Let’s talk about science.
Progress on a certain project of mine was not moving forward as planned. In order to make up for lost time, we decided to collect some new DNA. To acquire this DNA, I had to dissect a mouse that was mutated with the specific characteristic we were targeting.
So I’ve had my fair share of dissections in high school. They all came wrapped in preservatives and plastic. The smell was pretty much what you would expect it to be like: blegh. Never did I ever have to be the one to force any of these animals to kick the bucket.
Unfortunately, that track record ended this week.
I’ll save you from the gruesome details but if you ever plan on dissecting an animal you just killed, wear a face mask. The smell progressively made me want to drown myself in Febreeze. Fortunately, all those days in anatomy and biology came in handy, since I managed to harvest the necessary organs before I would have had to puke. I might have thrown in a bit too much hyperbole but hey, I’m trying to relay you a story, yeah?
Outside of the dissection, the science progressed relatively slow as science does. Let’s move on to class and I am not going to rant this time!
The program planned a culture trip for our levels 3 and up for Friday. Levels 3 and 4 went to the 한국민속촌 (Korean Folk Village). Now, I said this program treated us like kids early on, right? Well, about every grade from the end of high school on down was present that day. Granted, I wouldn’t expect anyone to come by this place unless they had a child with them. The place had that Korean folksy vibe but the only thing any of us young adults cared about was the 풍잎 (autumn foliage). Yeah, pumpkin spice season was in full throttle and the Instagram game was strong in all of us.
Back to the kids.
It would be a bit of stretch to say it was like a folksy Disneyworld with all its goofy characters and cheesy divisions and overpriced products and… Okay, it’s not really a stretch. In fact, the reason why I thought this in the first place was because of the child leash. Yes, the child leash. Parents and guardians were walking around their children like pets. Hell, one woman had about 9 of them chugging along. Give her a Santa costume and a sleigh and you would have had Christmas in October.
Admittedly, it was a little fun to destress from class and just check out all the pretty leaves. Just look at how chill these ducks were!
Following the little excursion, I met up with Frances to meet up with Patty and my Korean professor from Yale: 이정화! She’s back to teaching at Sogang Level 5 and it was our first meeting since I left Yale. We were the only Light Fellows currently abroad to have had her as a teacher. We went to a 생선구이집 (fish grill) and got tons of grilled goodies. The formalities that come with introduction were transformed quickly into a period for us to vent of Korean life and the problems of our program. There was some good discussed but overall it became clear that Yale taught Korean way better. Outside of all the venting, we talked randomly about various trends and cultural phenomena. The girl was quickly followed with cake. I mean, you got to have your 후식 (dessert)! It was really cool to talk our 선생님 less academically and more conversationally. Outside of Yale, it was nice to see how our academic relationship turned into friendship.
