Chusuk in Korea

This weekend is Korean Thanksgiving known as Chusuk (추석).

Having lived in America for many years, this will be my first Chusuk in many years. It is one of the biggest Holiday in Korea, yet this year, the date falls on Saturday. So it won't feel much like

a holiday for many people. Although I am going home for the holidays, I don't think there will be any family events that I know of.

This just reminds me that in contemporary life, there is less family interaction. I can feel it strongly by skin! Looking at my own family, my twin brother is in America going to college, my sister is a career woman who works full time. And myself a graduate student in Daejeon, home away from home.

To give an update of my life at KAIST:

Thesedays, I am pre-occupied with classes and Student council work. CT workshop will be held in Pusan International Film Festival in October 9-10. As a member of the CT student council, we planned the event accordingly under strict budget.

This week, we also had our first idea presentation for Culture Technology Project class. Many team came up with interesting ideas including my team. However, the general comment from the professors were that our projects need to be focused on research rather than the product.

Afterall, we are not here to sell the IT products but to effectively work with many students from different discipline to research areas in Culture Technology.

This week was somewhat more significant to me because I have finally decided on what direction I am going to follow during my graduate studies at KAIST. Rather than to put myself into writing technical papers on the topic of research that I am not passionate about, I am going to pursue my professor to support me on creating contents based on CT equipments in next 2 years.

My goal then will be to walk out from KAIST with a strong and diverse portfolio that won't lack any qualty that the professional film industry looks for. I am not thinking this will be any easier than the more traditional track of writing technical paper and defense upon graduation. However, at this point, I think putting my energy into more of the artistic aspects of visual media would make myself much happier than the first option.

It's been a long (about a month long) dilemma I had and now I finally can focus.

I can't believe the month of September went by so fast!

Wishes everyone in Korea, HAPPY CHUSUK!!

Swimming lessons!

So yesterday, I began my swimming lesson.

One of my fellow classmate offered me to teach me how to swim. ( more importantly help me over come my fear of water)

When I first jumped into the pool, I became so nervous, stiff and shivered like it was winter or something. But after moving around the pool and whatnot, my body started to relax.

First lesson was to dip my head into the water. This may sound like a simple task but for a person who has fear of water, it is not so easy.

I have to say, I am proud of myself. I am 23 years old and after all those years, I finally put my mindset to overcome this fear and learn how to swim. So hopefully, I won't give up after couple days! My goal is to learn freestyle swimming by end of this semester! After all, I can rip all the benefits of swimming! It is the best exercise one can do daily!

This morning, I woke up around 8:30AM and headed to the pool around 9AM.
Moving on from yesterday's lesson, I dipped my head into the pool in a sitting down pose.
After doing it for ten times, I became more confident of being inside the water.

So my new goal is to
Swim daily and workout three times a week!

First Week of Graduate School @ KAIST

First week as a Master's student @ KAIST went pretty well.

After spedning 7 intensive week at Visual Media Lab, I am spending my first semester with all other new incomding students in Davinci lab.

There are many students from many different disciplines. But I gotta admitt, I think I studied the coolest subject: Film!

It's great to know there are many students who are interested in film. Otherwise, I wouldn't fit in at all.



Yesterday, I had a discussion with Visual Media Lab's supervisor PhD. student about my concerns. My only passion is to create my own films by developing storytelling.