Fabien en Corée

Day D-1

      The day before I leave Korea to France, the 15^th of July, I went to SNU (I had to register for my scholarship, I have to sign every month between the 15^th and the 20^th), cleaned some stuff, prepared new bacteria cultures (if they died during my vacations in France it would be a big problem ^^), well… nothing very interesting until the evening. Back home, I started to pack my suitcase. Later in the evening I watched several episodes of ‘Coupling’ with Benoit. Someone knocked the door, we thought it was the crazy korean girl who prowl around since a few weeks looking for a bed, so I didn’t open (Benoit had hard time to kick her out of his room when she tried with him, so we were more careful). But, lately I discovered that it was Jamali ^^. Anyway, later, after Benoit moved, when I was finishing packing my suitcase, someone else knocked at my door… but I don’t know who it was.

D-Day

      I woke up at 7AM, so I had time to eat, clean my fridge at let it in the shower room. I took an ‘airport bus’ at 9AM close to sunkyunkwan university. The weather was hot and humid (very humid), about to rain, so after 10 minutes of walk I was already wet. Actually I missed the first, because I didn’t exactly where was the bus stop, so after seeing where it stopped, I took another one at 9:25. It took around 1 hour to go to Incheon airport. There I checked in my suitcase (17kg, very light ^^), and I used my remaining time to eat something you cannot find in France…. a Burger King (my brother will understand :D). Then I passed the customs, and wait my flight. My seat was at the bottom of the place, close to the window; at the bottom of the plane seats are not 3 by 3, but 2 by 2, so I had only one neighbour.

      This situation can be annoying if you have a boring neighbour, but this day I was lucky, I had a funny korean girl who could speak English. The flight was long, 11 hours, and none of the movies I could watch in the plane was interesting, so having an interesting neighbour was a very good thing. The plane landed around 18:20, local time, so I had 50 minutes to get my luggage before taking my train. But, I forgot one thing, I was in France… so things became more and more complicated. The Charles de Gaulle airport is really a mess, the passport control was made by 3 guys… for more than 200 people, the place to get luggage is at the opposite of the airport, and then the station is again on the other side. Thus, of course, with the help the airport staff, I successfully missed my train. Hopefully I had a back up plan, a train to Limoges from Austerlitz station. I took the RER B (a kind of long line subway). There I met an English guy who were coming back from South Africa; I helped him to know if the RER we took was going where he wanted to go (actually I had to ask to the other passengers coz me too I didn’t know ^^). I finally arrived at Austerlitz station, changed my ticket (I took a wrong one, I did a mistake in the date), and took the night train. There I met a guy from Limoges who were coming back from China after studying Chinese there during one month. It was very cold in the train, they put the air conditioning at the maximum, so I had to open my suitcase and take the ONLY pullover I brought. I arrived at Limoges’ station at 1:15AM, and there my bro drove me back home. My trip ended up at around 2 AM, I was wholly exhausted after this 24 hours long trip, all I needed was to get some sleep. So I slept,… but only 5 fuc***ng hours because of the jetlag.

I’m not writing anymore, I’m too much tired. I try to sleep, I sleep, but I’m tired anyway. I should try to write because I don’t write enough on my blog.

Dimanche 13 avril

In my last post I spoke about my tendonitis and a photo shoot and testimonial for the SNU website. I received a few money for that, money-coupons that I can use in a few places.. but it is many expensive and bad restaurants (american style restaurants). One of these places is Bennigan’s, so I decided to go there, because of Butters (in South Park, it is his favourite restaurant). Well, it really doesn’t worth the price, really!, we paid around 45 000W for something that should cost around 18 000 – 20 000W… next time we’ll eat at Mercado (the Brazilian steak house, I speak about it in a previous post), it is a little more expensive but it is delicious, and you eat as much as you want :). Now I’m sure, Butters is really stupid ^^.

Lundi 14 avril

It was the beginning of a week. The main event of this week will be my mid-term exam of the Advanced Foundation Engineering class thursday, so I had to study this strange topic. But… I had also some homework (strange also ^^), so I lost some time…, I didn’t finish the homework…, and I also started an experiment about the water holding capacity of the soil mixes I will use during my experiments. Then, I ate dinner at Ijin’s, we ate pizzas.

Mardi 15 avril

I did the second step of my ‘water holding capacity’ tests, the last step will be performed Wednesday morning. Then I tried to finish the homework I started the day before, but I didn’t get right information, I tried to do something we didn’t have to do; I will try to submit it later.

Mercredi 16 avril

Another performance of the korean style administration; I went to the NIIED office to register, as every month, for my scholarship, and they tell me ‘we don’t do it anymore’, and they dare to say ‘you didn’t read our email?’. Hehe, they never sent any email (and when they send emails, they write in korean, and 70% of the NIIED students don’t speak korean, ..very good). In the subway I crossed a friend from Italy who experienced the same as me. Well, so I had to go to the International Office of SNU, a place where, weirdly, nobody speak English (the last time I’ve been there it was like that), and at the opposite of my lab in SNU. Hopefully I didn’t have to ask anything, I found the paper to sign by myself. I also finished my WHC experiment, and studied for the upcoming mid-term exam.

Jeudi 17 avril

Last night I slept at SNU, I slept in the house of a Pakistani friend; we studied together before the foundation engineering mid-term. Unfortunately, despite I studied and learnt many things I completely failed my exam ><. Just after the exam I went to the travel agency of SNU in order to find a ticket to go to France this summer. But … mmm… the girls of the agency were completely unskilled… and they also didn’t a word of English (they didn’t know ‘July’). So, I came back to the lab and checked that with my friend Gyu-hwan. We found one, and the day after I bought it with the help of Gyu-Hwan.

Vendredi 18 avril

I bought the airlines ticket, and….mmmm…. I bought a second heating plate in Yongsan.

Samedi 19 avril

In the morning I cleaned my room. In the afternoon the weather was nice, so with Ijin we took a walk around my place, in the palace close to Daehangno and in Jongno. In the evening we ate in the first restaurant I tried when I arrived in Korea, it was the first time I come back there. It is still good :).

Dimanche 20 avril

I tried to study, cooked a little bit, nothing special.

Lundi 21 avril

Ehhhhh… I’m really tired. I did homework all the day.
I also watched 'Bienvenue chez les chti's'... it...mmm.. sucks.

Mardi 22 avril

I worked a little bit for one of the paper I have to do in one class, I had 2 classes... casual day.

   

    Tout d’abord je vais commencer par parler de notre tentative de dîner français chez Ijin, il y a deux semaines, avec Benoit. La tentative avait été repoussée à plusieurs reprises pour cause de grippe ou autres, mais comme Benoit rentrait tard de Daejon, c’est devenu une soirée italo-française, Ijin prenant la place de Benoit à mes côtés aux fourneaux. Ijin a donc fait une grande pizza, et moi une quiche lorraine. Le plus dur a été de trouver les ingrédients :

-         - La pâte, impossible d’acheter des rouleaux de pâte feuilletée, il a donc fallu faire une pâte, une pâte brisée (la pâte feuilletée c’est beaucoup trop long à faire). Mais ici le beurre est un peu bizarre, donc la pâte avait une allure étrange, mais comestible.

-          - Les lardons, impossible à trouver. Je me suis rabattu sur du bacon, difficile à trouver aussi, mais c’est possible

-          - La crème fraiche, ici c’est de la science-fiction. Tout ce qu’il y a c’est de la crème liquide faite pour la crème fouettée, mais le problème c’est qu’elle est un peu sucrée… mais y’a pas mieux.

Au final le résultat était plutôt satisfaisant :)

 

    Après ça, de jeudi à samedi, je suis parti skier avec les labmates. Je ne sais pas skier, mais vraiment pas, donc tant qu’à faire j’ai décidé de faire du snowboard. Nous sommes parti de Sadang-yeok à 9h30-10h, mais il a fallu faire un détour  chez notre professeur qui ne s’était pas réveillé^^. On a déjeuné dans un restaurant très traditionnel. Apres avoir investi notre chambre d’hôtel, récupérer le matériel etc.., et on est allé skier. Je ne sais pas si c’était une bonne idée de choisir le snow, car c’est très difficile, au départ. Le premier soir, j’ai mis un long moment avant de réussir à me lever, et il a fallu que je me lève très très souvent ^^. On est rentré diner, puis on est retourné sur les pistes. En fin de soirée, je pouvais glisser doucement… mais pas trop.

    Le lendemain, retour sur les pistes. Ce que j’avais appris la veille avait bien été assimilé, et je pouvais descendre tranquillement, en frontward vers la gauche ou vers la droite. Il a ensuite fallu je j’apprenne le backward… c’est beaucoup plus dur… A midi on a mangé dans le resto situé au somment des pistes. Puis on a refait quelques des descentes avant de rentrer à l’hôtel, à moitié mort :D

    On est parti le lendemain matin un peu après 11h, et je suis arrivé chez moi aux alentours de 14h30. J’avais mal partout, surtout aux poignets à force de tomber, et aussi à force de me lever, j’ai dormi.

    Le soir même je suis allé dans un restaurant brésilien avec un ami brésilien (Juliano) et plein d’autres gens. Je ne savais pas trop à quoi m’attendre, quand on pense cuisine brésilienne on pense en général à… ben à rien, le Brésil c’est le foot, la samba, la chirurgie, l’Amazonie et les favelas… donc je me demandais ce que ça pouvait être. Et bien c’était excellent, j’ai mangé des tonnes de bœuf, de toutes sortes possibles, et tout ça cuit au barbecue. J’ai rarement mangé du bœuf aussi bon, peut-être parce que ici ça coute tellement cher donc j’en mange jamais, et puis… c’était à volonté, donc j’ai fait le plein de bœuf pour l’année. Le lendemain je me sentais vraiment mieux, j’avais l’impression d’être Luffy de One Piece (comprenne qui pourra).

    Pour finir, ce soir j’étais invité par un coréen ayant travaillé à l’ambassade de Corée à Paris. Tous les francophones du NIIED étaient invités. Le couple de coréens, deux 50-60aires très gentils, nous ont offert un très bon repas, avec plusieurs entrées, plats et desserts. C’était très sympa, ça m’a aussi permis de revoir Tabitha que je n’avait pas vu depuis 1 an, et de découvrir les deux congolais qui m’ont beaucoup rappelé mes potes gabonais de la fac de Limoges :D.