On Time

A view of the Bund from the New Heights Bar in Shanghai, China. Photo taken during a short vacay at the end of December.

I've been thinking a lot of about time lately. Timelines, timing, timeliness, and now that I'm based in Seoul...Korean time. It's now coming upon the midpoint of my grant, and I've been slowly chipping away at the mid-term report that I need to submit to Fulbright asap. In my review of fieldnotes and journals, I think that overall, the field research has progressed at a good pace. One thing that I realized about the nature of conducting research here, however, is getting acclimated to Korean sensibilities of time - which is best rendered in polite terms as "flexible."

Other than attending major events that have already been fixed, I've abandoned the idea of scheduling appointments more than a week in advance. The week-long increment seems to work best, and allows for cancellations, "re-schedules" and plenty of improvisation. Case in point, this past weekend I rescheduled some meetings and went to Pusan on a couple of hours notice. I had finally heard back from a professor with whom I had been trying to get in touch with for several days. I was planning on only staying for one night for the meeting, but then he insisted that I stay through until Monday. I ended up seeing two performances, attending a series of duipuri, and conducting some interviews, all due to the efforts and hospitality of this very kind professor.

In Korea, there is an improvisatory quality to time and also the music. I won't delve into a lecture on Korean rhythm now - but I'll just say that there are uncanny similarities between the two that make for surprises that are often unexpected and exciting.

And now, it is time for me to tune into another kind of excitement - the Inauguration coverage!