Scandal!!!

It's been mounting for a while, but the scandal surrounding Professor Hwang Woo-suk and his stem-cell research seems to have hit a peak today, with Seoul National University's investigation concluding that 'the production of nine patient-tailored stem cell lines was a fabrication'. Hwang was basically a national hero prior to these accusations of fraud, and now a mood of humiliation and outrage mixed with sympathy surrounds him.

Showing just how quickly the impact of the Hwang debacle have filtered into public conciousness, I was told today of a new drink that has recenlty been invented. A popular drink in all-male drinking scenarios is the Bomb drink (폭탄주), where a shot of whisky is dropped into a glass of beer and then the whole thing rapidly consumed. Well, the new Hwang Bomb drink is similar, except instead of whisky, the shot is either of water or beer. Clever.

Update

The end of November saw the passing of a close furry friend. Raistlin, or Fat Kitty as he was more commonly known, grew ill and passed on. He was about 15 years old, fat and gentle as ever, and is greatly missed. Unfortunately I don't seem to have many photos of him, but here is an artist's rendering. If you have any memories of Fat Kitty, like the time he sat on your hand and it lost feeling, I'd love to hear about it.

Traditional Dance Festival

Back in October, myself and friends Chris and Su-jin took an inland adventure to Andong, known for its traditional dance festival. Though we didn't have too much time to spend there, we managed to catch some interesting sights.

View the photo album here.

November Field Trip

This field trip was for international students and foreign teachers and was great fun. We drove off early in the morning to somewhere sort of in the southern-middle of Korea. We first saw one of the movie sets for the immensely popular film called 'Taegukki' or 'Brotherhood'. After that, we briefly stopped by a dam, and then went on to Haein Temple. Haein Temple is one of the three Jewel Temples in Korea as it houses the Tripitaka Koreana, which is a set of about 80,000 carved wooden printing blocks consisting of Buddhist scriptures. Sadly we ran into traffic on the way back to Busan and spent almost as much time in traffic as we had on sightseeing.

See the photo album here.

Absence

It's been I while since I've said hello here on Anninator's Asian Adventures. Things have been busy, a little tense and sorrowful. Sadly, my faithful companion Fat Kitty has left this earthly plane for a place in Feline Heaven, where presumably there is more food. He is greatly missed.