Driving in Korea:
During my previous research of Korea I read a lot of horror stories about Korean driving. Most celebrities here have been in major accidents, notably two actors were injured in car accidents during filming of notably one of the most famous Korean dramas, Boys over Flowers. I expected to come to Korea and be plowed over by scooter drivers on the sidewalk, and hit by cars that are driving the wrong way down one-ways. Although I was almost run over by a scooter driver moving at 50 miles an hour down my neighborhood street at the beginning of my stay in Korea, and red lights are more like guidelines than actual requirements… Driving in Korea is much tamer than I expected. As long as you remain alert there shouldn’t be a huge problem… Since coming here I have also become less inclined to look both ways when crossing the street. This is due to the fact that I am usually in the middle of huge crowds of Koreans and I’m not worried about being hit by a passing motorist, however, this mindset most definitely can’t apply when it comes to empty side streets where cars move incredibly fast, and taxis drive in all directions aka my neighborhood. Also, most cars here are some variation of a neutral color, white, black, or gray, and it can be a bit harder to see the cars at night compared to the brightly colored cars we see back in the states. It is also common to see cars just randomly parked on the sides of highways, and busy streets, often in still completely in the right-hand lane. This practice made me confused at first, but I think when I get home I’m going to have to resist the urge to park on the side of 35W (probably not, but it is possible…) Driving in Korea definitely reflects the “bali bali” culture. While people stop for red lights (not scooters, they do whatever they want… including driving on sidewalks, in between lanes), they will often start moving before the light turns green, as soon as they see the other lane starting to change. One last point, I’ve noticed that people don’t really move out of the way for emergency vehicles here. At home, everyone immediately pulls over for any type of siren, here people just kinda move along, maybe moving a bit to the side.
During my previous research of Korea I read a lot of horror stories about Korean driving. Most celebrities here have been in major accidents, notably two actors were injured in car accidents during filming of notably one of the most famous Korean dramas, Boys over Flowers. I expected to come to Korea and be plowed over by scooter drivers on the sidewalk, and hit by cars that are driving the wrong way down one-ways. Although I was almost run over by a scooter driver moving at 50 miles an hour down my neighborhood street at the beginning of my stay in Korea, and red lights are more like guidelines than actual requirements… Driving in Korea is much tamer than I expected. As long as you remain alert there shouldn’t be a huge problem… Since coming here I have also become less inclined to look both ways when crossing the street. This is due to the fact that I am usually in the middle of huge crowds of Koreans and I’m not worried about being hit by a passing motorist, however, this mindset most definitely can’t apply when it comes to empty side streets where cars move incredibly fast, and taxis drive in all directions aka my neighborhood. Also, most cars here are some variation of a neutral color, white, black, or gray, and it can be a bit harder to see the cars at night compared to the brightly colored cars we see back in the states. It is also common to see cars just randomly parked on the sides of highways, and busy streets, often in still completely in the right-hand lane. This practice made me confused at first, but I think when I get home I’m going to have to resist the urge to park on the side of 35W (probably not, but it is possible…) Driving in Korea definitely reflects the “bali bali” culture. While people stop for red lights (not scooters, they do whatever they want… including driving on sidewalks, in between lanes), they will often start moving before the light turns green, as soon as they see the other lane starting to change. One last point, I’ve noticed that people don’t really move out of the way for emergency vehicles here. At home, everyone immediately pulls over for any type of siren, here people just kinda move along, maybe moving a bit to the side.
Ecoplex Korea/Science!
This past weekend Christina and I traveled down to Seocheon to visit the Ecoplex Ecological Park! This facility is focused on preservation of the local environment as well as providing a site for exhibition of various habitats around the globe as well as the promotion of research. In fact, the site that the Ecoplex rests on was originally designated for new industry until the Korean government helped back the formation of the Eco Institute. The Ecorium is composed of various greenhouses each exhibiting different climates around the globe, including tropical, desert, temperate, polar, and Mediterranean.
Christina and I weren’t able to drive down with the guys and the other students from Ewa on Friday morning as we had to finish up an experiment. This meant that we had to take a train from Yongsang Station to Seocheon. Using public transportation in Korea is inevitably harder as English speakers, but as long as you research the route beforehand everything can go smoothly. To prepare to travel to the south east coast, we had to figure out the subway transfer to get to Yongsang station (green line to dark blue line, the dark blue line only comes every 20 minutes or so… it was a long wait), then that we needed to buy a ticket to take us to Seocheon Station. Buying the ticket wasn’t very difficult, the vendor knew pretty good English, but finding the correct train line was a bit more of a challenge. Yongsang station is huge. There are many tracks that lead out of the terminal, and consequently more chances for Christina and me to get into the wrong car. Fortunately, both Christina and I are relatively smart individuals, and soon we were on the train to Seocheon! The ride was long, over three and a half hours. Thank goodness the kid that kicked the back of my seat for the first hour got off at one of the earlier stops! The way that the train system works here is that you can buy “standing” or “seating” tickets. Christina and I bought the seating tickets, but those with the standing tickets only had to stand in the isles for a bit before the train car emptied enough for them to snag seats. Next time we may go for the cheaper standing option, we’ll see! The scenery from outside my window was beautiful! Christina didn’t understand why I needed to take so many pictures… but we were traveling just as the sun was setting over the mountains and rice paddies!
This past weekend Christina and I traveled down to Seocheon to visit the Ecoplex Ecological Park! This facility is focused on preservation of the local environment as well as providing a site for exhibition of various habitats around the globe as well as the promotion of research. In fact, the site that the Ecoplex rests on was originally designated for new industry until the Korean government helped back the formation of the Eco Institute. The Ecorium is composed of various greenhouses each exhibiting different climates around the globe, including tropical, desert, temperate, polar, and Mediterranean.
Christina and I weren’t able to drive down with the guys and the other students from Ewa on Friday morning as we had to finish up an experiment. This meant that we had to take a train from Yongsang Station to Seocheon. Using public transportation in Korea is inevitably harder as English speakers, but as long as you research the route beforehand everything can go smoothly. To prepare to travel to the south east coast, we had to figure out the subway transfer to get to Yongsang station (green line to dark blue line, the dark blue line only comes every 20 minutes or so… it was a long wait), then that we needed to buy a ticket to take us to Seocheon Station. Buying the ticket wasn’t very difficult, the vendor knew pretty good English, but finding the correct train line was a bit more of a challenge. Yongsang station is huge. There are many tracks that lead out of the terminal, and consequently more chances for Christina and me to get into the wrong car. Fortunately, both Christina and I are relatively smart individuals, and soon we were on the train to Seocheon! The ride was long, over three and a half hours. Thank goodness the kid that kicked the back of my seat for the first hour got off at one of the earlier stops! The way that the train system works here is that you can buy “standing” or “seating” tickets. Christina and I bought the seating tickets, but those with the standing tickets only had to stand in the isles for a bit before the train car emptied enough for them to snag seats. Next time we may go for the cheaper standing option, we’ll see! The scenery from outside my window was beautiful! Christina didn’t understand why I needed to take so many pictures… but we were traveling just as the sun was setting over the mountains and rice paddies!
Based on the size of the station (one cement block with a roof), I would have never guessed that Seocheon was as big as it was! Jun-Young met us at the station to take us to a delicious dinner of Korean beef! Dinner was crowded, and other than my leg falling asleep, it was pretty relaxing sitting and listening to the hum of fast spoken Korean. We heard from Jun-Young that the rooms we were going to stay in were really nice, with automatic blinds! So I was excited to see the institute, and sleep… We got up at the crack of dawn in order to finish up our experiment in time to catch the train to Seocheon. However, first we were tasked with finding singing insects for display to the children the next day. However, we didn’t catch too many before it was time for chicken and beer! I was still pretty full from dinner, but I had yet to try Korean fried chicken, it was delicious! I will never doubt Korean chicken again, it was a thousand times better than any fried chicken I’ve had in the states, granted I don’t really eat fried chicken at home, but still! It was fun to chat with two Koreans working with a children’s magazine (one of them just finished up a master’s degree in physics at SNU), and with the other professors and students at Ewa.
The next morning we got up early and after a breakfast of peanut butter and jelly and kimbop we headed to the Ecoplex. It was a surprisingly long walk from the lodging to the complex, but we passed a lot of examples of the natural Korean foliage. We passed a children’s playground (which we explored later that day!), and over a large swamp before we arrived at the front doors of the institute. We still had a few minutes before the kids would come and tour the complex, so after cooling down for a few minutes, we headed to the first dome, the tropical dome. There were a lot of tropical plants and the path wound around a waterfall, and up to an observation deck where we could look out over the entire ecosystem. One of the coolest sections of the tropical biome, however, was the fish aquariums! There were many examples of exotic, and native fish! We quickly passed through the temperate and Mediterranean biomes, but my favorite biome was by far the desert biome. It was nice to see some cacti and watch the cute prairie dogs dig and cuddle! The polar biome was mainly a museum exhibit, although there were live penguins. The penguins were clearly the most popular part of the polar biome! There were many Korean families and young couples watching the birds and listening to a lecture (it was in Korean so we didn’t stay). The Ecoplex reminded me of the Como conservatory back home, and I enjoyed walking around and moving from biome to biome. I think that the Ecoplex will be a popular attraction, and very educational for young children, especially as it allows visitors to experience different environments first hand!
However, we couldn’t spend all day touring the Ecorium! For the rest of the day we played a 20 Question quiz with the campers and their parents. The campers picked an animal from at box and handed it to one of us to take a peek at and answer their yes or no questions. The kids were really cute, and their English was astonishing! One young boy asked me if the animal was carnivorous or omnivorous… those are quite impressive English words for an eight year old to know, and pronounce perfectly! All the groups did really well, one of the hardest to guess proved to be the butterfly option, at least for my groups. We finished up before dinner and stopped at the playground on our way back to the lodges. Later that night we led the kids and parents into the woods to record some insect calls, however it proved to be too loud (too many kids and stomping feet in one area) for my group to record anything, but we did find and catch some really cool native Korean insects! (대벌레 Daebeolle, 날베짱이 Nalbejjangi, katydids, and a lot of crickets). I had a lot of fun this weekend, and enjoyed my visit to the Ecoplex! It will be cool to see in ten years or so when the trees have grown and fill the entire space allotted for them!
However, we couldn’t spend all day touring the Ecorium! For the rest of the day we played a 20 Question quiz with the campers and their parents. The campers picked an animal from at box and handed it to one of us to take a peek at and answer their yes or no questions. The kids were really cute, and their English was astonishing! One young boy asked me if the animal was carnivorous or omnivorous… those are quite impressive English words for an eight year old to know, and pronounce perfectly! All the groups did really well, one of the hardest to guess proved to be the butterfly option, at least for my groups. We finished up before dinner and stopped at the playground on our way back to the lodges. Later that night we led the kids and parents into the woods to record some insect calls, however it proved to be too loud (too many kids and stomping feet in one area) for my group to record anything, but we did find and catch some really cool native Korean insects! (대벌레 Daebeolle, 날베짱이 Nalbejjangi, katydids, and a lot of crickets). I had a lot of fun this weekend, and enjoyed my visit to the Ecoplex! It will be cool to see in ten years or so when the trees have grown and fill the entire space allotted for them!
Quick Research Update!
We are fully into our water strider research, and spend our week days digitizing and filming! It is cool to see the data build, and I am looking forward to analyzing and testing our hypothesis! We’ve made a few modifications, different form of weight on the backs of the water striders, and measuring the temperature of the water before each jump, in order to improve the depth of our data. Hopefully everything continues to move smoothly!
We are fully into our water strider research, and spend our week days digitizing and filming! It is cool to see the data build, and I am looking forward to analyzing and testing our hypothesis! We’ve made a few modifications, different form of weight on the backs of the water striders, and measuring the temperature of the water before each jump, in order to improve the depth of our data. Hopefully everything continues to move smoothly!