Further Korean Adventures

Somewhere on the plane flight, I realized that I'd forgotten my power adapters, and that Korea probably didn't use the same plugs as the US of 'Mercuh. So I had to go into power conservation mode until I had a chance to do something about the situation. I bumped into some of my ASU friends yesterday, and one loaned me a spare adapter. So I've got power, thank goodness. I need to keep working on my talk.

The meeting has started this morning. I have a series of observations about Korea to report, but that will follow in a bit.

One large frustration - the place I booked through the conference website is a pretty terrible accommodation; the sort of place that probably typically asks customers whether they prefer to stay for the hour. But I don't plan to spend much space there, outside of sleeping. Sigh.

More Miscellanea

So, electricity. A friend from ASU loaned me an adapter that probably dates back to sometime in the 1990's. When I tried it with the outlets in the skanky Motel Bali, it didn't work last night. I spent the night sleeping fitfully, tossing and turning and trying to think about what to do. In the morning, I gave the adapter one last try, and all of a sudden it worked. I charged up the laptop, typed up a schedule for the week, and set out for the conference.

For some reason, these conference organizers decided to structure things around a set of themes, instead of structuring the program around the schedule for each day. That means that all of the events on Monday are scattered across 60 pages of text, interspersed with the events for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Not helpful, organizers. Yesterday I went through and circled all of the talks that sounded interesting, and then this morning I put them in a spreadsheet and reorganized them by day. There are so few talks on Wednesday that I may play hooky, but Thursday and Friday should be busy, fun, and interesting.

Anyway. The Oregon Convention Center had wall outlets every five feet, and it was funny to watch people plonk down by them and plug in all of their devices. The EXCO (Korean convention center) has about five outlets total, and the sketchy adapter didn't work in them (I should note that it made a lot of disconcerting buzzing noises when it did work, too). So I went back to the info desk and a kind lady there told me that there's an electronics store two blocks from the EXCO. A quick walk over, 1,000 Korean Won later (think ~$1), and I have a new adapter. It's the little things that can make a big difference.

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Let's see...miscellaneous impressions of Korea:

Somehow it's challenging to capture the atmosphere here in photos. There are so many people who live in Korea, in such a small space. High-rises everywhere. Interestingly, the high rises tend to be clustered in identical groups. Not a lot of external balconies, as it is quite humid here.

As with many Asian countries, in Korea, English Text (Engrish) is used for decorative effect, not meaning. I've photographed a handful of examples, which I'll upload at some point. It's weird and disconcerting to see English used in this manner, and reminds me of listening to some segment on NPR about Americans appearing on Chinese television. No matter what the Americans say or do, they're treated like show monkeys on television, and Chinese people just want to watch them for the novelty of it all. Fortunately, in this international conference, there's an overall tone of respect for different perspectives on Entomological research. But the Engrish abounds elsewhere. I should note that it's also intermingled with actually useful information. In comparison, the proliferation of Chinese calligraphic tattoos is minor.

So many people here. The landscape is pretty interesting. As a result of missing the late-night train, I got to observe the countryside instead. It's a land of steep hills and rivers and jungles. In some places, I was reminded of what I've seen of European agriculture, the land development is so intense. But growing fields are much smaller in scale, interspersed with small orchards and all sorts of plastic greenhouse contraptions.

The amount of plastic here dismays me, especially after getting to enjoy some relatively plastic-free time in Seattle, where plastic shopping bags have been banned and restaurants have to provide 100% compostable containers for take-away food. I managed to find a latte in a ceramic mug this morning, at the convention center, although the muffin I got at the same time was enshrouded in a plastic wrapper. There are little bits of litter all over the place, and I watched a man drop his cigarette butt straight into the sewer system. While we were encouraged to use drinking fountains and reuseable cups at the Oregon Convention Center, here at the EXCO there are little refrigerators everywhere, stocked full of little plastic bottles. I guess at least there's recycling in the building, and the bathroom sinks contain potable water.

My friend J commented that a lot of the plastics and disposable items could reflect the fact that, as a whole, Koreans aren't as wealthy as Americans. Perhaps he's correct, but it all makes me wonder what it would take to encourage more respect for the environment in a place like this. That may be really challenging to do in a culture that has so strongly embraced Western consumerism and where there are so many people living in spaces designed to shut out or control the external world. I see that manifesting in the way that groups of Koreans on the train kept all of the windows closed and either slept or spent the entire time diddling their iPhoneDroids and talking with their friends.

One of my favorite animators is Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese man who created films like Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. His work is popular for its artistry, but he also incorporates environmentalism into his films, in an aesthetic manner, drawing attention to the ugliness of pollution and casting villainous characters as heavy polluters. The cartoon characters/animations I've observed in Korea all tend to present very abstract, clean, cutesy, simplified landscapes where there is no trash, and thus seem to reflect escapism and disassociation from reality. This is probably an oversimplification of things, but is my general impression. Perhaps a lot of this is also tied to historical interactions between Japan and Korea, and Korean resistance to cultural infiltration.

One of the undergraduates who worked with me at ASU is Korean, so another interesting element of coming to Korea is getting to figure out which elements of his personality could reflect his cultural identity. He is a big eater, and it now seems to me that his enthusiasm for food has some cultural ties; Koreans seem to really enjoy their food. The trouble for me is that the vast majority of it contains meat or fish. I walked through a grocery store yesterday and wound up going home with a disappointing assortment of mostly Westernized foods because there was meat in almost everything else (aside from all of the cookies, that is).

The coffee situation is also kind of weird and funny. Only instant coffee at the grocery store, but it seems that Koreans really like coffeeshops, as there are coffeeshops all over the place, many of them Parisian-themed. In retrospect, I should have brought coffee grounds with me from Seattle. Ah well.