Last Thursday and Friday all of the students fr
om 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.
om 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.
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