From here, I will write in categories, not necessarily in time order.

Breakfast

I usually get up at 6’o clock and have breakfast soon after. Then I check my inbox, read a book or study before getting ready to go out. Don’t take it as a typical Korean though. It’s just me. From some day last year, I’ve started feeling extra uneasiness of wasting time. Although I didn’t set a daily plan which may squeeze every minute, I always made it sure that I was doing something needed. It was vulnerable mindset to self-rationalization, but still I did many productive things with this system. Opening a day at 6’o clock was one of the fruits of the seed. However, in Alaska, there were two facts that led me to sleep more in the morning. First, it was too cold outside while people were still sleeping inside, and second I couldn’t have breakfast anyway until 9’o clock. Oh, one more minor reason. A book I brought from Korea turned out to be boring. So I slept longer.

Breakfast in Alaska was pretty much the same as dinner. Bread, butter, cheese, meats, tomatoes, cucumbers, and so on. Oh, they also served cereals and milk. I forgot that because I never had that one after one bowl in the first morning. Though some people told me that the bread in Alaska is not so good quality, they were still better than the ones I used to eat in Korea. So I was quite satisfied with my meals. One funny story. At first I washed my face and hair before breakfast since I wanted to look always clean. But, after a few days I found myself heading for the dining hall directly from the bed.

It was the third day. I felt cold while sleeping. I woke up to see the time. It was about 5’o clock. I tried to sleep again, but it was too cold. Everyone was sleeping, and I couldn’t think of something to warm myself. To forget the cold, I thought about people I like. One by one, I tried to remember what we did, where we went, and about what we talked about. Then, I also thought when I would be able to see him/her again, and how nice it would be. Well, for some people I had to skip the future part though. Anyway, doesn’t it sound good way to kill some time? I guess I should put myself in an extreme situation when I need a bright idea. That day, Tasuki was sort of angry that I didn’t wake him up, and later I found two big blankets and one sleeping bag on my bed. Haha. Of course, there was no more cold morning.

Lake

I cannot imagine Alaska without the lake. Although the lake is not seen from Alaska, the beach of the lake is an iconic place. Like a custom, everyone went there at least once a day. After all, it was really good place to get a tan, read a book, play Baduk, drink beer, and - most importantly - swim.

Before getting to the swimming part, I must talk about bikini. I never told anyone about this in Poland as I was too shy to mention it. I bought this 3-piece-swimsuit just before the summer. Because it had another short dress other than bikini, I could wear them without exposing the body. In fact I had never worn bikini in a public place before. First, I was too shy, and second I was afraid of being remembered as a fat girl by other people. Not that I could hide that with clothes, but still it was just scary. On the second day in Alaska, I observed other people at the beach. Almost every girl was wearing bikini. Oh, I wanted to get into the lake so badly. The water was beautifully reflecting sunshine, and seemed so cool. Is it worth wearing bikini? Though no one seemed to care, the fact all other girls had nice figure discouraged me. You know what? I hesitated all the day, and decided to try next morning. On the third day, I wore bikini inside shirt and short pants and went to the beach. I am not sure if any one noticed, but I was so nervous when I took off the clothes. So, yes, I wore bikini for the first time in a public place then. How was it? Hmm. I didn’t want to get out of the water. Haha.

OK, let’s get back to the swimming part. It seemed so easy when other people showed me. But it didn’t work for me. I tried and tried again. Still didn’t work. Some people told me I was good for a beginner, but probably they meant to cheer me up. Anyway, I repeated in my head, ‘legs, arms, breath, legs, arms, breath…’ then I sank. Sigh. Right, there was another problem besides being un-athletic. I had different teachers every time, and they all had different method to teach. The basic should be the same, but I had to try in a little bit different way, which made my previous efforts almost useless. When I was a kid, I had a few Baduk teachers. It was all well and good to learn different styles, but there were times that they taught me something contradict. It always confused me. Yet, now I understand that very often there are a few possible answers according to the player’s style.

When I first tried to learn swim, some people told me I would be able to go to the other side of the lake before the end of LSG. You know what? They were right. Although I couldn’t manage to learn swim, I still got to the other side of the lake. How? On foot! I walked to the other side.

The lake is said to be around 13km in circumference, and mostly surrounded by forest. One day, Tasuki said he took a round tour of the lake 2 years ago, and it took him about 3 hours. Although I was afraid of many kinds of strange creatures in forests, walking along the lake through forest sounded quite attractive. After all, it was something I cannot do in Korea. So I told him “I’d like to do that too! Can we make some time?”

Actually I am taking much time in this part. I am worried that my clumsy description might either too simplify or dramatize (or more likely make it look as if I dramatized too much) what really happened. Suddenly one quote came up to my mind. “Writing well mean never having to say, ‘I guess you had to be there’.”  - Jef Mallett. Well, let me just try then.

It was Saturday. Because it was a little bit clouded in the morning, we were not sure if it would be Ok to just depart. Tasuki tried to find precise weather forecast, but didn’t succeed. Yet, Benerit kindly said it should be OK, and also he could guide us through a forest himself. So we all – 7 of us – got ready right after the lunch. At first we passed through the ‘Desiderata’ forest that I liked a lot. (Desiderata description here http://blog.tasuki.org/desiderata/) So far I was happy, energetic, and excited about the tour. Oh, I recall that we called this literally ‘Lake round tour’ at first, but sometime later we were regarding our journey ‘adventure.’ Anyway, at the end of the ‘Desiderata’ we started walking along less developed path. Then the path became narrower and ended up disappearing. Yes. There was no path at all. It was complete bush forest. Strange green and ocher grasses were everywhere, some of which were about my knee-tall. It was darker inside the forest, and there were countless ants, insects and flies. Sometimes I had to cram myself into between bush woods, and lower my body as low as possible so that I can pass under some branches. Also, Very often I spotted different types of mushrooms and fruits.

Thinking back, it wasn’t that bad. On the contrary, I feel like doing it again some time. But, at the time I got so exhausted only after half an hour. I might have come back to Alaska if there had been a proper and easy way to Alaska. Yet, I didn’t want to take the way I just took, and thought the only way home is to go ahead.  So I kept walking. Luckily there were some paths time to time. Oh, also the beautiful scenery of the lake was the main source of my energy. Because it was so beautiful, I could forget that I was very tired.

This lake is very long and relatively narrow. When we reached the end of one side, we made a curve to walk along the lake, and found the ground wasn’t really ground. It was swamp. If you stand on one place for more than a few seconds, you can easily feel sink. Although some people were reluctant to walk on this area, I just kept walking, feeling excited. In fact, it was first time for me to see a real swamp, and somehow it was so fun to walk on it. And, we faced something like swamp plus pond at the middle of our way to the other side of the lake. To avoid this obstacle, we had to make a big detour. I didn’t feel like make a detour though. I wanted to somehow across the thing. So I looked for the place that had narrowest width. It seemed like jump-able distance, but I wasn’t sure. I stepped on a wooden piece to estimate the distance better. And at one point, it looked really possible to jump. Spontaneously, I tried to jump. Oh, it was huge mistake. At the moment I jumped, the wooden piece I was on broke down, and I fall into the pond plus swamp thing. Fortunately it was about my thigh-deep, and eventually I got to the other side. But my sneakers were black with mud-like stuff, completely wet, socks also, and pants half wet. Bigger problem was my accident forced everyone else to jump over the thing. They no longer could take the detour unless they leave me alone. So people jumped. Haha. You may see some pictures here. http://gallery.tasuki.org/2010/08-lsg  No.32 and 33.

Despite I was almost run out of energy after this, we were not even on a half point of the whole adventure. So when Tasuki told me that he could arrange a boat to get to Alaska across the lake, it was really really tempting. I didn’t want to walk anymore, for my shoes and socks were wet. However, I couldn’t surrender that easily either. So I had decided to keep going. At one point, we reached the opposite side of our beach, and found a big wooden bench. I sat as soon as I saw it, and with everyone else I took a long break instead. This is how I got to the other side of the lake on foot. After that, there was no more bush, no more swamp, but long long walk. Just like this, we all came back to Alaska in roughly 4.5 hours.         

Lecture

When I taught in Korean Baduk camps, most kids were quite strong already. Most of them knew almost all josekis, and some frequently played openings. So I usually reviewed their games. Actually reviewing learner’s game has some good aspects. First, the learners know what they are studying. Because the materials are their own made, students are even better prepared than those who read the entire text book before lectures. Second, teachers may see how they reasoned, and correct some wrong directions. You know, it will take too much to improve in general if you just focus on individual techniques. (This is also important though) What you want to get is how to reason. How to think or how to approach in order to find the right move. Third, - for lecturers – it’s convenient since they don’t need to collect examples and relevant problems. Theme lectures are good and easy to be done only if appropriate examples are ready. Otherwise it would confuse the audience. Lastly, reviewees get to face the whole stage of a game. There should be josekis, opening, middle stage, probably some battles, end game, and so forth. That is to say, it’s comprehensive.

One problem of reviewing is, however, that showing their own games to everyone can be unpleasant for some people. Actually I was also one of those. I still remember how I avoided my teacher’s eyes when he was looking for a game to review. Yes, yes. I wasn’t so good student. Anyway, when I and Tasuki discussed lectures during LSG, we agreed to have game reviews, but were concerned that there might be no volunteer. Thus, he asked me to bring some games of mine. In retrospective, it was very wise of him to ask me in advance so that I can have some time for preparation. As a result, I had 3 lectures on my own games out of 9. You know what? If someone attended all three lectures of my games, he/she should know about me better than anyone for I haven’t had a chance to lecture on 6 of my games to the same audience. (There were times that I introduced one of my games, but never as a series) Thankfully, Polish players – and a few international players – were polite enough to show their interests in my games

For the game reviews, we asked the volunteers to record their games in a laptop,
and used projector. Many people attended to every lecture and stayed attentive despite
 my not-fun-at-all comments. I am so grateful to all of them.