Success!!!!!!!!!

We did it!!!!! I honestly didn't think it would work, being our first time and all, but I was wrong! As you can see the bacteria have been cultured and they glow very brightly! To be honest this wasn't the same DNA we started with because that particular part of the experiment failed miserably, but that's beside the point. We completed the transformation of an E. coli cell with a luminescent gene sequence. A good way to end the trip on a positive note. We are leaving Daejeon today and staying in Seoul for the remainder of the trip at Professor Kim's brother's house. It is there I will finally try dog soup. I am really sad to be leaving, I have made so many amazing friends, contacts, and memories here that it has become a second home. I will never forget this city and I will now make it a priority to return here and relive the dream. I hope I have inspired others to step outside their box and try new things through this blog. It has literately been a life changing experience and I would recommend that all students study or travel abroad at least once in their lives. Until next time- Josh

Fun Fun Fun

I guess I will begin with class. We are now in the final week and have been doing lab work along side our ethics class. The lab part is really new and confusing material to me, but I am having a blast learning and making mistakes with really, really expensive equipment. I will explain the procedure to the best of my ability and in the simplest terms possible, mostly to not confuse myself. We are taking a circular plasmid DNA and extracting a specific gene sequence. After extraction we will attempt to reinsert the fragment (GFP) into E. coli DNA, and because this particular gene expresses luminescence under U.V. light, we will be able to tell if we completed the procedure properly by observing the specimen under U.V. light. Basically, we are cutting up DNA, putting a piece of it into a cell, and watching to see if the cell glows. Unfortunately we tried to begin the procedure on Monday, but we couldn't even get the GFP extracted from the plasmid, so we will start over in the morning. Good times.

On a lighter note we have had a LOT of fun outside the class as well. On the 4th of July we participated in a marathon and ran barefoot for 8km on a beach. Needless to say I didn't do much the next day due to muscle cramps and sun burn, but Tuesday was AMAZING. During the day we toured the DMZ, which is the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. The South Koreans are hilarious, because they found three tunnels dug by the North Koreans who planned to use them for invasion, and what did they do? They turn them into a tourist attraction!!!! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the tunnels, but we actually walked about 70 km down a path dug underground by a hostile enemy nation. One of the best days of my life! The best part (aside from the dynamite lining all of the tunnels) was at the 70km mark. They put up three blockades, behind one of which is a giant water tank, so I would hate to be the first North Korean invader to break that wall. The picture above are from the entrance to the DMZ. The first one is of a South Korean guard tower and the second one is of the train that used to run between North and South Korea before the beginning of the war. It's hard to see but the train is covered with holes from years of being used as a bullet shield.

I saved the best for last. That night we went to the Break Dancing Boys Concert (B-Boys), and they were the absolute best dance team I have ever seen. My camera didn't take picture in the dark room, but Nadia got a lot of good ones on hers and I will post some on my facebook page from Professor Kim's camera. They incorporated great music, themes, and moves that looked almost impossible to pull off, but they did it flawlessly, and I would seriously fly back to Korea just to watch them perform again. After the show I managed to get a picture with the main actress, or B-girl, or whatever you want to call her, but the point is she was cute and a great dancer and I touched her shoulder! Until next time-Josh

Visit to Icheon

Our last trip with the KSSP group was the most exciting so far. Most of it was centered around the Icheon Pottery village where we visited a ceramics Expo and made our own bowls and pots out of clay. 

   

For Lunch, we got to go to a really fancy restaurant that had really good quality  local rice, but we had so many dishes in front of us that we did not notice the rice at all!.

 

We were also taken to a ceramic museum that had really beautiful architecture as well as the creative pottery displays. 

 

 

 

The necklace I got from the ceramic souvenir shop as well as a few other things for my Fam and friends.

After the Museum, we visited yet another temple nearby, but the significance of this one was that it was on low ground and not on a hilltop or mountain. We were lucky enough to witness a live ceremony while we were there as well as enter the temple and take a lot of pictures!

 

 

 

 

I met this man at another museum/village and he is the oldest person I have seen so far! He was 77 and spoke really good english and I had to document him. what a treasure. :)

That same night we stayed at a hotel in Icheon where we cooked dinner in groups for each other. The place we stayed at had 1 bedroom with one bed and 8 people  in the suite. So, only one person got the bed and the rest of us slept on floor bedding. Before the night was up, we decided to go for a stroll on the bridge at night, where Josh found lots of spiders, and I took pictures of the night lights.

And this is the view from our room! 

 

  

The next day we headed off to the Teian Beach, but that deserves whole new post!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Nadia

  

Addition to class discussion.

As Josh touched on the topics discussed in our class, I figured I would post a few pictures that I took in class. The class has been very beneficial in helping us distinguish the differences between US and Korea beyond the obvious cultural contrast. For instance, when talking about the proper usage of food and the limited food resources, we noticed that in Korea, land is used much more efficiently for farming purposes rather that lawn culturing. In the states, land is abundant, so the wealthier a person is, the more land they occupy and the larger house they possess. In Korea, however, we see nothing but rice fields as well are vegetable gardens all around; And when it comes to wealth, people with a lot of money tend to think vertically rather than horizontally, by buying expensive apartments in high rises. Korea is pretty much independent in its food supply except for a small portion of rice that is grown in California!.. pretty cool.

Anyway here are a couple pictures of our class!

Here is Dr. Kim explaining cell cloning using the sheep Dolly as an example.

There are also a lot of questions that every student answers in class related to each topic and the Korean students are somewhat reluctant because they are not used to Discussion classes.

Our class is not too big, but we seem to gain and lose people every day. So far, I am really enjoying it because there are so many bioethical topics I have opinions about and at the same time I am curious to learn the Korean perspective in every case.

Today we continued last lecture's Environmental topics such as the Green house gas effect and we broke that down into specific atmospheric gasses, focusing on the increase of Carbon dioxide emissions. Then, the touched on Global Warming and its causes and effects, followed by the Kyoto Protocol. KP is an international environmental treaty initiated in 1997, which our last president did not participate in. We then moved onto Human Population, Food Distribution, Soil Sustainability, Urban Planning and Changes in Bio-diversity.

We won't have another class till friday, which will be our final most important discussion, which means that we have to start busting out some research skills to write our research paper for the class. I will share more info about this later, for now that is all!

"enjoy korea"

In the classroom

Well I found all of the local pizza joints, so much for losing weight. The actual class portion of our trip has been really interesting so far. We have discussed many different ethical topics and how they compare between our two countries. In a nutshell we have discussed death, energy, and cloning so far. We went in depth on suicide and discussed the motives, methods, and consequences. This topic was rather sensitive because the former Korean president recently commit suicide by jumping from a cliff to save his family and himself from the shame caused by multiple bribery scandals. I am not an expert on this particular topic so I didn't say much, but all of the Korean students in the class disagreed with the president's decision, but apparently the older population supported it and consider him a sort of hero for doing so. It is a very interesting situation, because Michael Jackson recently passed away and he had been getting a lot of negative attention until his death. Now all I hear is praise for the "King of Pop." Both Michael Jackson and the Korean president made controversial decisions during their lifetimes, yet they were both revered in death. It appears we are not so different after all.

We also discussed assisted suicide and whether or not people should be allowed "death with dignity." The first euthanasia was also just recently attempted in Korea. The family had their grandmother on a respirator while she was in a comma and attempted to allow her to peacefully pass on by simply turning of the respirator. To everyone's surprise the grandmother did not die, but simply continued to breath on her own. Obviously this has contemplated the situation and left many questions unanswered. Is the grandmother in pain? Is she in less pain breathing on her own? Would she welcome death now? Did she even want to die? Was this a divine sign that she was not meant to die? Should people be allowed to die whenever and however they wish? Should people be allowed to determine when and how other people die? In my opinion these are all questions with no definite correct answer, but nonetheless good to consider. I believe more of these situations will occur in the future for both Korea and the United States, and the first few cases are very likely to determine the outcomes of the latter ones, for better or worse. This is why it is so important to pay attention to and play an active part in the world around us. Whether we like it or not our world is changed every day by religion, politics, and media, and if we chose not to learn and make informed decisions concerning what we watch, listen to, and believe some one else will. When and if it comes time for someone to chose whether I live or die, I want that someone to be. I am now going to go look for a waffle. Until next time- Josh

More pictures

A Busy Schedule...

Well, we have accomplished so much in the last week that I don't really know where to start. We have visit ancient king's burial mounds, as evidenced here with Nadia wearing a rice farmer hat, you can see one of the many mounds in the background.
and we have visit many temples, this being one of two towers at a temple. This is one of three famous towers in the area, the Takotap and Sukatop towers were both at the Pulguksa Temple and the third tower, Cheumsungdae, was actually believed to be an observation tower near the king's tombs. I am really bad at translating names from Korean to English so eventually I will come back with the correct spelling of all of these towers, temples and monuments...maybe.
Here is a nuclear cell unit from one of their nuclear power plants. This cell apparently cost 200 American dollars and can provide 1 household 150 years of energy. Also, one kilogram of uranium has the equivalent energy of 9000 drums of oil and 3000 tons of coal. Very efficient if harnessed correctly.

Here is a picture of the pool from the 9th floor balcony of our room at the Daemyung Resort. I slept on the balcony that night and it was one the the coolest feelings in the world to wake up to the sunrise overlooking a beautiful lake in a foreign country. I have seen and experienced things here that have changed me forever. This trip has given me a very unique outlook on life and I will be very sad when I have to leave. Well, I have a whole lot more to blog about but I am kind of limited on time, so next time I will touch on the concerts we have been to and the topic discussions we have had in class, and yes, we are learning as well as having fun, believe it or not. Until next time!-Josh

I might not want to leave Korea..

So far, Daejeon has been beyond anything I have expected. Everyday I am learning new things about the Korean culture and traditions and lifestyles of people in general. This city reminds me a lot of my home city in Ukraine: a majority of people live in high rise apartments like the one I used to live in and almost everything is located conveniently within walking distance. The Hannam University where we are staying has a beautiful campus with a lot of trees and a lake. Speaking of that lake, local people tell me that it is a tradition to toss people in the water on the birthday, which would sound like fun but the water is green and apparently really smelly. My birthday is in 1 week and I am staying as far away from that lake as possible. There is also an English Cafe on campus where Korean students go to Drink Tea and practice their english, since the cafe has an english only policy and is equipped with english boardgames, books, as well as english tv channels. That place can serve as our 'time out' from the Korean surroundings, but I doubt that we will ever get sick of Korea. A short walking distance from the dorms, you would find busy streets with tons of fun places like restaurants, bakeries, pool halls, A batting cage, bars, clubs, cafes, etc.... Tonight Josh and I had to fend for ourselves for once and find something to do, so we checked out a Waffle cafe where we ran into Dr. Kim, which failed our mission of independent exploration. But we managed to order some delicious cappuccino waffles on our own, which we pretty much inhaled since they were so so so good.

After that, we headed over to the Billiards lounge to play some pool. I think I managed to surprise both Josh and myself with my lucky shots! The streets in Daejeon are fully illuminated at night with signs and advertisements. The light displays are really bright and are always exciting to look at. Our curfew is 11 p.m. or 12 am if we are late, which is somewhat limiting, because if I could, I would stay out in those lights all night! 

We also found some interesting things on the streets such as a Lobster game where you  can try to catch a lobster out of a box with an automated claw...and a block over, we stopped by another stand where Josh bought game tickets to see if he could win a Bunny or other fun things.

   

Josh didn't end up winning anything, and Emily, Dr Kim's daughter had to be our translator everywhere we went. All we could do when surrounded by Korean speaking people was just mimic what they were saying and try to understand what the words/sounds meant. I don't think that people appreciate it that much, but they just laugh at us because we sound so silly. We are slowly starting to catch on to dialogues now, and hopefully we will leave Korea with some basic language skills. I have much more to blog about, and a lot of things to catch up on, but I 'll blog about one thing at a time. I hope you guys have enjoyed following our trip thus far! We sure have :) Catch you later.

Nadia

The way of the Korean

Well I am having a blast so far. The view is amazing,

The people are compassionate,


And the food is delicious. The city has a distinct funk to it, but other than that and the way people drive no complaints yet. But in all honesty I have been told the legal driving age in South Korea is 19 and it is illegal to talk or use the phone while driving; thus, their motor vehicle collision rates are much lower than ours. Our first class was just on the Korean language, most of which we learned before we left for Korea, so it was mostly a refresher. Tomorrow we take a bioethics class taught by our own professor Kim and then a cinema class, and I have no clue what movie we will be watching.

Today we also climbed a mountain to a famous Buddhist temple, one that is also a school for women monks. I will get back to you with all the names later! At the bottom of the mountain we ate at a local restaurant and although I could not find dog I ate a fried silk worm, which tasted a lot like a roasted peanut covered in dirt.

Obviously, there are quite a few differences between Korea and the Oklahoma, U.S.A. For one you cannot wear shoes inside rooms, restaurants or houses- there is a step up into the house where you put on house shoes, then there are special shoes for the bathroom which you step down into. This is because back in the day they used to sleep on the floor and the house was heated through warm vents that circulated under the house beneath the floor. So, in order to keep their "beds" clean and their feet warm they took off their shoes. A lot of the restaurants also do not have chairs and this is again because people sat on the warm floor.

Koreans cannot gamble in their own county, gambling is only for foreigners, a very smart idea if you ask me. Guns are not owned by private citizens, a very big difference. Teachers have special bamboo sticks that they use to whack their students with (on a regular basis from what I hear). They also have saunas and public baths here, which are extremely relaxing if not somewhat awkward.

I have met many new people and gained many new friends. This has been so fun and exciting that I really hope I get an opportunity to do this again, although maybe I should wait at least a full week before I make any final decisions. In the future and I hear that Hannam will be sending two students to RSU next year, so I am very exited for them as well as future RSU students who take this trip in the future. Until next time- Josh

Korea at last

I finally made it!!!
That was the longest and most uncomfortable airplane ride I have ever made in my life, but completely worth it. I have very, very much to say and not a whole lot of time but I will say what I can. As soon as I can find an outlet converter I will charge my computer and use it to download all of the pictures from the flight over. As I already mentioned, it was a very long flight. Due to crying babies and barking dogs I didn't get a whole lot of sleep in the 24 hours it took to get here, but its all good. Japan wasn't that interesting because I didn't get to leave the airport, but they did have green tea Kit-Kat chocolate which was pretty good. I noticed many people wearing masks on the ride over and as soon as we landed in Korea we had to get our temperature taken, all in precaution geared by the swine flu epidemic. Once in Seoul we took a 3 hour bus ride to Daejeon where we are staying at Hannam University. I met my roommates, all of which are very nice. Noah is originally from Maine, D (who's real name I can't pronounce) is from Serbia, a European country, and I have one other roommate who's origin or name I cannot remember, but he was nice as well. It is very safe here and I have been given 4 keys, one card key to get into the dorm floor, one to get into our room, one for my closet and another for my dresser. Although there is so much security it doesn't feel like it is really necessary because the only danger I have seen here so far is the way people drive, and believe me, that takes the cake on danger. I have never heard a city bus peel out before, but I think our bus driver last night used to be a NASCAR driver because he floored it at every light. There are many differences as well, one being the complicated color coding system for recycling. I cannot read the signs to figure what trash goes in what bin and I figured out the green one was compost the hard way. Also your shoes have to come off almost everywhere. We take themm off at the dorm room door and have special shower and bathroom shoes. The best thing I have noticed so far is that the food is cheap! I had a bulgogi burger and gatorade for breakfast and it cost me under two american dollars. Well it is almost 11 am here and 9 pm there, so I will sign off and go eat lunch. Feel free to respond via blog or email anytime, it will be nice to communicate to someone who speaks English.
Annyonghi Kaysayo! -Josh

Guk anyone?

Oh yeah, these are two of my dogs, Emily on the left and Roofers on the right. I wonder what they would taste like...

Leaving the home front....

안녕 (An nyoung, AKA Hello)! Thank you for your responses! I want to give a special shout out to all my friends in PLC, Honors, all other RSU students, professors, and my co-workers. When I get back we all need to hang out again and play Ultimate Frisbee! Or Halo! I am jealous that you get to eat authentic Italian food every day Lunk but at least I will lose weight in this particular country. If I were to go to Italy I believe I would return with a lot of extra luggage, and I don't mean the kind that goes in a bag! I can't believe I am leaving this Sunday. This will be my last chance to blog in the U.S. because I will be going on a float trip the 19th and on a river until the night before I head to Korea. If everything goes as planned I will be taking pictures of the trip there and when I arrive I will download them all for your viewing enjoyment. We will first be flying to Chicago, then Japan, and then Korea. There is a lot of concern for our safety while we are studying abroad due the the current situation with North Korea, but I have been assured South Korea is completely safe and that North Korea has been doing this kind of thing for years and nothing has changed yet. If things do get ugly I believe Professor Kim is a master of some secret form of martial arts, so in the rare event of a nuclear attack he can just round-house kick the missile back to where it came from. No sweat. Well, I better get packing, I will keep in touch every step of the way where I can find Internet. And if all of my wonderful comp professors could please make sure I blog with mostly proper grammar and spelling that would be great (this particular blog site doesn't have a very good spell check)! Also email me your address @ jsmulana@yahoo.com if you would like a post card. 안녕히계세요 (annyeonghi gyeseyo) Bye!

and the Next Contestant is....

Hello RSU! My name is Nadia Kyrylova, and I originate in Kharkiv, Ukraine. My family moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1999 in search of greater opportunities in life and I can happily say it was a very smart decision. I have been blessed with so many opportunities; while living in North America and the upcoming trip to South Korea is definitely the greatest one thus far. I am majoring in Environmental Conservation but I have a great interest in engineering as well as Fine Arts. It was so hard to settle down with one specific major when there are so many things I wish to study, however science won me over in my second year at RSU. I also work at the RSU Public Television, which has been a quite rewarding experience and has made me a part of the college. Studying abroad has always been something I wanted to do, so when my father suggested going to South Korea to study Bioethics with Dr. Kim it was the perfect chance to broaden my cultural scope.

Like Josh has already mentioned, we have had some intense Korean lessons with Dr. Kim who made us memorize a sweet korean love song and then sing it out loud to him. That man has some good sense of humor; I'm sure that he got a good laugh out of listening to us butcher his beautiful native language. I really can't wait to practice korean on the streets of Daejeon while trying to hunt down some rare Dog Soup. To educate us on Korean popular cuisine Dr. Kim has taken Josh and I to a Korean restaurant where we were faced with a lot of spicy dishes consisting of Kimchi, various forms of beef and pork, a lot of vegetables and of course tofu. To me it was a good preview of what to look forward to in Korea, but depending on our budgets, we might just have to stick to a 'college' diet of Ramen Noodles. 

On a more serious note, the course sounds very intriguing and diverse covering a wide range of topics from molecular to environmental. We will be visiting a power-plant and learning about the different energy resources employed in South Korea as well as visiting a recent oil spill and studying the impact that it had on the surroundings. These trips will be really beneficial to my general studies and other than that, what I want to learn about in South Korea is what type of recycling and sustainability programs are implemented to reduce waste. According to National Geographic South Korea is ranked 4th on the Greendex (Green Index), far greater than United States rankings. I wish to return to RSU and take part in the recycling initiative in Fall '09 that is being pushed by the Student Government Association. I definitely have some great aspirations for making a global impact, but concentrating on the local problems is a great start and is much needed in cities all over the midwest. By now, there must me many students at RSU anxious about "Going GREEN", so I invite you to become a part of the movement towards making RSU a Green Campus! 

Speaking of Green, Deajeon looks like a very beautiful city surrounded by many green hills that we will hopefully get to hike on our time off. The urban areas are industrially beautiful as well and during the night the whole city lights up. From the pictures I have seen and this things I have learned about South Korea and its people thus far, I can tell this will be a truly enriching experience both culturally and scientifically.  :)

Josh and I will keep you posted as we take off to Southeast Asia. 

'til next post, 안녕히가세요 (annyeonghi gaseyo).