Yuck!

One thing I hate about summers in Korea: f' mosquitoes. Nasty.

Feeling somewhat lost and defeated

During the past week of job hunting, I had to face and embrace certain perspectives I had dreaded before coming back to Korea. Most people, except my parents, questioned why I even came back and didn't find a job in the U.S. While looking through job postings and relevant articles and blog entries, I also ran into a bunch of comments that really offended me. Someone even wrote that those who couldn't find a job in the States and "had to" go back to Korea should all be embarrassed of themselves. Another person even categorized and ranked students who have studied abroad into three categories, first being those settling in America, second being those like me who have come back, and third category of being unemployed.

Well, was this my choice or did I "have to" come back? Have I ruined my potentials by coming back to Korea? The connection between DEA (my major) and Event Planning seemed too far fetched and I certainly did not want to risk any potential penalties from INS later on. But now that I'm actually back, I've been dealing with all these negative perspectives and crappy salary in Seoul and can't help but feel a little discouraged.

I obviously know that my life is really what I make of. As Sam, my urban semester professor, wrote me, you never know where life takes you. I also do believe that, if I'm hard working and smart, I will get what I deserve.

Just feeling a little low today :(

Employeed

This is where I will be working for the next year: Research center for automatic controls at Seoul (National) University. The school is considered as the "Harvard" of Korea (or should I say Cornell?) and the campus is pretty nice. I will be working on the international conference for the International Federation of Automatic Controls, held in July 2008. Out of the total five job offers, this seemed like the best bet for a number of reasons:

1) Absolute hands on experience.
2) 9am - 6pm, no overtime, a lot of days off, flexible schedule compare to other companies.
3) No suit required.
4) Nice environment as the university is adjacent to a number of parks.
5) The professor I'll be working under is apparently very big in and out of this field.
6) I'll be working for 2,000 and more engineers - what could beat that? :P
7) One year long project - this could be both good and bad. No job security in the long term but gives me an option to take a break or look for something new without the commitment pressure.
8) I may get to travel a few times to Europe/U.S. at some point during the year.

Hopefully I will be able to add more to the list as I start working on July 2! I didn't expect to start working so soon, but this seems like a great choice as of now. New opportunity is always exciting :)

Old Favorite, New Favorite

Well, I don't mean that Juni's
no longer my favorite, but I love
my new pair of running shoes.

Being Environmentally Friendly in Korea

One thing I was concerned about coming back to Korea was the anticipated lack of resources and support for sustainable life style. Lack of awareness for fair trade coffee and chocolate, biodegradable products, more wholesome and natural products. Not to discredit Korea's efforts, there have already been tons of products and resources from before. Buses operating on natural gas, compost and recycling throughout the entire city, very high support for local food (also because the cost of importing from other countries besides China is very high), no plastic bags at grocery stores, and more.

During the past couple of days, I was proven wrong and relieved. When I looked closer, I discovered a wide range of additional achievements Korea has made. One example is this dish sponge. I was browsing through the web this morning and read an article on this popular sponge made of acrylic yarn. Apparently acrylic fiber breaks down lipids and maintains to be germ-free, so this sponge doesn't require dish soap to do dishes - just some light scrubbing and water even for tough grease stains. And I realized that we had one at home! Of course I was very doubtful that this worked and had to give it a try. And ... Voila! I couldn't believe it worked! The dishes looked and felt incredibly clean. One could argue that acrylic is not very sustainable (I've yet to do more research on this), but the usual dish sponges are polyesters and other plastic materials as well anyway, so as this one eliminates soap and lots of hot water, it is a winner.

I also read this short opinion article in the paper this morning: How Korea is becoming to reject non-fair trade coffee and conflict diamonds (recently learned issue: watch Blood Diamond). I browsed through the internet for more fun products and other relevant news afterwards, and seems like my ideal lifestyle might be supported here better than in the U.S.

One More Reason to Visit Me

I'm home! It's almost 9am here, and I'm playing with Juni (my dog) and eating breakfast (no more buttered toast with eggs but good soymilk and mochis).

So the reason to visit me in Seoul is to experience the ultimate entertainment system of Korean Air and also to see how not bored you can be for 14 hours. I flew on Korean Air yesterday, and they apparently installed this amazing program on the individual screen (that's right, every single person on the plane gets one). It had over 40 movies, including Blood Diamond, Pursuit of Happyness, Miss Potter, Children of Men, Little Children, Notes on a Scandal, Alpha Dog, and more. It had over 200 something CD's, including classical, pop, Korean pop, 80's and 90's, and other good music, and I was even able to create my own list of music. It also had games! I had loaded up my nano with over 2G of music, but I barely used it. When there were 5 hours left, I was seriously sad that I couldn't watch all the movies I wanted to see. Never knew 13 hours and 20 minutes could fly by so quickly. And of course you don't pay for the headphones.

You also get unlimited supply of bananas and muffins, free table wine for meals, water bottles, toothbrush/paste, etc. Awesome hospitality :)

Big City Life

When I was applying to colleges more than four years ago, I was completely convinced that I wanted to go to school in a big city. But after two years in Hawaii, three years in a beautiful little town of Southern California, and four years in rural town of Ithaca (also four years in suburbs of Germany), it seems like I don't really care for certain benefits of big city life. NYC is always fun to visit, but doesn't do much more than that. After the four months in Manhattan during the spring semester of my junior year, I was feeling pretty exhausted. This time I've only been here for a day and a half, but I already miss the relaxed atmosphere and green/blue backgrounds of Ithaca.


Painting: Acrylic, Times Square by my brother SaeJun.

Last few days in Ithaca

It's 8am on Sunday - two days before I take off. Obviously the fact that I'm leaving for good has not hit me at all and I'm all oblivious to how hard it will be once I go back. Last few days in Ithaca have been "ideal," as the current lack of responsiblities and obligations has completely filtered everything else out and only left me with those activities that I truly enjoy and would devote all my free time to. I've been pretty much looking up things online, taking photos and adjusting them in Photoshop, running outdoors, cooking, staying in bed as long as I want, going to Just a Taste, Ithaca Farmer's Market, walking around campus, thinking, and watching Matt and Neil play God of War on PS2. One reviewer from a games magazine wrote "... my wife would not let me play without her presence." Haha, that's exactly what happened for the past thirty-something hours.

Favorite photo of the week: Matt at Rulloff's with sweet potato french fries.

KE 82 Flight, arriving at 5:30pm on June 20th in Incheon. Got an iPod to keep me company for fifteen hours this time.