. I just mean that I felt very tense the whole time we were in the DMZ and particularly when we were in the JSA and I didn't know how to react when others were joking around. I am very outwardly serious when confronted with situations like that whereas others might be less so. Again, I’m not saying there is a right or wrong way because clearly there isn’t, but the difference can be startling. Actually I felt tense even before we entered the DMZ. I was talking to someone sitting next to me when I was very startled to see Korean soldiers in a little roadblock thing as we drove by. I don’t ever see soldiers in battle ready positions like that so it startled me. Also, the knowledge that a hiker nearby was killed a week earlier by a landmine (and this is not uncommon) is also sobering. Landmines are just terrible weapons of war and should never be used as far as I am concerned. Even once the two countries unify, they will have to invest heavily in de-mining the area because the whole area is heavily mined.

Going to the JSA after hearing the brief overview of events was interesting. I had never heard of the Axe murder incident, but that is a story that will stay with me for a long time, I am sure. The JSA in general is the weirdest place. With it’s blue buildings, soldiers in rock ready position (some variant of a taekwondo position) and mirrored sunglasses, a N. Korean guard straight across from you watching you with binoculars, white stakes in the ground to designate the line you must not cross…so much weirdness. Plus you are not supposed to point or gesture towards the N. Korean guards at all. Just so strange.

Our group had two American soldiers with us (one of which looked like he was 18! But actually was much older), they were very nice and I talked to one of them a bit about the life up there.

We did see a ton of cranes (the DMZ has basically become this huge nature preserve) and that was cool. On a lighter note, the acronym ROK is pretty sweet for a military force. We kept hearing the soldier say “the ROK soldiers” which sounds pretty cool.

The train station is really sad. S. Korea built this really nice new train station that is intended to link up with tracks to the north (as historically a train ran the length of the whole peninsula), but for now it just sits empty. You can take a train ride from a town just south to the Dorasan station, but there are only like 2 trains a day, so other than tourists the station sees no activity at all. Seeing how busy other train stations are, it seems very sad that this one is so empty. But it is also a sign of hope that things will get better.

These are just a few of my unorganized thoughts about the DMZ.

A day in the mud!

Yesterday was a fieldwork day and a lot happened so I thought I would right up my general impressions of the day before I forgot. I met up with Eunae and the two high school students (whose names I have no idea as to how to spell so I won’t try) outside my dorm at 8 or so and headed for the train station. From there we had to head out to the blue line and take it all the way out to Incheon (about an hour’s ride). After a taxi to the ferry we had to wait for everyone else to meet up before heading out to Jakyakdo, a small island about 15-20 minutes ride away. There we geared up and spent the low tide (which was maximal at 1pm) going around the island looking for things. The island started rocky and then became a huge mudflat before becoming rocky again. In about 3 hours we made it all the way around the island (though we could have made it in less than 1 hour I think if we hadn’t been looking and collecting along the way). Then we gathered everything, looked through what we had collected (fixing a few right there and packing the rest live to be fixed in the lab), grabbed the ferry and headed back. None of us had actually had a meal since breakfast (just snacking on bananas and some fancy bread) so Dr. Song had us stop for a meal. Then we headed back on the long train ride back, brought the specimens up and fixed them.

So there is a bare-bones description of what happened but there are few points worth going into more detail…

First and foremost, Dr. Song is a force of nature. One she gets started, she just goes and you have to really fight to keep up with her. It’s pretty funny actually.

Also, it’s funny how different labs do things. The way this group preps for field work is a bit different from how I do it, particularly their insistence that everyone get a giant set of forceps and a spoon (both on loops that go around your hands). Honestly, a butter knife would have been more helpful in my opinion.

I’m really sorry that I didn’t have my camera to take pictures during this…there are some pictures from the lab camera that I grabbed so I have something from this which I will post on facebook sometime.

I never fail to hurt myself in some way during fieldwork. Usually it is my legs but this time I was wearing waders so the most I could do was bruise my leg (which I did too). But the bad cuts were on my arms this time. Not that they were that bad…they really weren’t and didn’t hurt much (though they are a little sore today). However, cuts on both arms bled like no one’s business. Suddenly there were huge drops of blood on the rocks and on my gloves and it took me a minute to figure out that it was me. The lab kind of freaked out about it (and still seem very worried about it today) but they really are not bad at all.

When working through a mud flat and you are given the option of waders that are too big or too small, definitely pick the too small one. I had waders that were too big, which resulted in me literally getting stuck in the mud. Every time I would go to move my leg, my foot would pop out of the boot and I would have to fight to stay upright (which was not always successful). I had to work so hard to move around that I had to have burned a lot of calories. It was extremely frustrating…but what can you do but laugh. Particularly when a high school student runs over with a shovel to help dig you out…twice.

And, by the way, the waders did not even work that well. When I got out, I could tell I was a bit wet before I got out, but I figured that I had sweat a lot working through the mud. But once I saw how wet I was…I definitely did not sweat that much! Sung-Jin said that hers didn’t work to well either and her pants were clearly wet too. Good thing we both wore fast drying pants. Should have brought an extra shirt though…

When we got back to the Incheon station, Dr. Song decided that we should have dinner in the Chinatown across the street but she didn’t want to bother to bring all the stuff we were carrying so she just went into a police station and asked them to watch our stuff. Judging from the reactions of her students, I don’t think you can generally treat the police station as a storage facility but she is an older woman in a culture that demands respect for someone of age, so what are the police going to do? Obviously, they said yes. The whole exchange was really amusing.

We had a good dinner at a random Chinese resturant in Incheon’s Chinatown. This dinner included drinks and a toast and is officially the first time I have drunk with my lab.

We got back to the lab at about 8 or 8:30 but I didn’t leave until after 11. It took me that long to fix all of my material. And I still had to spend time today making a spreadsheet of samples and better labeling the things I have (I did a pretty quick an dirty labeling yesterday). So it was a very long day. I was going to leave early today to go to a baseball game, but it has rained out so no go. I don’t think I am going to go anywhere or do anything tonight. I’m just going to chill out and relax I think. Save some money for another day (which by the way, I only spent about $4 dollars yesterday and that was off my transit card so really I spent nothing yesterday).

Overall, I got 5 species, including 2 I really wanted. Honestly, there was only one other species at the site that I would have liked to have so it worked out well. Plus the trip was fun so overall it was a very good day.

Quick update

Just a few thoughts...

1. The Seoul subway is awesome. Easy, clean, fast...why can't we have this at home?
2. I really starting to feel comfortable in my lab much in the way I am comfortable at home. This is mostly because Eunae is awesome and goes out of her way to help me. We never had a formal welcome party for me like we did in Japan, but I am much more at ease here than I ever was in that Japan. But some of that may also be that I am more comfortable with myself too. I'll probably never know.
3. Having people to hang out with in town is really nice and I appreciate it. But going to the shrine by myself this weekend reminded me that it is really great to travel by yourself sometimes.
4. This coming weekend I am taking Friday off and heading to Jeju Island which is supposed to be beautiful. Hiking, biking, beaches and super cool looking lava caves will be the order of the day. And since I get in 4 hours before everyone else (I get there at like 8 am, everyone else gets in from 12-1 or later), I think I am going to take the morning to do the lava caves on my own. (see here for where I am going).
5. If I don't break my dorm door before I leave it will be a miracle. I can't tell you how annoying it is to have a door that speaks to you EVERY time you open/close/or touch the door. Shut up stupid door!
6. They eat fresh (raw) priapulids here! And how I discovered that is kind of a funny story for another time.

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…

Alive and well in Seoul

Finally, a post! Although I primed you all for posts clearly I have been behind the times in getting anything up. I knew that would probably be the case since I remembered struggling to put anything up during orientation in Japan. I just can’t focus very well when there is so much going on…and there was more going on for this orientation than for the Japan one.

While in Japan we mostly (except for the homestay) stayed in one place, but in Korea we have been bused all over! Everyday, we would load up on the bus and it would drive us somewhere else, usually at least an hour away. We visited a few museums and a Korean folk village (but for such short periods of time as to only see a small bit of what was there), and we visited research and industry sites (like Posco, Hyundai heavy industries, KIMM). Towards the end we got back to cultural trips like going to see world heritage sites Seokguram grotto and Bulguksa Temple (and a few other cultural places sprinkled in). Finally, we did a temple stay for the last two days. I had wanted to do a temple stay while I was here but did not want to do it by myself so this was perfect.

Speaking of the bus, everyday you would need to make a decision about where to sit/who to sit by. Of course it is best to be last for this for obvious reasons. But somehow I was always on time and was usually one of the first people on the bus. I feel like I am too old to feel all self-concious about whether people want to sit next to me or not…but I guess I am not. I got way too concerned about it and I need to learn to be less conscious of these stupid things.

In between all the touring there was norebang (the Korean word for Karaoke), a nice spa bath visit (like onsen but I don’t think it was hot spring water), some late night drinking, hanging out watching world cup games and just having fun. The best thing was watching S. Korea futbol! The Korea Nigeria game was on at 3:30 am and we were in Seoul at the time, so a group of us wore red shirts and went out to one of the public places they set up for watching the game. Soccer is huge here (since they hosted the world cup and did well in 2002) so they put out huge screens and close down roads for people to watch. And the red devils (the name of the Korean fans) come out in force. The Nigeria game would determine who would place second in the group so it was really an important game. Anyway, we went and had a great time cheering them on. The game ended in a draw which was good for Korea so everyone was happy. For the next game (in which Korea was sadly eliminated) we were at the temple so we were not sure if we would be able to watch the game or not. But no fears, the monks seem to be fans too (at least one of them was a big fan) so we all came to watch and cheer them on. Some older women were also staying at the temple and I think they were surprised by how vigorously we cheered the Korean team on. But they were good sports and we all had fun.

Then it was a long trip back to Seoul, dinner and good bye to everyone (temporararily at least) as we all dispersed to our host institutions. I believe we all arrived safely but it’s kind of sad that I won’t see some people of the group much during my time here. Though in Japan I barely saw anyone at all so I can’t really complain.

I think that’s enough as an initial primer on what is going on. I’m almost through my first week at Ehwa so I will have more to say soon. Take care!

PS I put photos up on facebook and I think you can see them by following this link.

Plans, plans, and more plans

So I need to book my flight to Korea soon which requires some serious contemplation on what I want to do after the program ends. I assumed that this trip would be much like the Japan trip, i.e. no one would want to make concrete plans so I ended up traveling on my own that last week. Not that it was a bad thing, I quite enjoyed being able to just do whatever I wanted. But I did miss not having anyone to talk to at meals. With Korea, it seems I was grossly mistaken in expecting the same sort of dynamic. It seems that there a quite a few people in the Korea group that like to plan rather than wing it. There has already been quite a bit of discussion about a trip to Japan after the program ends and some mention of coordinating a trip to Jeju island during the program. Overall, this makes me happy. I can wing things if needed, but I do like to have an actual plan with an idea as to what will be happening. If the plans for Japan actually materialize (and since I am mostly dealing with engineers here, I think they will) then I will probably join the group for a while, then split off to do my own thing when they go to places I ‘ve been before (though I think I do want to go to Kyoto again). I’ve already talked to my host mother and I will need to plan in some time to stay with them. I am really excited to see them again, though kind of horrified too – Emi (the mother) just told me that Waka has just started kindergarden! She was just a baby when I met her! Oh well, at least Emi shouldn’t have changed much. I’m not sure how much the kids will remember me anyway…. I love taking to Emi because she always makes it clear that she loves me as much as I love them. When I first emailed her, I asked if the family would still be in Kyushu (their hometown to which they typically travel every August for the Obon festival). I thought that they would be back in Yokohama (near Tokyo) by the time I would be able to go to Japan, but if they were in Kyushu I was just going to travel that island. When she wrote back to me, she apologized for the fact that they were not going to still be in Kyushu because they needed to drive back. She then offered to look into flying to Kyushu so that she and the girls could stay longer to see me. Which is really going out her way, but made me feel wanted, so I can't deny that I liked it. Not that I would let her do it. It's easier for me to go to Yokohama anyway. Alright, more later!

Active once again

After my 2008 trip to Japan, I let this blog lie unactive since I haven't had any adventures quite as fun as that. But it is now fairly official that I will be going to S. Korea this summer for at least 8 weeks to have more fun (and do some research too). I've changed the name of the blog to reflect the fact that this time, I will be working on Anthozoans (sea anemones and relatives) rather than the super annoying (to work with at least) Medusozans (jellyfish, hydra, ect.). I'm sure that I will end up posting randomly like I did in Japan (I never really did post on all of my travels at the end) but hopefully I'll be a bit better than last time. In any case, I'll post again before I go to talk about exactly where I'm going (short answer Seoul) and what I will be doing while I am there. Ja mata ne/Annyeong!