d-Wizz Hankuk Travel Diary [2005]
Day 15 (2005-08-10) / Day 16 (2005-08-11) / Day 17 (2005-08-12)
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Day 16: 2005-08-11 (Thursday)
After breakfast, I went with Spike to Chosun University. We walked about 5 minutes to the bus stop and rode a ‘777’ bus for about one hour. After 10 minutes walking at the other end, we arrived at the library, where we again met Yun-Ho. Spike had to do some organisation to prepare for the next semester’s study, so he took me to the Internet room and let me use the computer there for a while. He said he would be busy for about one hour. Yun-Ho was on the computer next to me. I wrote some more details in the travel diary and listened to some of the new MIDI files I had made at the guest house in Seoul. I let Yun-Ho listen to some of these as well.
When Spike returned, we all went to the university canteen for lunch. There were three Korean meals to choose from. Outside the canteen door there was a glass case with a sample of each meal inside. I was introduced to two more of Spike’s friends during lunch, and I gave them a copy of my Fav Trax audio CD.
Something I distinctly remember at this canteen was the method of disposal of leftover food, which was put in a trough with a device similar to an Insinkerator at one end. Occasionally, water was flushed through the trough to wash the leftover food into the Insinkerator. The volume of food was rather substantial, as there were many students having lunch at the time. I wondered if the Insinkerat-ed food waste was being composted, but I doubted that this would be the case in Korea. As I would later discover in Asan, it was probably sent to the grey water system (more about grey water on pages 47 and 58).
We left the canteen and Spike decided to return to his apartment, so we caught another bus, but we had only been on this bus a few minutes, when Spike ushered me to get off. He told me rather sheepishly that he had forgotten the key for his apartment, and that he needed to get one from his father, who was at work. Fortunately, this involved only a short walk from where we had gotten off the bus. Spike met his father about 15 minutes later, and we were soon on our way to Un-nam again.
At Spike’s apartment, we had a chat about what I would do in Daegu on the weekend. I mentioned that I would be meeting Cho Bo-Young there, and Spike asked me to invite him to come to Gwangju with me when I returned on Monday (2005-08-15) if possible. During his travelling in Australia about 8 months earlier, Spike had unexpectedly met Cho Bo-Young at Alice Springs. They both knew me, so the connection was obvious. I promised Spike I would extend his invitation.
Late in the afternoon, Spike had to go to another tutoring session, and he suggested I could find a PC bar and use the Internet while he was busy. I wandered down to the area with all the neon lights. The first PC bar I went to used Windows 98-IIe, so my USB key would not work in there, the next one used Windows XP, but did not have accessible USB ports on the computer. On the third attempt, I found a PC bar which used XP, and had accessible USB ports, so I plugged in and got busy. I chatted on MSN at length; many of my friends were online, as it was just before dinner time. I was in the PC bar for about 1½ hours, and before I knew it, Spike had rung me to say he was on his way home again. I told him I would meet him there in 15 minutes so we could have dinner together, but it took me about 20 minutes just to finish all the MSN conversations I had going!
After dinner, I packed the things I wanted to take to Daegu. Knowing that I was returning to Gwangju on Monday (2005-08-15) made the job a lot easier, because I did not have to take everything with me. I made sure I took my 4-track recorder and some tapes with me because I intended to do some recording with Jimmy in Daegu if possible. I also made sure that the CDs with click tracks and MIDI backing tracks were put inside the suitcase along with the 4-track.
When I was sure that I had packed everything I would need in Daegu, I confirmed with Spike what we would be doing in the morning. I was due to meet Cho Bo-Young at 1030, so I wanted to arrive in Daegu before 1000, if possible. This meant that I had to leave Gwangju by about 0630 at the latest, as the journey would take 3½ hours. Working backwards from there meant we had to leave Spike’s apartment no later than 0600, so it was going to be an early start. Having worked that out, we decided it was time to go to bed and get as much sleep as possible.
Day 15 (2005-08-10) / Day 16 (2005-08-11) / Day 17 (2005-08-12)
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