Back to the future

Jeong Ju Hyun

02 Jun 2030 (aged 35)

A violent storm hit this Dae-Jeon city in a quack during seven days. Today at last I can see the sun. We had 2,400 millimeters of rain for seven days, it's more half of the average annual rainfall in this region. What a wonderful downpour!

There are subtropical trees along the street. The presentation of the results of my research at the two-day WCUC(World Class University Conference) is expected three days later. I check the email of Doctor M. Doyle at Maryland University first thing in this morning. Doyle will read at WCUC his paper about a new bio drug based on the structural building blocks of proteins. And I call Doctor Moon Dae-Won in National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST) to check the schedule of the conference. Because he is the panelist on Doyle's paper. All this keeps my mind and body busy.

WCU(World Class University) is the project to develop nanotechnology. The size of the South Korean government's contribution for this project will be three trillion won. Nanotechnology is the high technology which will be universally applicable to electronics, communications technology, medical science, environmental science, energy, aerospace engineering etc. In short, It is useful technology in all areas of our life.

I'm Professor of KAIST graduate school for Nanotechnology. I have completed the courses from a master's degree to a doctor's at MIT. There, I was studying deep into the structural building blocks of proteins and into the cause of certain diseases. Korean government invited me to build up a small hard-core group of research scientists specialized in Nanotechnology and in Nano-Biotechnology.

I check today's schedule. I send the research draft of Doctor Doyle to be in the press. At 10 o'clock in a meeting of new drug research teem, the official name of nanocapsule for Parkinsons Disease will be decided. From 7 to 9 pm, I will talk together with Doctor Park Hyun Tae during dinner time. Having promised an experiment in chemistry with my RA(research assistant)

from 10 pm, there is no chance of return today.

< English quiz competition among schools>

Jeong Ju Hyun

22nd November 2008, I was chosen as one of four to play for my Sang gye middle school. It was the 3rd English quiz competition designed by Banbae local government.

The participants were middle or high schoolers in Seoul City. They were all fluent English speakers. Each team was composed of one runner who carries English questions or answers, and three solvers. My three teammates seem to comprehend English better than me. As a member, I concentrated my attention and tried to have fine teamwork. Our team went into the final.

The result of competition was not that we hoped. We lost by only one question and placed second as a team. It was worth attempting though, even our team failed to win the championship.

We were losing in the early part of the competition by a large margin, 30 points from the leading team. But soon after we started to chase them as fast as we could. Our team was more than more in hot pursuit of rival : the runner and the solvers ran and got the answers faster and faster. We were approaching very closely to the leading team. A neck and neck game continued for more than 10 minutes.

Metafiction Not finished!

Metafiction

 A boy is writing a novel for his homework just the same way I am doing this. He types several times but soon stops writing. He seems to have a hard time figuring out what to write… Hmm but I don’t know what to write about him as well. What shall I write? Well, let’s say that he went out of the room for some water. I feel a bit thirsty as well. Let me continue writing after I return…………………………………… I’m back! Sorry for making you wait so much. Next, he finds out that his room is not a good place to come up with fresh ideas! He feels like going out… Come to think of it, this is a good idea! No wonder I couldn’t write any longer! I’d better go out as well. Sorry I should stop writing for a while again I guess.ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

 Whoa just like what I thought. People need fresh air from time to time. Back to the novel, the boy sits on a bench, he decides to write about people’s every aspect in their daily lives. This is still early morning so there are not so many people here. The boy finds an old man feeding pigeons sitting on a bench across the road. Boy goes to the man and asks what he’s doing. He says he is feeding those pigeons enough before winter comes so that they would not starve. I see an old man feeding pigeons as well. I went to him and asked why he was feeding the pigeons. He said, “Winter’s coming closer, boy. I’m feeding them enough so that they wouldn’t starve during the winter.” WHAT A COINCIDENCE! He says just the same thing. Anyway then the boy came back to his bench and looked around for awhile. About an hour was still left before people would come out for their works. It was really boring to just wait but looking at the autumn colors was so calming. Soon the boy saw a bunch of people running to catch their bus, all of them with suitcase in their hands. The boy approached to them to ask some questions but they resisted, only saying, ”Stay aside, I’m late for work dammit!” Uh wait! Can I ask some questions, sir? “No and if you are not going to get on that bus, just stay aside, I’m late for work dammit!” The man pushed me into a pile of autumn foliage. It is quite strange that everything I write in the novel comes true in my real life, only severer. The boy felt bad about his situation. He became lethargic about writing, I’m sure everybody will feel the same way in a pile of autumn foliage. He felt calming and lethargic at the same time. Also waking up early made him drowsy and sleepy but he had to wake up because sleeping on a street could make his mouth turn.