Well I suppose comparatively speaking this week was on the
uneventful side. I did however have my first visitor since I’ve been away
(my girlfriend Laura flew over from Buffalo to stay for 10 days.) Two of my
lab-mates were nice enough to drive out to the Incheon airport to pick her up,
and by the time we got back to the school it was 1am. First thing the
next morning we headed out to Seoul so that I could visit the "camera
district" and replace my old camera (I significantly upgraded, so you all
can expect some decent pics from here on out). I spent most of the day
going from shop to shop attempting to bargain by typing my suggested price into
the sales clerks' calculators. A little nerve-wracking to make a major
purchase like that in a foreign place, but I’m confident I came out with a good
deal (despite the fact that to my dismay none of the cameras could be purchased
in factory-sealed shrink-wrap.)
The next night Dr. Kim, his grad students, Laura and I went out for
dinner. Laura brought over gifts from Canada for everyone (little bottles
of Canadian maple syrup, some maple cookies, a couple bottles of ice wine, and
a bottle of scotch for Dr. Kim), so I thought this would be a good opportunity
to get everyone their gifts and thank them for all of their help thus
far. No one really seemed to know what to do with the maple syrup (I
caught one of the students opening the bottle and hesitantly smelling it), but
liquor is universal so there was no problem deciding what to do with the
scotch. The entire bottle was finished off that night – SooHwan repeatedly
expressed, "I don't like it, I don't like it" - however he did manage
to choke down five shots. I personally find scotch to be more disgusting
than soju. Laura finished my shot. Also I suppose it's worth
mentioning that we had Korean duck for dinner. I find it charming that
they have photos of live ducks on the sign for the restaurant. They love
to show you what your food looks like before its dead. The duck was tasty
- it gets cooked on the grill that's built into the table, and once it's cooked
you wrap the little duck pieces in lettuce leaves.
Finally - I took Laura up the mountain so I could show off my newly developed
mountain-legs. She did pretty well, but was a bit pale when we reached
the top. A couple who I’d estimate to be in their 60's came sauntering up
after us, barely winded. They spoke no English at all, however they
immediately began sharing their food with us. They tore off a chunk of
their rice cake (which looks by the way like fish guts) and also gave us a
water-bottle filled with luke-warm black coffee. We happened to have
brought up a knife and a large Asian pear ourselves, so we had a rather
pleasant exchanging of food-stuffs with the locals. I tried to get a
picture with them, but they refused. I’ve noticed that many Korean people
for some reason absolutely refuse to be photographed.
Next week is Japan. I can't believe I’m going - pretty excited. Thank
you Niagara College!
