Week 7

This next story may require a bit of background to understand. Click here. The pen, or maybe the pipette, is mightier than the sword. Microbes of unique Korean origin named Dokdonella koreensis, Dokdonia donghaensis, Virgibacillus dokdonensis, Maribacter dokdonensis, and Marinomonas dokdonensis were found in... Dokdo 독도. And they were apparently internationally authorized. If Japanese scientists now call these bacteria "dokdonella" etc, maybe Korea wins the dispute over the islands?

This past week, I went to a great conference in Daejon where the director of my institute spoke about our work on nanoparticles- Recent Issues on Nanostructured Materials: Biomedical Applications and Toxicity. We rode to Daejon 대전 on the KTX high speed train. It took longer to take the subway 35km from Incheon to Seoul Station (where we picked up KTX), than it took to go more than 140km from Seoul to Daejon 대전! We spent the morning with our colleagues at KIT, had an excellent lunch at a traditional, semi-rural restaurant where they make everything including the kimchi and sauces from scratch. They served excellent tasting 동동주 which is a filtered wine made from rice. We had a really nice dinner after the symposium with some of the presenters and the Korean government delegation who attended the lectures. We ate lots of raw fish including live octopus tentacles.


I went to lunch last Friday with the Expo 2009 PR Team at an elegant Korean beef restaurant 대도식탕 here in Incheon. I normally avoid beef but this was incredibly good. In between savory bites I discovered the NY Times did not contact them about the story the Times ran in their Real Estate section, mentioned in last week's blog. I suspect Gale is focusing on finding immediate investors in their project and the expo is too far away for them to think about. The Times did appear to get information from the Korean national government for statistics (unless that also came from Gale PR) but probably did not dive down to Incheon government sponsored groups like the Expo committee. There are all kinds of opportunities to get involved folks!

Surprising to me, I've seen at least two instances of random Judaism here in Korea in less than two months. One was a small menorah displayed with other western style objects in a kimbop shop. I did not ask but I bet they had no idea what it was other than a token of western influence. The other was a star of david pizza topping design displayed in an advertisement. Hopefully it the pizza doesn't have pork sausage topping!


I attended the first class of a 10 week beginning Korean course at the prestigious Yonsei Language Institute at Yonsei University this past week but have to drop due to too many trips out of Korea in the next couple months. I'll miss too many of the weekly classes to participate. As in my Incheon language class, it was an international cast. I was the only US citizen there. Luckily, it will be offered again in several months. I'm eligible for tuition reimbursement if I pass the course through a special government program for foreign high tech workers. Let me know if you want more information...

I'll be heading off to Beijing for more than a week on Feb 2. Maybe all of Asia has a five day holiday from work, Feb 6-10. I'll see my buddy Storm and his wife LiYun for a couple days before they head home deeper into China. I'll guard their apartment while they're gone. The three of us had a great time at The Real Great Wall when I visited last May. Everyone travels home for the lunar new year holiday and I'll stay in Beijing, avoiding travel except for city buses, taxis and of course... the bicycle! I'm getting into Beijing right before the mad rush and staying until just after the smoke clears. It should be relaxing and I'm looking forward to witnessing the fireworks display... both the approved and forbidden ones.