Work Shop

Last Thursday and Friday all of the students from the Center for Materials and Processes of Self-Assembly, which includes about a half-dozen of the department's labs went to Vivaldi Park for a work shop. We boarded the "Grandma's bus line" charters, at least that's what I called them after I saw the interior, at 8:30am and arrived at the resort after a rough 2 hour ride.

As soon as we arrived at the resort we headed to the conference room and started the lectures. The conference went until 7pm and consisted of 15min lectures by various professors and researchers with a 10min break every hour and a one hour break for lunch. This made for a very long day. 8 hours of lectures is enough to make anyone drowsy but I was in a particularly difficult situation as all of the lectures were in Korean. We had a booklet with all of the slides, which were all in English (I don't know why), so I would give each slide a look to get a general idea of the research and then I would turn my focus to trying to stay awake. The whole conference felt like a Peanuts episode: "Whaa whaa wa waa whaa aluminum oxide waa wha, waa whaaa, semiconductor waa whaa."

The lunch break provided a short respite. For lunch we had had a type of Korean stew comprised mainly of little pieces of beef and a variety of mushrooms. I was not a huge fan of the meal and only ate enough to satisfy my hunger. We had a bit of time to kill after lunch. I suggested that we go check out the pool. I was hoping to squeeze a swim into the trip, whether after dinner or in the morning. This is the first summer of my life where I have not had a lake or pool nearby at any given moment and added to the fact that the days have been regularly toping 40C with the humidex, I was really missing the water. Unfortunately, the resort did not have just a pool but an entire water park, complete with water slides and a wave pool. On any other occasion this would have solicited a more positive reaction, but this killed my dream of taking a quick dip in a pool, the $30 admission charge and operation hours being the main culprits.

After lunch the lectures started again and I my main focus continued to be my efforts to appear awake and attentive. My efforts were mostly successful until the last hour where I must confess that I may have dozed off for a few seconds, though I was hardly the only one. Mercifully, the lectures came to an end and we headed to the restaurant for supper. I was looking forward to a good supper to cap off the day. Unfortunately, as we entered the restaurant, the same hotplates were on the tables with a similar concoction. Great. This time there was no beef (the only redeeming aspect of the lunch). The beef had been replaced by crab and octopus. Visualy it is probably the least attractive meal that I have ever seen. I am not a fan of seafood, but I have been honest and have at least tried every food that has been placed in front of me. I had already had octopus and squid and did not enjoy it. This time was no different. I had to settle on two bowls of plain rice for supper.

After dinner we headed up to our rooms. The hotel room was quite nice, it was a suite with a kitchen, living room, bedroom (with a small double bed) and an empty room. "How many people in this room?" I asked. Six was the answer. Six? As far as I could tell you might be able to squeeze two people on the bed and then one person could take the the couch. But what about the other three? I was told that they would sleep on the ground, which was the Korean tradition and the explanation of the empty room. I was shown the little mattresses in the closet that would be put on the ground. This news coupled with the full day of gibberish lectures and the less then pleasing meals put me over the top. I was not enjoying myself at all. Fortunately we had a great view of the mountains and the ski hill from our balcony so I took some time out to take a breather.

I knew coming in that the conference would be entirely in Korean. There were three reasons why I agreed on the trip:
1. Free trip outside of the city.
2. The chance to go swimming.
3. The promise of a party in the evening.

The rough trip and poor food discredited #1 and #2 had also been canned. The only hope I had left was for the evening to wash away the day's unpleasantness. the evening started off slowly as we went on a massive grocery run where we purchased a chips, water, beer and soju for each room (see the album to get an idea). But as the evening progressed and more people filtered into our room it ended up being a great evening. We prepared are own samgyeopsal at midnight which was completed with what I was told was a "sweet wine". I tasted the wine and something clicked. I asked for the bottle and sure enough it was kosher wine from New-York. How kosher wine ended up in Korea is beyond me. Discovering that the wine was kosher remains a highlight of my trip in the absurdities category. Throughout the night I would break into a grin or chuckle at the thought of the wine.

One of the best parts of all of this was that I didn't have to be back in my room by midnight! I took full advantage and the last of us went to bed as the sun started its working day around 5:30am. Of course this made the next morning and the subsequent bus ride quite unpleasant as I was still quite tired and sore from sleeping on the floor.

You can see the whole album from the workshop and the athletic banquet here.

Athletic Day

The 19th of June was the Materials Engineering athletic day. All of the graduate students and a few profs took the day off work to get together and play all day. Typing these words still seem surreal, even though I witnessed it... Koreans taking time off work...

Before we moved onto the first official game of the day, a couple of us starting throwing tennis ball around, another guy had a bat so we had a little informal game of baseball going. After my basketball debacle from a few weeks ago I actually impressed a few people as my first hit was a powerful line-drive which spanned the width of the soccer field.

We started the day off with a game of soccer baseball. I was told that this was a game for the girls, so their participation was promoted. After the game though I didn't see any of the girls participate for the rest of the day.

The glory I had attained on the baseball field was short lived as the first game of the day was basketball. I got picked right away by someone who obviously didn't see me play the last time and I got thrown in with the top players. This racial profiling is disturbing. And again I made a complete fool of myself. I hit my first shot, a nice lay-up, which made me dangerously overconfident and I don't think I made another shot after that.

I played the first and third quarters and my team got trounced in each of them. I wonder why. I didn't stick around for the fourth quarter as a couple of the guys had moved back to the soccer field and were throwing the ball around again. They were hitting pop-flies to each other, so I took a few rounds at bat. This time we were using a real baseball and were pitching with a little bit of speed. Unfortunately, we only had a little, hallowed aluminium bat. By the time we were finished, the poor thing was no longer round. One hit in particular put a nice little dent in the bat, that was a strange feeling.

We then moved over to what I thought was a volleyball court except that the net was only waist high. On the court we played a Korean game which is like a cross between soccer and volleyball. It's not the intense soccer-volleyball that is played on the beaches of Brazil, we could only use our legs and head, but the ball could bounce once, in the court, before we could play it. Just like volleyball you had 3 touches before you had to send it over (the ball could bounce in the court between each touch). I wasn't horrendous, but I certainly prefer playing volleyball.

After the soccer-volleyball was the main event, a full game of soccer. The sides were picked and before I could even ask where I was to play they told me to go be the keeper. I guess they had figured me out. I'm not sure how they picked the teams, but the opposite side seemed to be stacked. We had a terrible defence and our offence was worse. That resulted in me getting lot of shots. My first shot came on a two on run break, the ball was crossed and I dove to stop the shot. The problem here is not that I let them score, but that we are playing on a hard dirt field, not grass, my arm is still a little scraped weeks later. In the end I let in 3 goals in the half but stopped twice as many shots. Not too shabby.

I played defence and midfield in the second half as my teammates wanted to take a breather in nets. My presence on the field had no impact on the outcome as our team was simply outmatched. The only event of importance was when I attempted to tackle a player, clipped his foot and went tumbling to the hard dirt. I hit my knee quite hard but got up and walked it off. I thought I would be fine until I looked down and saw that my leg covered in blood. I quickly found a sub, cleaned the dirt from the wound in the bathroom and then went to the medical clinic in the Student Union Building (adjacent to the soccer field). My knee and most of my leg was scraped, but there weren't any big cuts, I just needed to get a bit of gauze and I would be on my way. Instead the lady insisted on cleaning the cut with what I can only imagine was acid and then covered my knee with the most pathetic wrapping I'd ever seen. In the end I was no worse for wear but my playing day was over.

After the soccer game we were to head out to Gireum for a dinner provided by the professors. As I headed back to my lab to get my stuff I saw something that just might convince me to never leave Korea. This beast was parked outside of the engineering building. If I could ride a four-wheeler to school everyday, there's not way I'm every leaving this place. Unfortunately, I've been told that it can only be driven on campus, so I'm still in limbo about the whole "staying here forever" thing.

The dinner turned out to be more of a banquet for the graduate students. The professor who organised the dinner said that cooperation amongst the labs is important and that the banquet was a chance for everyone to get to know each other. To accelerate the process each lab had to go to the front of the room and present themselves and then at least one person person from the lab had to give a little performance. Certain labs sang a song, others danced. One guy sang a song to each professor (something along the lines of "Your so beautiful, to me...") and capped it with a shot with each prof. One guy chugged a bottle of soju (he was in pretty rough shape after that). This concerned me, because we're only 3 in my lab. Yong-Mu is not terribly expressive and I wasn't too sure about Yong-Su as well. This left me in a tight spot. As lab after lab was called up I just knew that they were going to ask me to sing. I just knew it. I was the only foreigner there, my colleagues weren't likely to bail me out. The writing was on the wall. I was starting to sweat. What was I to sing? I'd only had a beer or two and was not in a good state to start singing. I figured I should do something cultural. Something Canadian... but what? And then I had it. Brilliant. Of course I was still hoping that I would not have to subject the crowed to my voice, but at least I was prepared.

Finally, my lab was called up. After we each introduced ourselves and our research, Yong-Mu handed the mic back to me with a look on his face that read "It sucks to be you man." I hesitated and looked towards Yong-Su for deliverance, but when everyone started to chant my name I knew that my fate had been sealed.

"Ok. Ok. I'll sing you a song," I said, as my amplified voice echoed ominously throughout the room. "As you know I am from Canada, but I am also a French-Canadian. In the French culture we have traditional songs that are called des chansons à répondre. For these songs I need the audience to participate. So I need everyone on the table to my right and the first half of the middle table to form one group and the rest of the middle table and the left table to form a second group. Now when I point to the first group I need you to yell our 'Oui! Oui! Oui!' which means 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' in French. When I point to the second group I need you to yell out 'Non! Non! Non!" which means 'No! No! No!' in French. Ok, so let's give this a dry run"
"we. we. we."
"noun. noun. noun"
"C'mon this is a French song! You need to use a little more vigour."
"We! We! Wee!"
"Noun! Noun! Noun!"
"Good enough," I thought to myself.

I steadied myself. Took a deep breath and then threw myself into two verses of Les chevaliers de la table ronde. I had to help them out with the first two rounds of Oui. Oui. Oui. and Non. Non. Non. but by the second verse they pretty much had the hang of it (though without Benoît's enthusiasm).

The two verses complete, I put the microphone down and stumbled back to my seat. My heart was pounding, I hadn't felt like that since the last time I performed at Sam-en-Scène. The feeling was not quite as good as it was mixed with a very healthy dose of embarrassment. Fortunately, no one could understand what I sang and for all they know traditional French-Canadian songs could be sung horribly off key on purpose. At least that's what I hope they think. Looking back though I think it went relatively well, I still have people saying "Hey Andrew. Oui! Oui! Oui!" weeks later.

After the presentations we settled down to our meal. The meal consisted of big slices of beef which were cooked over a little grill in front of us. The pieces of meat were then cut, with scissors, into little chunks which we then ate by either dipping in a sauce or placing on a leaf of lettuce with garlic, kimchi and various sauces before consuming. It was amazing. I still think that tak kalbi is my favourite Korean food, but this is a close second.

We finished up at the restaurant around 10pm and while a few of my friends returned to the university to do some more work, a bunch of us finished the night off at a nearby bar. Of course I left early to make it back by midnight. Lovely.

The War Memorial of Korea

The next Saturday (June 7th) I visited the War Memorial of Korea. Luckily I had made a friend who didn't work on Saturdays, so I was to meet up with Jin at 1pm at exit #11 at Samgakji station. I arrived at the station right on time but could not find exit #11. There were exits 1 through 6, but nothing else. Thinking that the 11 must have been a typo, I went to exit #1. Jin wasn't there, but I thought she was just running late. After 15 minutes of waiting I went to find a pay-phone to call her. Again, these phones had the T-money logo on them, so I inserted my card into the slot: "Wrong Card." This time I kept my cool and gave the phone a closer inspection, in addition to the sticker on the phone, there was also a little ledge at the bottom of the machine with the T-money sign. T-money cards are used by either swiping them or scanning them. I simply placed my T-money card on the little ledge and like magic a balance showed on the screen and I got a dial tone! I was so proud of myself. I put the phone to my ear, picked up the napkin with her number and started dial... Silence. I had lost the dial tone before I had punched the first number. I hung up, picked up the card, placed it back on the scanner, got a new balance, quickly picked up the phone, dialed 1, 2, 3, 4 numbers... Silence. Damn! Ok one more time, I did everything as quickly as possible and managed to dial the whole number before the thing died. The phone rings once...Silence. ARRRRRRRRGGGHHH. I slammed down the receiver and went back to exit #1 to see if Jin was there. She wasn't. As I headed back to try another pay phone I heard the phone I had just left ringing. Having had bad experiences with picking up Korean phones in the past (I'll explain that another time), I elected not to pick it up (I know, I know). I tried to get the next phone to work but it wouldn't even let me finish dialing before it died on me. Same thing with the 3rd phone I tried. Finally, after about 10 minutes of fighting with the phones I slammed down the receiver and went outside to find someplace to break a 1000 won bill. Once I had some change I went back to the phone and successfully called Jin. Fortunately she was still waiting for me at exit #11, though she was just about to leave. Samgakji station is at the intersection of lines 4 and 6. Unlike the Montreal metro, the lines aren't necessarily one on top of the other. So I had to walk for about 5 minutes through an underground tunnel to get to the Samgakji station of line #6 where exit #11 is located.

The War Memorial was a five minute walk from the metro station. The War Memorial is a huge complex with monuments surrounding the front courtyard, a museum in the main building and war vehicles and equipment in the back. We purchased our tickets and entered the first exhibit: Memorial Hall. The memorial was in a dark room with a large basin of water in the centered which was illuminated with a ray of light penetrating from a hole in the centre of the cupola-ceiling. It was very beautiful and humbling. I took my camera out to take a picture, but it was in video mode. I changed it to the photo setting and...NO! NOT AGAIN! HOW COULD I LET MY BATTERY DIE A SECOND TIME?

There's an old saying in Korea — I know it's in Canada, probably in Korea — that says, fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.

So sadly I have zero pictures of the War Memorial and the rest of the day. I'll have to keep my narrative short and rely on external links.

My impression of the museum is the same as from the National Museum, the amount of history is overwhelming. We started at the beginning of Korean history with your standard ancient weapons: stone axes and knives, arrow heads, bronze to iron weapons, the first explosives and so on. The important wars between Koreans and other Koreans, Chinese or Japanese, Pirates, Thieves and Raiders, Martians and Mongols were all chronicled, well all but one. The history was interesting, but was difficult to put in perspective due to my limited knowledge of Korean history. I found the birth of gunpowder weapons was the most interesting part of the early exhibits. I enjoyed seeing the evolution of very crude cannons to sophisticated weapons which could fire dozens of arrows at once. Trying to figure out the engineering and how the machines worked was half the fun. A scaled down replica of General Yi Sun-Sin's (one of the most revered Korean's of all time) famous turtle ships, which were vital in defeating the Japanese navy and their attempt to conquer Korea at the end of the 16th century, was another personal favourite.

The museum also had a little replica of a Korean fort. The walls were perhaps as tall as myself (it was probably built with kids in mind), but you could still walk on the walls and get an idea of what the fortresses used to look like. "No wonder Koreans keep getting attacked, your forts are too small," I told Jin, trying to be funny. All I got in return was a puzzled look. I have yet to tell a successful joke to a Korean, regardless of how explicit it may be, let alone the subtle absurdities that I prefer.

The second half of the museum was devoted to the Korean War. The exhibit had relics and representations of Korean life during the war years. The exhibit also chronicled the events of the war, this was the most educational part of the visit. It truly is the forgotten war. I consider myself more historically knowledgeable then the average, but I was humbled by my ignorance of this war, despite the fact that Canada committed the 3rd most foreign soldiers to the war (behind the US and the UK). I had no idea how close both sides came to conquering the entire peninsula at various points in the war. Shortly after the North's surprise attack, they pushed the South Korean (ROK) forces to the southern extreme of the country before the UN - American led forces pushed the North all the way back, recapturing Seoul, then Pyongyang before pushing the North almost all the way into Manchuria which would have unified the Korean people. However, before the ROK could boot the communists out, the Chinese got involved and surprised the UN forces and pushed them back, recapturing Pyongyang and then Seoul. The UN forces regrouped, pushed the Chinese back and re-recaptured Seoul and after a bit more fighting both sides signed the armistice. It was the back and forth nature of the war that really surprised me.

It's interesting to note that officially, and in the minds of many Koreans, the war is not technically over and has yet to be resolved. However, it seems that most of the younger generation (at least those that I have talked to) seem to think that unification isn't realistic or desirable. They consider the Nothern Koreans to be a separate people now, they speak a slightly different language now and they have developed different cultures and beliefs as well. Cultural differences aside, South Koreans also seem wary of the economic disaster that would accompany unification since the South would certainly have to spend a lot of resources to prop-up and rebuild a unified North Korea. The economy is terribly important to Koreans.

I found it all very sad. The Koreans suffered through nearly a half-century of a brutal Japanese occupation and were finally freed in 1945 with the fall of the Japanese Empire. However, in only five years, they were convinced to take up arms and fight each other over the ideals of the US and the USSR. As far as I'm concerned, it wasn't really a Korean war, rather it was the American and Soviet's war being waged with Korean blood. It really speaks to the power of propaganda, because I'm sure that both sides were convinced that they were liberating their brethren from the oppressive capitalist or communist rule.

The end of the exhibit had a room dedicated to the foreign nations that fought alongside the ROK. Each nation had its own display showing the uniforms worn by their soldiers as well as information on their contributions and losses. Of course, I had a particular interest in the Canadian display, though a few other countries caught my attention. Colombia and Ethiopia in particular seemed out of place, didn't they have enough problems at home? The foreign nations exhibit also contained the most powerful piece in the museum, the Tear Drop. The tear drop was made out of dog tags of soldiers who lost their lives in the war and the tear was wrapped in barbed wire.

We were both a little tired after finishing the historical part of the War Memorial. I didn't have much interest in seeing all of the tanks and artillery machines and had already seen the special traveling exhibit, The Dead Sea Scrolls, in Ottawa, so we left he Museum and headed to Itaewon.

Itaewon is a popular district for foreigners as the American military base is near by. While most of Seoul is incredibly homogeneous, Itaewon is not. Walking through the streets I saw people of almost many different nationalities, heard many different languages (even a bit of French from a few Africans) and at long last smelt different foods. The even had a few Shawarma places! We stopped at an Italian restaurant and I had a nice chicken cheese steak which I enjoyed to the fullest. After dinner we headed over to the Rocky Mountain Tavern. The tavern is owned by a couple Canadian ex-pats and I discovered it on-line back in January because I was concerned that if I was in Seoul that I would miss the Sens' playoff run and thus needed somewhere to watch the games. In the end, I didn't need to bother. The bar was distinctly Canadian. There were totem poles outside the main entrance and the walls of the bar were covered in Canadiana: Hockey sweaters and sticks, Tim Horton's mugs, snowshoes, antlers etc. I was also looking forward to some good Canadian beer. I was expecting anything fancy, just the standard Molson Canadian or Labatt Blue, but they had neither. All they had was Moosehead (which I'm not a huge fan of) and Alley Kat (a small brewery from Edmonton) as well as a few Korean beers and your standard International selections. I was a little disappointed in the selection, but the bar didn't let me down. It had a very comfortable feel and I did feel a little like I was back home. They also serve poutine, but I'll have to return on an empty stomach to sample it.

After RMT, we headed to Bar Nana, a cool little Jazz bar where we ran into Tania's friend Natasja and her friends that I met the week before in Myeong-Dong. It's a small world. In the end I got home at 1:30am. Gasp! I missed curfew. Oh well, 2 demerits down.