I’ve been in Seoul for just about 24 hours now. My companions for the week – two graduate assistants kind enough to schlep me all over town for the next few days – picked me up at the airport Saturday evening and treated me to my first Korean meal (vegetable bi bim bap with ginseng).
I’m staying at Yonsei’s university hotel. The best thing: heated floors. This a traditional Korean way of heating a house, and I adore it. This morning I made a nest of blankets on the floor and watched BBC World News.
I eventually had to pry myself away from the cozy goodness to prepare for my noon meeting with the director of Yonsei’s LIS program. Dr. Lee and her husand took me to lunch at a nearby traditional Korean restaurant. The menu was only in Korean so I trusted them to order for me. And oh! did they choose well. I had a tender, savory pork dish that came with the usual assortment of side dishes. I had jellyfish without realizing it – it was mixed in with pickled cucumbers.
After lunch we spent some time working on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between our two universities; this document outlines the dual-degree program that we’re creating, including the requirements for students and the responsibilities of each universitiy. Once we had a solid draft to send off to Dean Cloonan, Jee Yeon and her husband showed me around campus, including how to get to the surrounding commercial areas. With many warnings to be extra careful when crossing streets, they left me to my own devices.
Ever the intrepid urban explorer, I spent a few hours taking in the sights and sounds (and smells) before exhaustion kicked in. I’m back in the hotel, ready to curl up on my heated floor and read for a while. Tomorrow I’ll meet with some of the graduate students, get a more thorough campus tour, and meet with the professor who will be co-teaching the summer course. Right now I’m warm, happy, and full of sweet potato porridge. It’s going to be a good week.
Meaghan O’Connor, GSLIS Fellow for Dean’s Initiatives, is spending a week in Seoul to prepare for the 2009 GSLIS travel course to Yonsei University.