Long time, no update? It has been a little busy.

The week at Loch Eil Outward Bound Centre was good fun. Not a relaxing holiday — but fun nonetheless!

The parts for our third year group project became available the day before the Easter holidays. After we came back there was a frantic rush to get the solar still built and tested. A website was also prepared for it. I will probably cover this project another time in a different post because there is plenty to say about it!

Early May my summer placement at KIER was confirmed. There was quite a lot to get organised and I won’t go into all the details but I travelled to London with Kim the day before I was due to fly to pick up my VISA from the Korean Embassy. Time schedules like that leave me a little stressed!

But here I am in Korea. I’ve had a few days to settle in having arrived Friday evening. I had extra sleep time on Saturday and Sunday afternoon to make up for my 24+ hour stay awake marathon when I travelled from Glasgow to Daejeon. I walked to Daejeon city on Saturday to buy food and bedding. Unfortunately the cheapest bedding I could find is flowery and pink.

I think the cook in the cafeteria is trying to kill me because every meal involves me having my head blown off by the spicy hotness. Everyone else eats their food and then has a drink but I just can’t do that. I go through a bottle of water per meal. Maybe at the end of three months I might be able to manage?!

Someone asked me what Korea was like — my answer was/is that it’s “very Korean”. South Korea is very homogeneous and I haven’t seen any white people since I left the airport. This is no bad thing though! The people I’ve met have been helpful and tried there best to sort out any difficulties. The language barrier means it can be quite difficult at times for both sides. It’s fortunate I don’t a Glaswegian accent!

However, everyone’s English is far superior to my Korean so I would like to learn a little of the language. Currently I can say “hello, thank you, yes and no”. It’s a little bit limited!

I had a bit of a water fight with a toilet today. Needless to say it came off better. To be honest I see it as a little bit of karma. I was so distracted by the control panel I didn’t even notice the handle to flush it was just in the normal place. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what “that” button does though. The cartoon diagrams did act as clues and acted as fair warning at the risks I faced using that toilet.

But I could never stay mad at it — the thing has a heated seat!!