525,600 minutes

A view from the plane before touchdown

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred moments so dear,
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

I first set foot on South Korean soil exactly a year ago. During that time, I didn't know anyone here aside from my sponsors (Dr. Lee and Dr. Kim of KoFPI), Prof. Kim, Yoo Ri (KGPA), and Freda. It was really such a leap of faith.

Love at First Sight - Mountains

It was truly an adventure. All I had were my luggage, a few bucks, and a printout of an e-mail in which the name of my laboratory captain, who fetched me at the airport, was written. I'm just so blessed that since I arrived, my professor (김동근 교수님), my laboratory captain (이관희) and other lab mates, my room mates/friends  were always there to guide and help me.

Fascinated with the tunnels
Some of which are almost 2 kms long

In a year, I've been to various places in South Korea; ate different Korean food/delicacies (including puffer fish); learned to eat spicy food,  use chopsticks and commute to and from Incheon International Airport and major cities; and most especially, gained new friends from different countries who've made my stay here more enjoyable and memorable. I'm so grateful for all of these.

There's one thing that didn't change though, I still can't speak Korean, my tongue is just too stubborn.

I look forward to another year.

Korean and Philippine Forests

Found this book while trying to arrange the books and journals in the bookshelves in our laboratory. I can't seem to concentrate on what I'm supposed to do before I've arranged the books.

Anyway it's just one of the very few books that is in English plus it would be a good reference for me so I started reading it.

Learned quite a lot already by just reading the introduction: ROK (South Korea) occupies 45% of the Korean Peninsula, they usually just have two typhoons per year (kakainggit naman, the Philippines have more than 20), forest covers 64% of their land area which is composed mostly of coniferous forests, and they have a growing stock od 97.8 cu.m. per hectare in 2007 which means it could be higher now.

It was not as if they haven't had problems on deforestation. They had their fair share in the 1950s that in the 1960s their growing stock was merely 10.6 cu.m. per hectare. How they've come from that to the present situation is amazing.

Having spent most of my life in a mountainous area and having been witness (both first hand - where I've seen recovered bodies of victims of a landslide laid in an elementary classroom - and through the television) to various disasters caused by typhoons which was intensified by the lost of forest cover, I could not help but wish that the Philippines could do the same.

The first chapter is about Changes in Forest Ownership. The Korean government conducted a Forestland Cadastral Survey and subsequently the transfer of forest ownership. After reading this part I realized it's a very long, winding, and difficult road for the Philippines to follow what was done in Korea. With all the land disputes and the claims of ancestral land domains by indigenous groups. Even government agencies' roles (DENR and NCIP) and laws or policies are sometimes in conflict.

Will I see greener mountains with the implementation of the NGP? Will the local governments especially in the Cordilleras be able to stop the conversion of forested areas to vegetable farms? These, and a lot more questions are still hard to answer.

When Koreans Party, They Party Hard!

May 15 was 스승의 날 (Teachers' Day) here in Korea. I've seen students in other departments or laboratories preparing various gifts for their professors. Other's buy expensive gifts, while others prepared personalized gifts. I then asked my lab mates what we're going to prepare for 교수님.  I learned that in the past he has expressed that he doesn't like receiving gifts, especially lavish ones because he doesn't want the students to be burdened and so our laboratory captain just bought cake which we then ate together.

It's a simple celebration indeed but for me it was very meaningful one. We spent time talking (well for my part mostly listening) and we've learned a lot of things about each other. And to top it all, I've seen 교수님 being goofy and playful, teasing one or two of the members in our laboratory.

But when I said "When Koreans party, they party hard", I wasn't referring to the aforementioned, but the things that happened after.

Anyway, before our modest teachers' day celebration, 교수님, 관희, 치웅 and I had a meeting with a professor and students from the Civil Construction Department about a project on Forest Road. When the meeting was done they made a reservation at a restaurant that serves Korean Native Beef, and so that's where we went to have dinner.  Since the four of us didn't drink any alcoholic beverage, we finished eating first. We then proceeded to a coffee shop, where we were joined by 2 other students from our laboratory, then after a while by the professors from the Civil Construction Department.

교수님 went home and we went back to the laboratory, but only to shut down the computers, get our bags, tag along another 2 students, and headed back to downtown.  As 성은 (who I learned later during the night is our resident rapper) said while calling others to join us, "We're going to party! 관희어빠 will buy 치맥! (chicken and beer)" By the time we found a place that can accommodate us and would serve us alcoholic beverages (some students didn't bring their IDs and the waiters wouldn't take our words for it that all are more than 18 years old) there were ten of us.   Halfway through the time we spent there, one student who said he can't speak English, gathered enough courage or probably with the help of alcohol started talking with me. We probably stayed in the restaurant for more than 2 hours, eating chicken, fruits, etc; drinking 소주, 맥주, soda, and water; watching music videos and talking about various things.

When we left the restaurant, it was after 11:30. I thought we were walking towards the terminal where a taxi line is located but then we passed by a 노래방 (karaoke). Someone asked, "shall we go?" I didn't even hear an answer to the question, they just went straight in. We sang, danced, laughed for almost two hours. They tried to make me sing a Korean song but I still can't read fast enough to be able to do so, so I 'played' the tambourine.

By the time one of the female undergraduate student and I got back to the dormitory, it was almost 2 am.

Well probably those in Metro Manila area do the same, but since I'm not a Manila Girl, I wouldn't know. I went out with my workmates before and stayed out much later but we usually go to bars with live bands in Baguio City and stay there for the whole time. At times however, the guys are too drunk by the time we leave the bar that fun turns to irritation.

For the most part, I didn't say much during the night, I was just an observer because of the language barrier but I still enjoyed being in their company. It  surely is an experience that I will definitely remember for a long time.

Blue

Blue is not my favorite color, it never was. Neither was I so blue in such a long time, disappointed maybe but not blue. But it is a state I am in right now.

It started last Friday. It wasn't the case when I woke up or when 교수님, 관희 and I were on our way to Yeongju to attend the second workshop for the first year of the conduct of a project under the Korea Forest Service.

I've attended various seminars/workshops/forums/meetings  before which are all in Korean so most of the time I do not understand which is being said. I often just look at the presentations and try to understand the context with the aid of the graphs and pictures or based on the few words that I already know. I also at times use the dictionary in my handphone to translate the key words.  That was what I was doing when the professors from Seoul National University and Konju National University were presenting their accomplishments. When it was 교수님's turn to present I just listened. After each presentation, the evaluators and other participants were given time to ask questions about the presentation. That's when it started.

I realized then that aside from studying or preparing for the requirements in my classes, I'm actually not doing anything for my professor or in our laboratory. I couldn't help in the preparation of the presentation, I couldn't hand in the copy of the presentation to the organizers because even if I knew what to say I wasn't that confident to speak in Korean, and at that point I couldn't take down the questions that were being asked to 교수님. And so I felt so useless.

That's when I wrote in my FB account the following :

At times like this, I feel like I'm useless. Well at least to my professor and in his projects or tasks. I can't even help in taking down questions of participants on his presentation.

I never felt this way before. My former bosses used to say that I'm able to do complete staff work, and I'm proud of being able to do so.  but now there's nothing that I can do. It makes me doubly sad because he's been so kind to me but I can't even do the simplest tasks for him.

I hate feeling this way. I guess it's a lesson on humility but it's a rather heartbreaking one. 

I tried to fight it but when the next presentation started, tears started rolling down my cheeks. It was just fortunate that the person seating beside me was oblivious of what was happening or maybe he just pretended that he didn't notice to spare me from feeling foolish or that he didn't know what to say.

When I heard 교수님 and 관희 talking about it, I wanted to ask if I could join them and other members in our laboratory in conducting the survey the following day but I didn't have the courage to do so. I thought that I'd just be on their way.

Relatives, friends, fellow foreign students here at KNU, and even a boss of mine wrote comments or sent me messages, mostly of encouragements: that I just have to give it more time and I will be able to learn the language, that it really takes time to learn a new language, that I am not the only one feeling that way. One even said I just miss the times when I was most efficient and that I should stop comparing the situation, and that even if I feel that I am useless, probably to my professor just my presence matters.

With all those words of encouragement and by doing other things such as reading a book, studying Korean and watching movies and dramas over the weekend, I tried to take my mind off of it.  But once I stepped into our laboratory this morning, the feeling of ineptitude came back.

어떻게요?

Forest Roads Leading to Middle Earth

One of the courses I'm taking this term is 임도설계학 (Forest Roads Design). Being an agriculturist, this subject, just like the course on 산림작업시스템특론 (Forest Operation Systems) last semester which are both being handled by 교수님, is a new one for me. Thus, I have to do some advance reading and since almost all of the printed reference materials are all in Korean, I have to rely mostly on internet sources.

This morning, I started reading the materials which my professor gave me, in the introductory part of the Forest Engineering Guidebook it stated "the materials presented in this guidebook are primarily for skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable technical personnel..." And so, since I am not skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable on this particular subject, I decided to look for more basic reading materials on forest roads. I turned to good old Google and typed "forest roads."

When the search came out my eyes as always, looked at the pictures on top then to the short description on the right side.  These descriptions, more often than not comes from Wikipedia, thus I looked at the main links.

It was then that I realized that three of the top five suggested sites are about "Old Forest Roads" in "Middle-Earth."  I can't help but smile. Initially because I am a Lord of the Rings fan and  then because it is just so funny.  I was expecting that scientific or technical papers will flood the search but instead it was filled with Tolkein's fictional world. I was even tempted to open the sites but then I have to study so I browsed further down the list and found one from Colorado State which had more basic discussions about the topic.

Middle earth will have to wait.

Unscathed

Last snow of this winter

I guess it's spring already. Though it's still very cold, especially with the wind blowing.  They call it 꽃샘추휘. I really thought and hoped I would 'emerge from the winter season' unscathed. That I won't get sick. That I won't get colds or cough which are very prevalent these days. But I guess it's all wishful thinking.

It just started with a sore throat, then after a day or two it turned into cough.  There were times when I felt like I had a slight fever as well. I'm so thankful that it didn't turn out to be a full-blown flu.  Everyone around me were saying 감기 조심해 (not to catch a cold), but then I guess there's no way of avoiding it.

Everyone in our laboratory had some sort of colds. It started with 관희 who had the worst one, when he came back, all of us - 교수님, 소라 and I - sort of followed suit. That started the inside joke in our laboratory "관희 때문에" (because of Kwan Hee). Until now when we hear someone is not feeling well, especially when it is someone who got in contact with us, 교수님 would say "관희 때문에."

For now, I no longer have a cough nor a sore throat. I'm so grateful that it didn't turn out to be a flu and for having people who took care of me. My roommates, 교수님 and my captain who wanted to bring me to the hospital right away, and especially Manang Heidi for taking care of me - for the medicines, mandarin, etc. which made me feel a lot better.  I believe that having you around, made all the difference not just because of the medicines but more so because you made me feel like I have a family I can run to here in Sangju. Thanks a lot and God bless you and your family.

Brain Freeze!

La Trinidad, the capital of Benguet Province has a relatively cool climate compared to other parts of the Philippines. This is where I grew up. Aside from staying in a place with a relatively low temperature, I wasn't so fond of drinking cold beverages.

Things changed when I went to Los Baños for my undergraduate. Everything was so hot, even water coming from the tap was so hot. During my first weeks of stay, I bought ice and added it to the water for bathing to make it more tolerable. And because of the very hot weather I started drinking very cold drinks. Slurpee anyone??? :)  And that's when I experienced and learned the phrase 'Brain Freeze'.

"I'm having brain freeze!" Oh no, not the kind one experiences when drinking or eating very cold stuff.

My brain just froze and stopped working! I've been trying, since December, to write a paper that my professor told me to write but I still haven't finished it. 아직도 안 끝났어요! Initially I say to myself that I can't concentrate because of the cold weather. It's my first time to experience winter afterall.

I guess, just like any metabolic process in plants like photosynthesis and respiration that slows down with low temperature, my brain also slowed down. So slow that I fear it might have stopped altogether. Especially when it comes to thinking how to put all the things I've read into a paper that could be published in a scientific journal.

I hope it will 'thaw' by this weekend. I only have a week or two left before the extension given by my professor ends. :(

First snow... November 18, 2013