Thoughts and Travels

5.23.2008 Lecture at Chonam University

Well, woke up this morning at 5:30am just because I was awake.  Took a shower in the pimp jaccuzi tub and then went down to wait for the bus.  It was pretty peaceful this morning, and I walked across the road to the river to take some pictures of the area.  

We left promptly at 7:30am and went to breakfast at McDonalds.  It wasn’t bad, but the thought by our host was that after all the Korean style breakfasts, we would like something familiar.  I know that he liked McDonalds when he was in the states too. 

We went first, to the Choenam campus where we got a campus tour and learned about the university history.  There was some information there about the 5/18 massacre in 1980 or so.  It seems that even though the country said it was democratic, there were curfews and other repressions going on so the students at this university staged a protest and many got killed because of it in a military style repression.  After that, liberty was gained by the whole country and now there are memorials about the date. 

We also went to the university museum which was the first place that I’ve seen where they had evidence that people in this area were once buried in clay jars (very large clay jars).  There were many other items to look at too, including stone arrowheads and some pictures and writing from long ago. 

After the tour, we went and listened to Dick give a presentation about Iowa and the differences between Iowa, the US and Korea.  We also saw Kye Han Lee’s office area and some of his lab space. 

I think all the Korean students liked the seminar.  Some of them talked about the project that was proposed and even started by their government to create a canal through the whole of South Korea.  They asked what Dick would say about that to the President?.

After the show, we went to lunch in the cafeteria for bi bim bab (a rice and vegetable dish) and then to the university arboretum for a tour of Kye Han’s research and new building (where his future office will be located).

Then off to  a river corridor area where we walked and looked at some low-head dam structures and a nicely painted rainbow bridge.  After coming back to the bus, we crossed the street to the bamboo park (before this many of the students got ice cream at a stand) and then went to the park. 

The park was really interesting and had lots of bamboo.  I learned a lot about how it grows and what it can be used for.  During the walk, we came across a photographer for the local paper and he took pictures of our whole group and then video of one of the students.  It was pretty interesting.  He took one of my video cards and took some pictures of our group so now I have some photos of our group by a Korean photographer. 

We then went to a native temple where all of the buildings were built with the form of the land in mind.  We sat there for a while and walked around the area.  There were some nice streams and buildings there, all very naturally integrated into the landscape.

The walk was nice (the bamboo forest was pretty dark) and after we were done, we boarded the bus and drove to another shrine that was built in honor of one of the generals who fought the Japanese in the 1500’s.  it was a very peaceful place. 

Then finally back to Guanjeu for supper at a tourist hotel where there were some other members of the forestry faculty there to greet us.  There was lots of beer and soju at the party (and a mix of the two ? soju and mecju called somec) and many of the students were a little tipsy by the end.  We then went to the “second party” at a bar (for the people who wanted to go) and the rest  of the group went to the hotel. 

The bar was pretty nice and we ended up staying there for quite a while talking about the day’s events.

Well, we got a ride home in a cab (the driver didn’t know where the hotel was at the end, so luckily I paid attention enough to get us home.  J

Good night!