Manners

One thing about lunch today: the graduate students insisted on buying it for me. This strikes me as weird. It may be that the explanation is: they knew I was having cash-flow problems and did not know they had been resolved, since that came up in conversation afterwards. Or it may be that they perceive the existence of a guest-host relationship here. The first day I was here when J was showing me around he bought me lunch, then a Pocari Sweat (soft drink), then a cup of coffee. So, I begin to wonder, are these guys ever going to stop insisting on buying? I mean, one does not want to be rude, but one begins to feel like a freeloader. By contrast, Prof C has stopped buying, which makes it all the weirder.

Incidentally, and odd situation wherein the students had invited me to lunch during a break in the seminar, then at the end of seminar, Prof C suggested that we have lunch together, then said "oh, you're going with these guys, well I will join," then, "actually I will see you Monday, I changed my mind." I think this mainly has nothing to do with being in Korea, though, it just tends to come with being a post-doc. As it happened, back in the US none of the senior faculty members I was on friendly terms with happened to be the advisors of any of the graduate students I was on friendly terms with, but it would have been about the same.