I just got back from a business trip to Seoul National University. For a more formal writeup, please see the post on my Harvard blog.
Out of the blue, Wonsuk (on a knee next to me) emailed me around Thanksgiving and eventually it was decided that five of us would visit. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
We arrived somewhat late on Monday.
The next morning, we were so excited to see this sign when we arrived at SNU we almost didn’t notice out host emerging from the building.
We gave talks and workshops.
They were very nice to give us gifts. Erika promptly stole my pencil holder. The mug is in our heavy rotation.
On Tuesday night the five of us (plus 1) looked for place to eat. We settled on a place called “Pig Restuarant 2” based on excellent reviews online. Here’s the outside.
The owner of the restaurant, Leon, cooked for us. I highly recommend this place.
On Wednesday we had meetings. We talked shop. It was fun. We had sushi for lunch.
That evening Wonsuk brought us out for Texas BBQ, which was excellent. He wrote my name in Korean.
Thursday was a free day for us. We had talked about walking up the mountain near the hotel and going to the top of North Seoul Tower. We could see it from our rooms.
After a nice time at the top of the tower we saw thousands of heart-shaped locks.
They were everywhere.
We went to a temple. Neat statues.
Much more colorful than a church would be back home. We went inside and prayed.
After the temple we went to a palace in time for the changing of the guard.
Occasionally, you’d see a palace building that looked brand new.
