This week (Nov 9-13, 2026), I am visiting Ewha Womans University in Seoul. My host is Prof Chunglee Kim in the Astrophysics division of the university. I am working on a project with Prof Kim and her postdoc Dr Gwangeon Song, which we expect to complete within the next few weeks. During my stay, we also plan to discuss new projects for future collaboration.

During this visit, I am also delivering a series of introductory lectures on the post-Newtonian formalism, which is used to derive expressions for the gravitational waves emitted by compact binaries.

The university campus is beautiful. Located in central Seoul, the university is easily accessible by bus and subway. For me, it is the Line 2 subway, which takes about 30 minutes from my hotel near Guro Digital Complex to Ewha Womans University station.

In previous years, I visited Seoul around mid-October. This time, it is the second week of November, so I was not expecting to see the autumn colors in all their glory. However, I was surprised to see vivid colors throughout the university campus.

I am also enjoying the food. I have already tried grilled mackerel, Korean BBQ, and bibimbap with steamed rice and abalone, and I plan to enjoy samgyetang (which I like a lot) before I leave.

The weather is getting cold here, hovering around 5°C in the morning. It rained a bit on Sunday, but since then it has been very sunny and great for photography.