Notes

Time to say goodbye

Feb. 2018

Today is a memorable day in my life – I have completed my PhD from CNU. Specially, my wife and son had come to Korea to celebrate this event with me; it’s such a great thing for me. Frankly, I never imagined that I would get married at the time of my graduation.

I came to CNU for the first time when I was 23. Everything was new and strange to me. I lived in a dormitory and shared my room with a Chinese art student; I never did it before. My timetable was very different from his and thus we had some conflicts. Eventually, he left the room 2 months after the date I came. On the day he left, we talked a lot and understood each other better. I wished I could have been kinder to him. Afterwards, when I sometimes came across him at the campus, we still exchanged friendly greetings. In later years, I shared my room with many guys from different countries (Korea, Rwanda, China, and Vietnam). They are nice people and now I still have a friendship with them. 

My postgraduate life was interesting, but not easy. I faced a lot of difficulties in doing research although my advisor and lab-mates were kind to me. I still remember the first face-to-face talk with my advisor; he allowed me to research any topics as long as I had interests in them. Actually, I pursued my PhD at CNU instead of POSTECH because of him (note: KAIST and POSTECH are recognized as two best technical universities in Korea). Despite all the ups and downs, when looking back to the past, I realize that my postgraduate life was really beautiful. 

Goodbye CNU, where I spent my youth! I have to move forward on my journey. Hope to get back someday.

Real winter has come

Jan. 2016

Watching a baseball game for the first time

Sept. 2015

Last week, I visited the Gwangju-Kia Champions Field (GKCF) to watch a baseball game for the first time. GKCF is a baseball stadium located in Gwangju, Korea, and it has been the home of Kia Tigers - a baseball club in the Korea Baseball Championship (KBO) League, since 2014. Note the KBO League is the most popular sports league in Korea. When I came here few years ago, I was surprised that most of people prefer baseball to football. Honestly,  I'm not interested in baseball, and of course, I don't know its rules. I went to this baseball stadium just because of my advisor (he is a Kia Tigers supporter). In the first minutes of the game, it was hard for me to understand why Kia Tigers scored points (i.e. runs). Then, I didn't pay much attention to the game. Most of the time I looked around the stadium instead and recognized that the audience were enthusiastic. Although Kia Tigers lost, it's still great going to a baseball game for the first time!

Jeju Island

Oct. 2014

I just had a chance to visit Jeju island in Korea with my friends. We went to this beautiful island on an Autumn day; it was a bit chilly and windy. The plane landed at 4 p.m and then we hired a car for traveling since the public transportation in Jeju island was not so popular. It took us about 2 hours drive to get our resort from the airport. During that time, I could feel the beauty of roadside scenery; no words could exactly describe that beauty. Especially, I thought I fell in love with the reeds on the side of the road!

Jeju island is a volcanic island, mainly dominated by a volcano 1,950 metres high, Hallasan; however, we could not visit Hallasan because it wasn't covered in our journey. Instead, we went to a smaller volcano nearby our resort - Seongsan Ilchulbong (aka Sunrise Peak), surrounded by the sea. Seongsan Ilchulbong is small, but very beautiful. I was surprised when it became glistening at sunrise. 

We also visited many different places and tried many kinds of Korean foods in Jeju island; I would like to keep these great experiences to myself. From my point of view, the locals have ‘closely cooperated with’ the nature to create Jeju island - such a beautiful island. Just let go and feel Jeju island - a pearl of Korea!