I am beginning to wonder when our actual research is going to start as tomorrow one of the KAIST doctoral students (Thomas, English name) is taking the seven of us on a tour of Deajeon and its surrounding areas. Thomas came and picked us up at our dorms at 2300 this evening to take us to his office where he showed us a short presentation of our itinerary. He has rented a Hyundai 8 passenger diesel van for tomorrow. Some of the locations include a National Park with temples and a small canyon, a 4.8 km hike round trip with lunch at the entrance to the national park, an arboretum close to the city, a city center tour with a traditional Korean dinner and some drinks, then off to a mountain overlook area on the opposite side of the city for a night time view of the city. Starting at 0930 in the morning, he expects we will be out till midnight. With gas nearly US$7 per gallon, the entire trip including the rental van, food, park entrance fees, etc Thomas expects the costs to be about 90,000 won per person for the day ($76).
After supper with Professor Jung, Kaist students and the REU interns, I did a self guided tour of the city aimlessly wondering trying to get lost on the bicycle while taking a few photos. I ended up at Time World, a popular entertainment district of Daaejeon with clubs, street food vendors, bars, and a massive amount of people walking the streets. After taking about ten photos, a local man about my age approached me and asked me where I was from. A short conversation later found us drinking a beer at a bar just around the corner. One beer was all I had time for as I had to be back at the university for our 2300 meeting with Thomas.
The man turned out to be a local realtor who spoke no English. He used his smart phone to translate his Korean characters to a few phrases in English. One of which was I am a realtor and another, would you like to join me for a beer. The proprietor in Lucky`s bar spoke good English and had the time to join in our conversation while acting as a translator for the Korean language I have no knowledge of. So far I have only learned how to say one word, thank you, gahm-sah-hahm-ni-da.
After supper with Professor Jung, Kaist students and the REU interns, I did a self guided tour of the city aimlessly wondering trying to get lost on the bicycle while taking a few photos. I ended up at Time World, a popular entertainment district of Daaejeon with clubs, street food vendors, bars, and a massive amount of people walking the streets. After taking about ten photos, a local man about my age approached me and asked me where I was from. A short conversation later found us drinking a beer at a bar just around the corner. One beer was all I had time for as I had to be back at the university for our 2300 meeting with Thomas.
The man turned out to be a local realtor who spoke no English. He used his smart phone to translate his Korean characters to a few phrases in English. One of which was I am a realtor and another, would you like to join me for a beer. The proprietor in Lucky`s bar spoke good English and had the time to join in our conversation while acting as a translator for the Korean language I have no knowledge of. So far I have only learned how to say one word, thank you, gahm-sah-hahm-ni-da.
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