I've been meaning to set up this blog for quite some time and while I'm stuck here at work waiting to use the UV spectrometer on Monday I'll try and get you up to date on my trip to the Republic of Korea. For your reading pleasure I'll divide my first month's worth of activities in to multiple posts so as to not bore you with one long narrative, though that may happen anyways.
I left Ottawa at 7am on May 13th for a short 5 hour flight to Vancouver. The flight was uneventful other then then the tons of turbulence we had. I had a 3 hour lay-over in Vancouver which was fine with me. It gave me a chance to stretch my legs as I wandered around the airport. I'm not sure if you've ever seen the international departures lounge there, but it's amazing. They have a million shops and restaurants as well as a little oasis with plants, a stream and a giant fish tank with what I believe were salmon. I also used to duty free shop to get my professor in Korea a gift from Canada. I was debating if I should get him some maple syrup but I settled on a bottle of Canadian iced wine.
My flight to Seoul was long, about 12 hours, but reasonably comfortable. I spent most of my time watching movies or tv. I think I got through an episode of Spenny vs. Kenny, the Big Bang Theory (which is about as corny as sitcoms come Chris), the Flight of the Conchords and a few movies: L.A Confidential, the Wedding Singer, Charlie Wilson's War and maybe one other that I cannot remember. The food was cold and bland, which is to be expected. I finally arrived in Incheon around 4pm on the 14th, local time. The descent into Incheon was amazing. The airport is right on the coast of the Yellow Sea and you get a good view of the coast and its many islands as you land.
I didn't get any significant sleep during the trip and was exhausted as it was about 3am on the 14th in Ottawa. I met prof. Lee's grad student, Yong-Mu Kim at the airport who drove me into Seoul. Yong-Mu's english is not very strong so the trip served as an introduction to the Korean landscape (which reminds me of the Laurentians with different plants and trees) as well as to Korean music. Incheon is a huge city of about 2.5 million, located east of Seoul, which is loosely considered a suburb of Seoul. It took about an hour of driving to get to Kookmin University in the north of Seoul.
I first checked into my dormitory (more on that in another post) and met my prof. He was dressed in military fatigues as he had just finished his mandatory military training.
He is however a soft spoken man and very easy to get along with. I was told to take the rest of the week off to recover from my trip and that I would start work on Monday the 19th.
After our meeting I promptly went to bed after my 24+ hour day.
I left Ottawa at 7am on May 13th for a short 5 hour flight to Vancouver. The flight was uneventful other then then the tons of turbulence we had. I had a 3 hour lay-over in Vancouver which was fine with me. It gave me a chance to stretch my legs as I wandered around the airport. I'm not sure if you've ever seen the international departures lounge there, but it's amazing. They have a million shops and restaurants as well as a little oasis with plants, a stream and a giant fish tank with what I believe were salmon. I also used to duty free shop to get my professor in Korea a gift from Canada. I was debating if I should get him some maple syrup but I settled on a bottle of Canadian iced wine.
My flight to Seoul was long, about 12 hours, but reasonably comfortable. I spent most of my time watching movies or tv. I think I got through an episode of Spenny vs. Kenny, the Big Bang Theory (which is about as corny as sitcoms come Chris), the Flight of the Conchords and a few movies: L.A Confidential, the Wedding Singer, Charlie Wilson's War and maybe one other that I cannot remember. The food was cold and bland, which is to be expected. I finally arrived in Incheon around 4pm on the 14th, local time. The descent into Incheon was amazing. The airport is right on the coast of the Yellow Sea and you get a good view of the coast and its many islands as you land.
I didn't get any significant sleep during the trip and was exhausted as it was about 3am on the 14th in Ottawa. I met prof. Lee's grad student, Yong-Mu Kim at the airport who drove me into Seoul. Yong-Mu's english is not very strong so the trip served as an introduction to the Korean landscape (which reminds me of the Laurentians with different plants and trees) as well as to Korean music. Incheon is a huge city of about 2.5 million, located east of Seoul, which is loosely considered a suburb of Seoul. It took about an hour of driving to get to Kookmin University in the north of Seoul.
I first checked into my dormitory (more on that in another post) and met my prof. He was dressed in military fatigues as he had just finished his mandatory military training.
He is however a soft spoken man and very easy to get along with. I was told to take the rest of the week off to recover from my trip and that I would start work on Monday the 19th.After our meeting I promptly went to bed after my 24+ hour day.
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