Well I've been in Korea for about two weeks now (wow! that seems so long!) and quite a bit has happened. The first week was dedicated to flying in, getting acclimated, and doing the EAPSI orientation. I even attended some Kpop events, and as a result my personal life has taken an interesting turn. I will spare the details of that though. After orientation, I met my professor over here, and then traveled over to Ulleungdo.
So I got to Ulleungdo over half a week ago, and my housing situation got a little messed up and I ended up bouncing around until I got the key for my place yesterday. I hadn't been able to pack my field bag until then, so my data collection got a little delayed. However, I went out today and got four sites done. My goal was five a day, but today I got a bit of a late start and ended early (mostly because I forgot to charge the batteries for my camera). So I think I will be able to collect all the data I need. I also decided to tweak my design a bit so that I will not be picking and choosing sites based on whether I think I can survey without falling down a steep hillside. Instead I will be randomly placing my quadrat frame within 10 meters of where I take my GPS point, which may or may not end up being right off the trail.
After I finished in the field, I hiked over to Bongrae Falls and headed back to my room for data entry and GIS. Fun stuff!
Anyways, I've seen a few cool things the past couple of weeks, so I will share them here.
Lonicera (japonica?)
Temple in Gyeongju
They're supposed to be guardians of something (can't quite remember what)
Queen Seondeok's Astronomical Observatory
Schizophragma hydrangeoides
Dodong from Dokdo Observatory
Temple on Ulleungdo
Houttuynia cordata
Varied Tit
Japanese Wood Pigeon
Sympetrum infuscatum
Thymus quinquicostatus (or Thymus magnus)
The view from where I ate lunch today
Berberis amurensis var. latifolia
One of my sample plots!
