PhD Stuff
My PhD course work is going well. I recently did a presentation which I think went quite well. At least a couple of my classmates found it quite useful and some of them came and asked me afterwards for my sources. My discussion with my philosophy professor, who is also my thesis supervisor is quite fruitful, I think. Although I have not read as much as I would have wanted to for my thesis research, I have honed the outline of my paper a lot. I may or may not have to give another presentation this coming Monday... Korea can be a little ambiguous at times.
Work Stuff
The end of the semester came rather quickly. This coming week there is a public holiday on both Wednesday (for regional elections) and Friday (Memorial Day), so I will only have a two day work week (Tuesday and Thursday), since I am off for my PhD studies on Mondays. There is much that needs to be done in these two weeks, but it is all nicely coming together.
Baseball Game
Baseball is not something generally played in South Africa, and as far as I know, we do not even have a dedicated baseball field in South Africa. Needless to say, I've never been to a baseball game, nor really ever had a true interest in going to one. However, a professor from one of my PhD classes took his master's degree class out on a field trip to a baseball management's office, and afterwards a game, and invited the PhD group as well. Here are some photos of the stadium management "behind-the-scenes" areas as well as the pit and bench and so on.
It is the Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. It was quite a pleasant first game, and luckily I had a friend who could explain to me the finer details of the game. Baseball isn't too complicated and I had already known the basic rules of the games, having watched enough Hollywood movies to deduce the rudementaries.
Guitar!
I got a guitar as a gift. One of my neighbors had a guitar which she didn't use and felt that it was just taking up space. I on the other hand have been looking for a guitar for quite some time now, but just couldn't get myself to buy one--being very selective on what I spend my money one. Well, I was most happy to take it off her hands.
Dongdaemun
I went to Dongdaemun, which literally translates as "East-Great-Gate", possibly two or three times in May. Dongdaemun is known as a fashion shopping area. Visiting Dongdaemun Market is quite an experience as it truly comes to life as a night market when people from all over (including abroad) come to buy whole sale clothes, or hunt for bargains and sales.
I did do some shopping too. I bought a pair of summer pants, a nice matching shirt and also new frames for a new pair of glasses. I've always wanted round steampunk / Harry Potter style glasses, but whenever I put them on they really don't match my face. However, this frame gives the illusion of being round, but they are tempered on top and match my face much better than actual circular ones.
Home-made mayonnaise
I made mayonnaise for the first time. I based it off of a video I saw with Jamie Oliver. Making mayonnaise is surprisingly terribly easy. I don't think I will ever buy mayonnaise again. It just doesn't make sense to buy it, if you can make it easily and cheaply and with organic ingredients.
New Pots
A friend saw the states of my cooking pots and then gave me a sincere and serious talk about the ill-effects my old pots may have on me, and that I should not be using those teflon-sprayed stuff, as it is not healthy, so I took her advice, threw out my old pots, and bought two new ones, with a ceramic coating. I bought one big pot and one small one. I need to buy one medium sized one. I might do it this in June or maybe next month.
MODAFE 2014
The annual Modern Dance Festival was held over May 23-31. I would have loved to attend all of the dance performances, but could only see seven dance routines. Nevertheless, it was great. The highlight was the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company with their performance entitled "If At All", choreographed by Rami Be’er.
I also saw "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", "Foot, Foot, Step, Sound and Step", "Landing Error", "Swift Shift", "The Song", and "Waiting Tree". This list was grouped into two shows with three performances each.
At one of the performances I met a really nice guy who is a the producer / director for a 3D animation series currently running on a Korean TV channel. We had a great time talking about the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company performance and other art related stuff. I guess I made a new friend.
Taijiquan
I attended a Taiji workshop, focusing on joint mobility. It was painful, but in a good way.
Personal Life
As for my personal (romantic) life, all I can say is that it is the stuff that soap operas are made of!
Media
I watched "Her" Saturday night. A very nice movie.
I also watched the series "True Detective". Very good.
As well as some documentaries that are worthy seeing, like Generation Rx and The World According to Monsanto.
I also downloaded the book "The Science Delusion" after watching this TED Talk on my app and started reading it over the weekend.
Well, that's all the major things I can think of.
Oh, and I voted.
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