Asia Trip: Final Thoughts

Well I think I've covered most of the major parts of my trip but to wrap things up I'll give a short list of random things I haven't shared yet.

1) The Conference

Yeah I didn't go to Asia for 10 days just to go but to attend the 27^th Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics. I gave my 30 minute talk on the second to last day of the conference and was a little surprised how nervous I was. I think it was mainly because I hadn't actually practiced my talk out loud once before I gave it and by my estimate I had too many slides for the 30 minute time slot. So I got up there and started talking way too fast and actually finished early. Fortunately I was the only person giving a talk on drag-reducing polymers so no one in the audience really cared...perhaps that should be unfortunately since I really like the Q&A part when people are interested.

2) Friendly People

I was told to not worry about feeling welcomed over there and I see why now. In both Japan and Korea everyone was so friendly and helpful. Once at a Starbucks I was trying to get internet and could so one of the guys working there noticed and insisted on helping me. After working on it for nearly an hour with two Starbuck workers and some random guy that joined in we(they) finally got me internet access by purchasing it through the other guys computer and one of the workers phones and then having me pay the guy in cash...try having that happen in USA.

3) Beware of 2 Barber Poles

I was told (never went to any barber) that in Seoul if you go to a barber that has one barber pole in front it is a normal barber. However, if there are two poles on the front then it means that you get a haircut and a "happy ending". Specifics of what that entails I didn't ask but was amazed at how common knowledge this was...however I never saw one in Seoul, though there is a chance that there was one in the basement of the last hotel I stayed in...it was open at like 10pm, was in the back corner, and had frosted windows so no one can see in.

4) Korean Folk Music

We had a show of several styles of Korean Folk music, which I absolutely loved and kind of totally forgot about until I started writing this entry. Below are some samples of very similar music to what I heard...sadly I couldn't find anything that was like my favorite performance but this is a good sample of the rest.

Pansori

Nong-ak

Gayageum

Samul-nori

THE END