Tracing back

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. It's been hard because this is our last week to work, research, and get ready for our presentation next week. Besides that, I've been treating myself to Disney movies like Hercules, Princes and the Frog, and Mulan. Good thing my roommate has good taste in classical movies.
("No chance, no way, I won't say I'm in love." - Meg (from Hercules)

*-*-*-*-*GyungJu Weekend*-*-*-*-*

I will run out of words before I truly describe the wonders that we faced this weekend. On top of feasting with top-notch Korean Gourmet and sight-seeing and traditional Buddhism temples, historical museums, and beautiful parks we got to spend some quality time with two of the graduate students from the CE department at KAIST.

Day 1: dawn breaks too early for us
The alarm went off in Annika and Allie's dorm. It's time for a new adventure, and as Goofy describes "away from it all." In my case "it" defines research and Daejeon. Hey, it's always good to have some time to breath and enjoy the air outside. Unlucky for me, I have been accustomed to sleeping late, waking up later, and researching much later. Well, tough luck for me, this Friday night it's 7 am wake up time, hustling my butt out of bed, out of the dorm, and out to run to the CE building in order to meet up with the rest of the group. Yes, fun run.

All of us fit into a Scooby Doo Mystery Machine (well, it wasn't painted). GyungJu is about 2 hours away from Daejeon. The exterior of my window displayed moving green mountains full of a fluffy layer of trees, sometimes an interesting bridge design, and an ever-going sky full of gray clouds. I remember thinking how it would be if I could be a giant, slowly moving my palm over the extending layer of trees on the mountains just to feel the roughness on my hand. Sigh... and then I feel asleep.

Sometime later we noticed an interesting structure. At first we though the structure had a silhouette of a tree cut out in the middle! So, I shook my head and looked again. Hey, yes it was true! How interesting, a funny big structure allowing a flow of air through it.. interesting. And here I am being paid to research on ways to decrease the wind vibrations on a building.. silly people. (As a side note: I'm actually researching on earthquake control, but it fit saying I'm also doing wind control.) Anthony started trying to get a good picture while the car continued to move. Soon we realized we were about to stop for lunch. Now we had time for a picture.

The first lunch at GyongJu was.. very impressive. I will add pictures to show the food. This was the first meal since I've been here that had a fried whole fish-- yes, with fins, scales, eyes, mouth and everything else a fish is meant to have. The traditional way to eat Korean food is serving many small "plates" (like sample food) around the table and you share it with everyone else. Now, there was a small holder that contained mini fish-ies with eye balls and everything! A side dish! You can imagine how far away I had that dish from me. Everyone was given an individual red, boiling soup. The lady didn't warn me though that there was a surprise inside: two dead, red shrimps. Well, I ate only the tail (with the skin too). I think Shen and Jin Yul ate the entire thing.

The journey began at a stop at a pre-planned power plan tour, other wise known as the Wolsong Nuclear power plant. It was very highly secured. I had to bring my passport to prove my citizenship. Intense. We were shown the inside of one nuclear reactor. It made a lot of noise and it was about six or seven times of me in diameter-- that's all I remember. Oh no, there was this air-blowing metal tunnel we had to walk through to get to the control room. Why, you might as? Well, here's an expert that has experienced that same question (and I answered it too). This silly metal tunnel gets rid of any electrical charge you might be carrying because that will remove the possibility of having a "shock" inside the control room, which could damage the materials and instruments they have in the room (since they were claimed as "delicate" and "expensive"). We took a picture with the man that took us around the power plant.

A quick, funny story about the place. Before we entered our tour showed us a small museum dedicated to the history of nuclear power. Anthony pointed a this model in the middle so I went to investigate. The tour guide saw I wasn't paying attention, so he called me out. "Excuse me, come here and take this quiz for us. Okay, How many people in your family?" me: "six." Him: "oh wow, big family" and he touched the screen for a "six" written in Korean. "how many rooms in house?" me: "um 4 I think" him: "oh wow rich girl!" Laughter while he touched the screen again. "how many cars?" me: "umm well, (counting fingers) one, two, ... four." Him: "oh wow really rich girl" laughter again. "Well, look here, this says that in order for you to equalize the amount of carbon dioxide you put into the atmosphere you would have to plan 1350 trees. So, you should start planting now... or you could give me one of your cars!" Let's just say I will join a tree-planting group when I get to College Station. :)

Enough with that, let's skip ahead to the traditional Buddhist temples that contain sculptures of Buhdda. Yes, that's right. The first place we went to was Gyeongju National Museum. When we entered the first thing I saw to the left of the main building was a huge bell. This was the divine bell of King Seongdeok. "The bell has a beautiful silhouette and elegant decorations including apsaras and lotus blossoms. The inscription on the bell says that the sound of the bell enlightens the beings." While walking around, I saw various old stone images of buddha dancing, dragons, and other creatures. There was a small building that had pots, roof tiles, and more. In another building I found many pictures of Buddha-- plates, little silhouette, semi-sculptures, etc. There were two models of the re-built temples and its room for us to view from a skyview.

After the museum, we had an excessive amount of delicious Korean food (as we were served THREE courses, each coming as we finished our plates) for dinner. Oh the food never stopped that weekend. The fish was a definite favorite of mine- besides the taking out the backbone part.

Later that night we visited a park called Anapji. It has an artificial lake with three small islands. I took my time to enjoy the sceneries; well, mostly because I was utterly exhausted. The lights coming out of each small Korean building had a beautiful reflection on the water. So many people rushed through, trying to get people to take pictures of them with the background as the lake and the reflections. I didn't use my camera because I left it in the car. At this point you must remember that I barely had conscious of where I was, since I had slept so little the day before our departure to GyeongJu. Well, let's just say, I had fun standing with the other students while I asked them to take pictures of me. Oh, and this is where I also confirmed that the noise coming out of our room was frogs. Ughh I can't wait to leave and never hear them before I go to sleep.

Finally, when we got back to the hotel we all stayed in the boys room. The boys ordered some chicken in order to watch the world cup game comfortable. Brazil was playing Portugal that day. What a boring game, but hey it's not like it was an important one. They were both advancing anyways. Anyways, I didn't try the chicken, but the guys decided to buy something like 3 liters of alcohol. Shen was gone after the game ended.. Matt, well he stayed awake and babbled on about how he didn't understand why the girl in the movie had to get a consent about fixing her teeth at the dentist because he had gone through three dentist surgeries.. and blah blah blah. I didn't understand, I just nodded. After the game we watched a movie on T.V., and finally we were off to bed in our own rooms.

Day 2: Temples

Seokgulam Grotto
Waking up at 10 am, meeting up with the boys, and getting stuffed again on the van: we were off to drive through a road that continued to curve and curve; it seemed endless. I became car-sick (nauseus) throughout the entire ride. Finally, we were walking up a slope towards the famous cave temple. It was "constructed in 751 by Prime Minister Kim, DaeSeong. Seokgulam Grotto is certified as one of world's best Buddhist shrines with Bulguksa Temple." It was very interesting to see. Of course at Buddhist temples you cannot take many pictures. In fact, you are not allowed to take pictures. Well, I found ways in some temples to take pictures. Not this one though, so no luck on that. But, you can always google it and see how it looks. I'll give you a hint: it's incredibly large and covered with gold. Good luck.

Bulguksa Temple
After seeing the Seokgulam Grotto we drove to this other temple, where I switched my sb drive with Anthony and gave him my camera since he had ran out of batteries and I didn't want to be in charge of the picture handling. This was somewhat of a misunderstanding to Anthony. He suddenly went berserk and started filling his memory card with random unnecessary pictures! Well, it pleased him so I suppose it was all right.

This is on the back of my ticket: "Erected in the 15th year of King BeopHeung of Sinra some 15 centuries ago and later rebuilt by Prime Minister Kim DaeSeong on a much larger scale. In the 16th century, Daeungjeon, Geukrakjeon and Jahamun were saved from war fire by the Rev. Damhwa and his disciples. The restoration for the other burnt wooden buildings were completed in Dec. 1972 for 3 years construction."

The thing I enjoyed the most was the rock pyramid by a temple. Supposibly, when you add a small rock on top of another rock you say a prayer. There were hundreds of rock mountains! I put one rock up on a mountain that had already been started.

I almost forgot about the "cemetery park"! Our last stop at GyeongJu was the park with green grass-covered mounds! Yes, these were old tombs of Kings and Aristocrats. We entered one tomb of .. a king.. and got to see how the other tombs looked like. There were also some recreated artifacts like the king's crown and gold necklaces, except all of the real ones were at the museum we went to the first day. I uploaded a picture of the real crown earlier.

Oh, and after all of the wonderful Korean food, Korean traditions, and Korean temples the grad students took us to a McDonalds. Yes, typical, fast food, cheap, and tasteless McDonalds. Well, I shouldn't be so harsh on them.. it has saved me several times when I wen crazy from eating so much Korean food. Okay fine, theoretically if I EVER went crazy from too much Korean food. This time I ordered a Big Mac. Yup, nothing better than a good o' fat in calories burger. mmm mm those taste so good.

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The trip was a lot of fun. It was a good break from all of the studying and reading we've been doing so far. Sorry for such a late blog. This should've been posted 2 weeks ago!

-Allie R.

One step forward, two steps back

Today our Control group figured out that all of our 6 weeks work was thrown to the trash. Okay, I will try not to sound so dramatic. In reality, all of the time working here has been very educational for the future, but as for our project and our MATLAB program, not so much. I thought I understood my part of the program well-- LQR and Kalman Filters. Unfortunately, I didn't keep up with Tiara or Anthony's MATLAB changes. Anthony had a problem, since he was changing the units around on simulink and he thinks the error is coming from my part. Ughh so now I have to check my stuff.

Besides that it's been good. I got the grad students' pictures. Here is one where Alexander gave his first English lecture. He was so nervous (because rumors were passed around the lab that we were very smart students before we came) that after the lecture and the questions he announced "let's take a break" and ran off out of the classroom. Another grad student, after laughing for a few minutes, got up and told us "he went to go cry outside," which made us laugh even more. Alexander is actually one of my favorite grad students, after BoMi and JeongSu.

Today I also went out to daily mass. I really wish I knew Korean. The priest that presided the mass was very fun during his homily, and I missed out on the jokes because of the language barrier. Well, I will try my best to learn as much Korean as possible while I am here. BoMi was nice enough to find a friend of a friend who took Korean , so she borrowed her Korean-English book. Let's just say that I will be flipping through the pages throughout the weekend while at our trip to GyongJu (or however I spelled it before).

Last thing before I stop writing: Italy and France both ended last in their bracket and are therefore not advancing in the World Cup! Wow, very exciting considering that all of the South American teams so far are letting the world know that they are not going home without a fight. Now is the time to be proud to be from South America, despite Peru's qualification to the World Cup. There is much that awaits me now. This world cup is turning out more interesting than ever. First off, poor old South Africa got kicked out even though they are the host. Second, most of the European teams are putting on a poor show for us watchers. I mean, who's in? England, Germany, hopefully Spain, definitely Portugal, and maybe Netherlands (hopefully Denmark wins the next game so Annika's family can be happy for a little bit longer).

Well anyways, here are some pictures for you to enjoy. The last picture I just posted is JeongSu watching the video of Girls Generation whenever the grad students showed us what was popular in Korea. Now that you know who danced for us from my old post, I think I understand this picture much better. Obviously JeongSu was thinking "hehe these girls can't dance as good as I can. Hopefully the REU students will ask me to dance. I will surely shake my butt better than Girls Generation." Oh JeongSu...

These two pictures are when I went to ask DD about a circuit question. He had a hard time with it, but in the end we got it to work. :)
This is a picture that BoMi took of me trying to play JeongSu's instrument. Well, I almost got the scales down, but I couldn't play anything.

Annika is a funny roommate. She just said "I love sleeping. These sheets feel like silk." And she tells me to stop talking to her so she can go to sleep. She makes me laugh. Oh little Annika.

Okay, well I need to wake up early tomorrow.

-Allie R.

Lights on, let's go!

Referring to my last post, I was utterly anxious and impatiently waiting for time to pass by faster for the Korean game to begin. Sooner than I expected the clock stroke 2:00 am. I quickly put on my Korean uniform over my white shirt, slipped into my shoes, and went to wake up the other two girls -- Tiara and Hariettou. Faster than saying "go" we were up and about, meeting Anthony outside our dorms, and getting inside a cab hoping that "Daejeon World Cup Stadium" would be Korean-ish enough for our cab driver to understand our destination. He looked at our red jerseys, smiled, and began to drive. Whew, one Korean barrier down.. and don't know how many left throughout the night.

As we were all jumping inside the cab, we noticed -- uh oh Tiara was wearing a Green shirt. Let me remind you, Korea (the reds) were playing Nigeria (the buffed-up green team). Good thing she brought her hoodie to hide her true colors in the middle of the Korean crowd.

The cab kept driving and soon we saw the lights. Bright lights, complex architecture structure, big letters saying "Daejeon World Cup Stadium" -- yup, we had arrived. The stadium was beautiful. The architecture, the lights, the flags. It was too much to capture while my mind was so concentrated on how the outcome if this game would [proportionally] influence the Korean's admission to the second round of the World Cup at South Africa. I mean, the South Africanians have already been kicked out of their own world cup... Korea can't have the same fate as them.

To our surprise there were a lot of vendors outside selling red shirts (guess who bought a red shirt), lit-up horns, squid, hot dogs, food, more food, and some weird cooked up dark shells as popcorn? Then, we entered the gates, were shown to the locker rooms, dressed up, and entered the field to play the wonderful game. Ha no just kidding, I wish. We entered the gates, crowded with people selling red air cheer sticks. I bought on a red cheer stick, but a couple of seconds later I notice that there are people giving out white ones for free.

The game was intense every second of it. Great game, but very fearsome for Korea. In the first minute Korea had a shot that looked like goal. And Nigeria did not give up until the game was over. Both teams played well, although Nigeria missed some goals that.. a 4-year old could have made. Right in front of goal, no goalie... and you tap to the left of the goal?!?! How? That's okay, good for Korea. Man we missed some good shots, but it was the same on both sides.







Quick futbol Chat
I was just thinking about some of the amazing soccer players in the leagues. They skills begin to show very early in their youth. There's this little 6-year old called "Madin Mohammad" on youtube that is very famous now due to his dribbling skills and more. He is good, but he is so young and he is already being exposed to the limelight. So it spurred my thinking, what does it mean to be a great footballist? Sure there's the general categories about speed, heading, passing, etc. But, what differs a great footballist from a great, well respected person? They should both be the same, right? When you look at C Ronaldo, what are your first thoughts? Amazing player, great dribbler, all time favorite hottie, fighter, and sometimes haughty. Yes, you might say he has the rights to be conceited and proud because he's one of the greatest football players. Still, he's usually in the news for a new hot scandal of who he 'flirted' with last week.
Now, think of Messi. Absolutely marvelous, intelligent in making plays, simple, and always concentrated. He doesn't play for himself, to bring glory to himself, but to play for his own team. He is more humble than a lot of other players. I found this clip on youtube that absolutely amazed me. His skills as a child are easily spotted in the entire video, but after the match is over and Messi's team begins to celebrate together, Messi notices that a player on the other team (that lost) is on the ground crying. He runs over to the kid on the ground to cheer him up, while his whole team follows Messi. That is a display of the a true great footballist from the start. Not only that but, Messi's history consists of him being casted out by recruiters from other clubs because of his growing hormone problem. This kind of kindness and caring display really sets an example, especially for me, to follow.

I love football.

- Allie R.

Anxious for the game

I don't have much to say about today except that I am absolutely impatiently waiting for the clock to tick away faster for the Korea v. Nigeria game at 3:30 am. Tiara, Anthony, HaeMi, the girl next door, and I are going to take a bus from the entrance of KAIST to the Daejeon World Cup Stadium to watch the game on the big screen.

If you haven't been keeping up with group B, then let me tell you a thing or two. Korea needs a win to assure itself a seat at the next round (being #2 in their group rating) because.. we all know that Big Dog Argentina won't let the Greeks score on them. Even Coach Otto said that the Greeks are planning to play "Defensive." Well, tough luck for them since they need a Miraculous win of a 2-goal difference with Argentina. It's not in Greece's favor, considering that they don't have a good World Cup history. I mean, c'mon their first world cup win EVER was against Nigeria with a 2-1 win! Sorry Greece, but not this time.

The next 3 hours need to roll on faster. Meanwhile, I suppose I will tell more about the little trips here and there that I have forgotten to mention.

The Catholic Church 10 minutes away from KAIST DOES exist!

Tiara and I walked to the International Zone after working in the lab to get some lunch, well mostly for me. I eat at random hours-- too late or too early. We were strolling around the Korean-named streets, passing by the famous Santa Claus Bar, looking at many Cafe places until we found a nice Italian restaurant. The food was very good. The most interesting part was that the chefs cooked with large, wooden chopsticks on a huge metal pan! I'm not complaining, in fact I was definitely admiring!

For some reason we decided to go a different way. We walked past a huge sign that read "THE CHOCOLATE with Bloody Marys" -- a cafe that also served alcoholic beverages. To our surprise we saw something white that looked like a statue. "Hey look, that might be Catholic!" Curiosity turned to exploration, walking became jogging, squinting became awing ... yes it was the Catholic Church we had been told about. Ah, so at last we found it!

We entered, yes, and I took a picture of the inside. I also learned about the first priest in South Korea. I took a picture of that too. Now I have a place to go if I can spare some time during my day for some silent prayer. Thank you God.

"When is Mating Season?"

Annika and I have some great conversations, but they usually rise up before we go to bed while we are waiting for our bodies to collapse after a long day. Lately there have been some very annoying frogs outside of our building that make noises that fill our ears with disgust. Yesterday, unaware of the time, date or place, I asked Anniked (hoping she would have an answer) "when is mating season?" She began to laugh as I was dead-dog serious because it might answer as to why the frogs would croak so frequently for a week. If you, sir or madam, have any information please let the world hear you say it because I am really thinking about buying a shotgun and blowing the croaks out of these frogs.

A trip to GyungJua

The grad student JingYeo (which I always forget who's name that belongs to) has planned a two-day trip to this place for us, beginning Friday and ending Saturday night. He sent an itinerary today. I'm going to see the inside of a power plant! (Sorry, can't take any photos). And, a lot more temples. Guess my camera will be charging for a while on Thursday.

"Toodles"

-Allie R.

A new Instrument

Today was the last day of lectures. Best lecture I've ever had.

Jeongsu talked about hybrid simulation, and the EMI device that we are implementing in our structural control model. Well, that part was okay considering that half of the lecture had already been presented to us that same morning. The fun part began when he asked "any questions" that we (or, I) asked "can you dance for us now?"

Background note: The first day we arrived at KAIST the grad students we were with had talked a lot about Jeongsu's dance moves. Whenever we visited Seoul I asked our grad student about his famous dance moves and Bomin (the girl grad student) also agreed that Jeongsu had dancing skills.

Well, when I asked him the question he replied with "wait, I have prepared something for you guys. Don't leave." And with that he was off, leaving us in an empty lecture room. We waited anxiously. What could he possibly have ready besides his dance moves?

5 words: It was worth the wait. Below is his performance. He taught us how to hold his "Geomungo" instrument, but it was more entertaining listening to him play. All of us tried the instrument (except for Tiara), even Bomin. Then, after the other two grad students that had come with their cam recorders and cameras left, we got to see Jeongsu dance to Girls Generation. Haha lots of fun!!

I will edit these posts later. Enjoy the video!

- Allie R.

Awkward Spa moment

Ever had the urge of getting into warm waters, relaxing, getting a body massage for less than $100, and waking up to change and return to the real world. That was me last morning. After eating a wonderful breakfast containing a waffle, caffe latte, bagle, and cream cheese, I was definitely craving to enjoy a couple of hours at the Yuseong Spa. It must be popular, I told myself as our taxi flew over the other cars to get to the Shavu Shavu restaurant (a while back) while seeing the multiple signs leading to the Spa. Plus, it was also a main spot on the subway line. Once Annika looked up the entrance pricing, and we were satisfied with the 5000 won fee, we packed our backpacks with towels, swimsuit, swimcaps, and flipflops ready to enjoy a day at the spa.

Could you image though, all of the excitement we had and it being torn down as old naked ladies passed our view when entering the locker room? Soon we were in the middle of a nude spa, with girls going in and out of what seemed like two small pools full of steam. Nervous as I was, I walked to the restroom, face down, and found out a stingy odor came out from the restroom. Well, obviously I didn't have the guts to undress and join the ladies in the hot springs.. so no massages for me this time!

So after sitting around staring at our lockers, Annika and I returned to the front of the locker room, returned the locker keys smiling as the lady in front of us had a face of amazement and shock, we noticed that the cleaning lady (who had earlier instructed us to take off our clothes) ran to the other lady who received our 5000 won and spoke fast Korean. Luckily, she smiled at us and gave us our money back, probably thinking "oh foreigners.."

The day turned out good though. Annika and I took a subway to the Galleria, found out that Mango was having a 50% off sale, walked back to KAIST with the intention of returning at 7 p.m. for more extended shopping period. In between that period Anthony and Matt found out that Tiara and I make a good team in 2v2 soccer. :) Take that boys.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures.. except for this one shirt that I saw at a store. (I didn't buy it.)

-Allie R.

Fun Friday and World Cup remarks (oooo)

It's been a good week full of research, lots of reading, Skype conference with my professor, and relaxing with the other REUs. Thank God He gave me Friday to relax, enjoy Daejeon, and watch a great match although that should have ended differently but "it is [already] written."

Side Remark: KITTIES!!!!

There is a big mamma cat who gave birth to 5 tiny and cute little kitties right outside the girls' dorm! You can guess who's feeding them. Annika and I went out one night and gave them my tuna. The two big cats (I assume it was the mom and the dad) ate most of it but I left some for the little ones too. Then another day I brought them a milk carton. One brave little kitty came out and tried to steal a lick of milk while her mom's face was in the way. It was way cute.

Jung-ang Shijang Traditional Market

So, the girls had decided to wake up at 6 a.m., take a taxi to the Yuseong Spa, relax, head over to a Traditional Market, return and relax at the university, maybe take a bus to the art museum, and enjoy watching the U.S.A game at the Santa Claus Bar at 11 p.m. That was our main plan. Well, I'm going to borrow my friend's phrase from her blog, "plans make Him laugh." Turns out that our morning started like this: (keep in mind that Annika and I are roommates, and Tiara lives next door)

Rrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrr
"Allie, the alarm is going off" (tired voice)
"Turn it off!" (mean voice)
"Okay" (sweetly)
Both girls fall asleep
[30 min later Tiara knocks.. no answer]
[30 min later AGAIN Tiara knocks... no answer]
zzzz zzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"Allie wake up it's 10 a.m."
[Throws pillow at girl on bed. Allie hugs pillow and goes back to sleep]

Needless to say, we didn't wake up at 6 a.m. like we planned, so we didn't end up going to the wonderful Yuseong Spa to relax. We did however
wake up to start the day by taking showers, walked through the International zone, ate at a Japanese Fusion place, and took the Subway train to the Daejeon Station. This traditional market, named Jung-ang Shijang, is the biggest open market in the city of Daejeon. It reminded me of "Magdalena" in Peru except this market had more Korean specialties. Everywhere you walked there was some kind of food, object, cds, etc. for sale! When we first started walking this lady wanted me to buy her blackberries. I figured, yeah sure.. I tried asking her how much, and she said "chu chu" holding up her thumb and the finger on the right of it (from my perspective). I mean, yeah 2000 for a big bowl of blackberries, why not.. I gave her a 10,000 won bill and she only gave me 5000 back with a smile. What? I tried to explain to here that I thought it was 2000 and she just kept smiling. Well, since my friends were leaving and delving deeper into the maze full of food stands, I didn't have a choice but to leave with my black bag of black berries.

At first the market had a keen smell of fish.. lots of fish, big and small, fresh and some with flies above them, eyes staring at the world, others being dissected by old ladies taking out bones and intestines, and octopus too -- some alive, other neatly packed in small spaces for the buyer to see. Then, the roots section. There were stacks of them. When we randomly took a turn we saw that a band in blue glittered outfits was playing. I spotted an old lady by her stand smiling and clapping. She looked so happy that I felt like giving her a hug.. but of course I didn't haha. Aww It made me happy that she was happy. Man, I can't wait to be an old lady.. I'm going to be a cute one like her ha!





Before I finish my discussion on the traditional market we visited, I would like to point out that they have a great selection of purses and bags! Their Louis Vuitton symbols were "L" and "W" or "V" and upside down "V" rather than a L and a V. But, Tiara and I did find some that we liked, so I bought a cute backpack of the world and she bought her first purse by herself! Good for her!

Art Museum
We took the subway back to KAIST and rested for an hour. We then meet up with Matt, walked to the CE building to get Anthony, and ran into the grad students outside the building who helped us get information about the Art Museum we were headed to (which we had no idea where it was). This turned out great for us: (1) We got directions and (2) we were given information about the Gap Temple from the "Captain" (the head police officer for the CE building at KAIST). Hehe, and we laughed with the grads especially Alexander.

"Ahn nyong Haseyo" - the "Captain"
"Ahn nyong Haseyo" - all of the grad students (replying back to the "Captain")
(sharply) "Bye." - Alexander
[laughter]

When we finally got dropped off after a 6000 won taxi ride to the museum, we noticed that many people all dressed up were headed towards this beautiful looking building. Turns out the Daejeon Orchestra was playing Tchaikovsky and I was missing out! But, that's okay we got to see some beautiful artwork. There was a whole gallery that was dedicated to this guy named "Lee"? Well, I thought his pictures were good. After looking at them very closely I noticed a lot of hidden messages that interested me. One, which I hope to post, looked like a chaotic game of soccer with a soccer ball in the middle. The other, a squid on the right side, noodles vertically placed on the left side, and a tentacle extended from the right to the left of the bottom of the painting. The third picture contained some tiny fishies and the squigglies could be interpreted as squid. Well, this probably has something to do with the fact that I was extremely hungry for dinner and I had a strong desire to watch the World Cup games (especially the USA match). Let me know what you think about these interpretations if Lee's art.






There were also some interesting sculptures outside of the art
gallery and the orchestra building. Tiara and Annika were fascinated by this on funny structure with a huge ear on the side. I liked the one where two naked kids were reaching for a slice of apple on the top of something. The taller kid had his hand on the small kid's butt. I have no idea? My favorite one was where the were three walls and each showed the progression of a guy walking through the wall with a boulder on his shoulder (I think).

Chicken + Juice + Ice Scream = great Dinner

Once the taxi dropped us off at the International Zone, Anthony, Annika, and I found a guy with chicken rolling around on a stick (on the back of his truck). The sign was in Korean, but we could still understand that "3 [chicken] = 10 000 won." It was located at a great spot: in front of a 711. Ahh, we bought drinks (mango juice for me), sat outside and ate our chicken like carnivorous beasts--- meaning using chopsticks and hands. Oh what a wonderful dinner.

U.S.A game at the Santa Claus Bar

We've enjoyed this little International Bar and since it is now officially Shen's (our grad student from UAkron) favorite place in South Korea, we came here to watch the USA game. Boy that was a great place due to the cheering, but a terrible place to be due to all of the smoke. The first couple of times we've been there everyone was about our age or a little older -- university students mostly. Today though.. oh, so many old people! Not to be rude but, come on Mr. white-haired, Australian-accent, screaming-maniac-for-the-other-team, clapping-for-no-reason... the least you could do is blow your smoke somewhere other than towards the side of us and move from left to right to block our view of the T.V. screen!! Boy, if the U.S.A. game hadn't been so amazingly intense, I would have definitely left by myself to find a better place to watch the game.

Anyways, I will pretend that whoever is reading this has a strong knowledge of the game. Man, at first when Slovenia scored only about two people were
clapping-- the white haired guy blocking our screen, and some random guy in the back.. but when U.S. scored... EVERYONE was out of their seats, jumping, screaming AYYYYYYYYYYYYY, hugging each other, high five-ing random strangers, and literally making the whole basement vibrate. Then, the harmonic chant began: "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" The second goal was even louder. and the third--- out of this world. Except, you could imagine the devastating call by the ref when he said that the last one was "off sides." People were screaming in a chorus "bull..." Ahhhhhhhh that was NOT offsides for one, and the sideline refs were terrible in the game! C'mon!!

Well, it's so early here (2 am) and my roommate went to sleep since she had a terrible headache at the bar.. I think that calls for me to lay down and rest. Until next time! Toodles!

-Allie R.