Internship in Space

As of today, Geraldine has survived 100 hours (10 days of 10 hours) in Space. She didn't see B-612 along the way so she couldn't meet her Little Prince. =(

Anyway, she promised that she will share about her working life so here goes..

0645h - Rise & Shine (although the sun would have been shining for more than an hour)
0715h - Bus and Subway
0800h - Reach office
1200h - Lunch
1300h - Back to office
1800h - End work

Did she mention that this is the ideal? It's more like..

0704h - Grumbles in bed
0726h - Chiongs to the bus
0808h - Steps into office building
1200h - Eat and grow fat
13++h - Still at lunch, drinking coffee or eating ice-cream (with colleagues of course)
17++h - Tea Time if the team isn't busy
18++h - Hangs around till she is given the green light to go

Reporting for 1st day of work..


Geraldine's table..

Stuff she received.. The 1st shows a floorplan and names and photos of her colleagues in her division. Her cute colleague, 현주선배님 gave it to her. It was really helpful. Geraldine wrote 习字 with her colleagues' names to try and remember everyone. By the way, she's quite sad that her name was spelt wrongly. =X

Lunch on 2nd day of work.. (Geraldine didn't dare take pictures on the 1st day of work) Barley rice bibimbap! Barley as a main course. Geraldine has always eaten barley as a dessert, so she was pleasantly surprised. Korea doesn't have barley drinks though..

Dinner with colleagues for the other intern, 두한선배 in the team who will be leaving. Chicken with beer.. Egg dish.. And Golbangi! (골뱅이) Which keeps reminding me of "Go bang head!" (Long pia).. Anyway Geraldine doesn't know if it's a shellfish or a snail.. And more beer after that.. Archi is really a male-dominated industry.

두한선배.. Didn't get to talk to him much during the 4 days that we were in the same team.. He says he is shy.. >.< Don't you wonder at times whether you should eat rice or noodles during mealtimes? Fret not! Just eat both! 부대라면?

Restaurant in the day.. Home in the night.. Isn't it smart? The two pretty ladies are Geraldine's colleagues..

Hyunsuk-seonbaenim 현숙선배님, modelling for the Kimchi Jjigae (김치찌개) and noodles..

Geraldine's 1st task - to do a scale 1:600 model of a mixed-use project, 강복미아 5구역 도시 환경 정비 사업. A compilation of the process..

The completed work..

Guess the difference between 감사합니다, 고맙습니다, 고마워요, 고마워. Answer: No difference! In terms of meaning.

The Korean language has different formalities, meaning you speak differently to people of different seniority levels even though you are saying exactly the same thing! It is especially evident in the office where everyone holds a certain position. Geraldine is glad that her superiors do not fault her at times when she did not speak formally enough. There are generally 3 levels of formality - honorific, formal polite and informal polite.

Honorific - for your grandparents, parents, big bosses, announcements and signages, customers
Common endings: -십시오, -입니다, -습니다, 합니다, -세요.

Formal polite - 70% of conversations are at this level. For people roughly around the same level as you, but maybe not so close, and seniors in school. Geraldine is most used to this.
Common endings: -이에요/예요.

Informal polite - For close friends.
Common endings: -야.