Photo Journal #5

I can’t believe my time in Korea is already over. I am writing this photo journal from the AAAI conference in Atlanta because the end snuck up on me so quickly! Danielle, Bob, Peter and I spent the last 4 days in Jeju (the Hawaii of Korea) together but I got to spend time with the boys the night before Peter and I flew back.

My last official lab day was July 6th. Dr. Oh had a faculty meeting so he was out of the lab all day, which gave the boys a little more freedom. Typically Danielle and I would make a big deal when it was someone in the labs birthday and since we had a lot of January birthdays we decided to have a big half birthday party on that last day. Cheol , noticing the emphasis we put on birthdays, got me a half birthday cake. It was the sweetest thing ever. We put on two and a half candles (because I was 20.5 years old on July 5th) and sang happy half birthday in Korean. The cake was an awesome sweet potato cake but this is different than the American orange sweet potato. It looks like a normal potato but is sweeter and is usually served with this almost syrup tasting sauce on it.

Our idea of a big party was playing Korean card games with a traditional Korean deck of cards and, of course, good old regular poker. Chung su, Jungwoo, Inho and I stayed up late playing a tournament and then I hit the hay before waking up super early to go to Jeju.

I got back from Jeju on Sunday and it worked out perfectly that the World Cup final was at 3 30 in the morning on Monday. I got to finish up my packing and decompress from Jeju and then the boys said they would come in for one last hurrah with Peter and me. Jungwoo, Cheol, Taejin, Dongil, Peter, Danielle, and I went out and ate lots of Korean food and Soju (Korean rice alcohol). Peter and I brought our luggage in the back of Jungwoo’s car on the way there because we had to go straight to the airport immediately after the game because our flight was at 10 30 Monday morning. The above picture of Danielle, Jungwoo, Peter and me was when we were saying goodbye (even before the game ended because we didn’t have time to see it all!) on our way to the bus. It certainly was an interesting adventure getting to the airport. Actually now that I think about it, it was the exact opposite of interesting because we passed out immediately upon getting on the bus.

We got on the plane and that was it! We certainly made the most of our hours in Korea. Peter did the calculation and we did not sleep in 52 hours before finally falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow at the Georgia Tech apartments we are staying at for this conference. Definitely the longest I have ever been awake, I am pretty sure I was losing my mind. Peter and I tried to log in to his blog for about 20 minutes, going through every email he has, and didn’t even realize until the next morning we were typing his email address @google.com instead of @gmail.com. It is five o’clock even after twelve hours of sleep last night and I am already ready to go to sleep.

I was really sad to leave Korea. I was mostly sad to say goodbye to everyone I met. Going around the country was really fun and I was really glad I did it but my favorite part was definitely just hanging out with the lab boys. I loved how they would teach me bits and pieces of Korean, help me out on my project whenever, eat whatever crazy delicious concoctions Danielle and I would make, go along with all of our ideas that must have seemed ridiculous to them, and just being friends with a group of great guys. I mean no one has actually gotten me a half birthday cake, no matter how much I go on and on about it.

I really hope to stay in touch with them in the long term. Jungwoo and Cheol already had facebooks and Danielle is setting them up for the other guys. I actually skyped with Danielle at 4 this morning (jetlag…) and got to say hi to everyone. Danielle said afterwards they all said how much they missed us and wanted us to come back and just really great things so I don’t feel like I am keeping up fake relationships but real friendships. I also have been convincing them to come to the US and hopefully down the road they will. Who knows, maybe I will hit up Korea in the future and be able to hang out with them.

All in all it was such an amazing trip. I think back to the time in February when I first heard about it and my apprehension about traveling to Asia for six weeks. I mean if you had asked me before this trip where the last place on the planet you would ever find me it would probably be some Asian country. Now I am so happy I went and can’t wait to return. It is different but people are people. I had so much fun getting to know the hubo boys and exploring the country that I definitely would not trade this summer for anything.

This experience was even more perfect when I think about it in conjunction with my traveling abroad this September to Jordan. Korea was the perfect stepping-stone because the language is completely different like Arabic, which gave me the feeling of being really helpless while at the same time being an easier language and everyone in Korea is nice and helpful (which I am not expecting to the same extent if at all in Jordan). I got to learn how to travel the right way in a very foreign country to an American but still a safe environment. I can apply this to make myself more effective at traveling and living in Jordan; I have that many less hiccups to survive.

It is amazing how attached one can get in six weeks. Even less than six weeks in the program I was near tears when the Korean Red Devils got eliminated in the World Cup! I hope I get to see these guys at many points again in my life but in the mean time thank you whoever invented the internet!