====== Dylan Wallace IRES 2017 Journal (Part 2) ====== **Author:** [[unlv_wallace|Dylan Wallace]], Email: , Website: [[https://www.dylanwallace.com/]] \\ **Date Last Modified:** 08/14/17 \\ Hello reader. During the summer of 2017 I departed Las Vegas, NV for Daejeon, South Korea for a 9-week internship at the world-renowned HUBO Lab at the Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (KAIST), a top-tier international university. I left on June 9, and will return to America on August 14. This journal is used to document my experience, culturally, personally, socially, and academically. In addition to the 5 main questions that I have been asked to answer each week, I will add the following additions to my journals each week: * **1.** New Korean food that I tried this week * **2.** New Korean words/phrases I learned this week * **3.** New place that I explored this week * **4.** Notes/Tips for those visiting Korea ===== Week 6: 07/16/17 - 07/22/17 ===== This week was a fairly ordinary week, just staying in Daejeon and working on my current project. I was mostly working hard to prepare for a half week next week, as I will be taking a vacation in Seoul. However, on the weekend I did get to have a bit of fun exploring Daejeon. ==== 1. Photo of the week & impressions of Korea ==== {{ dylanw:gungdongshishabar.jpeg?600 }} \\ I chose this photo as photo of the week because it is one of the coolest, and most beautiful places that I have seen during my time here in Korea. This was a Shi-Sha Bar (Hookah Bar) that is popular in Daejeon among students. I went here with some friends and we had a really good time enjoying the ambiance after some dinner, and we especially enjoyed the unlimited cheesecake that they offered. This place is very popular as a spot to take a date in Daejeon, and is pretty packed on the weekends. However, on Sunday it was fairly empty, and a nice little experience to end the week. ==== 2. New Korean(s) ==== This week I met a couple new Koreans. The first two were Suhyeon and Lea, two girls that I met at a language exchange in Daejeon. They spoke very good English, and encouraged me to come to future language exchanges. I just found this group, so I will be sure to visit it during my last few weeks here. The third person I met was Sanjay, a Korean engineer that I met on Sunday. Sanjay was a really nice guy, and even studied robotics when he was in school. Now he works on battery tech and control systems, but he gave me some good tips for doing robotics in the future. ==== 3. New cultural insight ==== {{ dylanw:pcbang.jpeg?600 }} \\ I have mentioned PC bangs (PC rooms) in this journal before. However, this week was my first time actually going into one and playing extensively. These PC bangs are usually really nice, large rooms filled with gaming PC setups. These setups have nice, curved 4K monitors, very good gaming PCs, and high-quality peripherals such as keyboard and mouse. Best thing of all is that you can go in and use these gaming PCs for just 1,000 won or less per hour, depending on how long you play and if you are a member of the PC bang or not. This is such a fun part of Korea, especially if you like playing PC games, and I recommend everyone try it at least once. Competitive gaming is very big here in Korea, so these PC bangs are often packed with people of all ages and background, and these PC bangs are usually open 24 hours, which gives you a nice place to hangout after-hours. ==== 4. Personal insight ==== This week I learned that even when traveling abroad, I don't need to go out and do some crazy things to have a great weekend. This weekend I just spent my time in Daejeon, working on my project, and on Sunday I went out for a movie, dinner, and drinks with a group of friends. Daejeon is a really good city to have fun like this, and it taught me that I can be comfortable anywhere, doing anything as long as I am with good people and doing something that I like. ==== 5. Project status & technical learning ==== This week I got my PCL project working with the plane segmentation and normal estimation. Basically, this program will be used to find normal vectors of any of the planes we can place footsteps. Now that this part is done, we can move onto integrating this with the simulator, and create the cost function to plan the footsteps in real-time. Below is a picture of the segmentation, with the original pointcloud on the right, and the segmented normal vectors on the left. {{ dylanw:planenormals.png?800 }} \\ ==== 6. Food of the week ==== {{ dylanw:ovenbakedchicken.jpeg?600 }} \\ The food of this week was some amazing oven-baked chicken that I had with Mingyu on Wednesday. This chicken was the best chicken I have ever ate, and I had to share it. Korean chicken is very good, especially the oven-baked chicken, and is a very popular dish to eat. I have eaten a lot of chicken while here, but this was by far the best yet. ==== 7. New Korean Words/Phrases ==== A popular phrase that you will hear a lot in Korean is "chincha" (really?), said with a rising intonation most of the time. This is very common to show surprise, confirmation, and is extremely normal to use in conversation. ==== 8. New place explored ==== Since, I didn't go out to any new cities this week, I decided to explore a popular area here in Daejeon, especially among students. This area is called Gungdong, and it is right between KAIST, and Chungnam University, which is to the West of KAIST. This area has many good, cheap places to eat and hangout with your friends, and has a lot of young people around. It also has a lot of international restaurants and students around, and most people will speak enough English to help you out. I highly recommend checking it out if your are ever in Daejeon. Below is a photo of the main street in Gungdong. {{ dylanw:gungdong.jpeg?600 }} \\ ==== 9. Notes/Tips ==== If you ever need to order something online, whether it be tickets, or products, you better have a Korean phone number, or have a friend with one. This week I had to order tickets to a music festival in Icheon, and I had a very hard time due to needing a Korean phone number and not having one. So I used my friends, and had him help me through the process, and even get on the phone to talk to some of the people to get it sorted out. Thankfully I had this friend, and if you want to things like this you should make friends with helpful Koreans as well. ===== Week 7: 07/23/17 - 07/30/17 ===== This week was a great week, as a took a half week to go down to Seoul and show my friend Caleb around Seoul. This was his first time in Korea so it was a good opportunity to show all of the cool things I have experienced so far. On Friday, we went to Jisan Valley Rock Festival and go to experience some great music and meet lots of great people. ==== 1. Photo of the week & impressions of Korea ==== {{ dylanw:valleyrock.jpeg?700 }} \\ I chose this photo for this week because it was one of the most fun experiences I have had while here in Korea. This was after 13 hours at the Jisan Valley Rock Festival, a large music festival that comes to a ski resort 1 hour South of Seoul every summer. This festival boasts many Korean and international artists, and was an amazing experience. I would highly recommend this to anyone living or visiting Korea, and I am glad that I got to experience it while here. ==== 2. New Korean(s) ==== This week I met many new Koreans while in Seoul and Jisan. I didn't get any pictures, but I met Alice, Hihyun, and Jaechung at the Jisan festival, and I met Stephanie, Ben, and Hyeonjun in Hongdae. This weekend I also met-up with Yeeun and Suyong, old interns from DASL, and we went to Namsan tower. Below is a picture of us at the top of Namsan. {{ dylanw:namsanselfie.jpeg?500 }} \\ ==== 3. New cultural insight ==== This week while riding the subways of Seoul, Caleb and I noticed something interesting about the typical businessmen on these subways. It seems that every "businessman" was wearing a blue dress shirt and tie, blue slacks, nice leather shoes, and most interesting of all, a Rolex watch. It was interesting to see these guys wearing such nice and expensive things, while riding the subway. I think this shows just how important and commonplace the subway system in Seoul is. even if you are quite wealthy, the subway is the most convenient and common way to get around the city. ==== 4. Personal insight ==== This week I learned that I am very good at being a guide and a leader, even in unfamiliar places. Having a friend in Korea this week, I decided to show him around and demonstrate what it is like to live in Korea. I think that doing this made me realize all of the great things I have learned and experienced while I have been here, and has shown me that I can help others have these experiences as well. ==== 5. Project status & technical learning ==== Since I took a half-week this last week, I did not make a large amount of progress on the current project. However, before I left I got my plane segmentation and normal estimation algorithm working with ROS, so that others may start using it with their parts of the project. This next week will involve getting things working in simulation and on hardware so that we can continue this research even after we have left HUBO Lab. ==== 6. Food of the week ==== I had a lot of great foods this week, while vacationing in Seoul. However, the best food by far was these noodles and dumplings that we had in Myeongdong with Yeeun and Suyong. This restaurant was very large, three stories in total, and had a 30 minute wait just to get seated. It was well worth it though, because these noodles and dumplings were some of the most delicious things that I have ever eaten. Below is a picture of all the food that we got to have at this amazing restaurant. {{ dylanw:deliciousnoodles.jpeg?600 }} \\ ==== 7. New Korean Words/Phrases ==== After a whole lot of food this week, I think that the two words of the week are very appropriate. The first one is pegopa (hungry/I'm hungry). The other is pebulleo (full/I'm full). These are very commonly used, as it seems that Koreans are either very hungry, or very full, and there is no in-between. ==== 8. New place explored ==== My new place of the week was a very beautiful and amazing area of Seoul called Namsan. Namsan is a mountain right in the middle of central Seoul, and it has the large and beautifully lit Namsan tower on top of it. This mountain bears great views during the day, but even more amazing views at night. To get to the tower, you can take a bus, cable car, or you can walk up over 700 steps to the top. When exploring this, we chose the walking option, and it was a very tiring trip, but well worth it after the amazing view I saw. Below are some photos of the tower and the view of Seoul. {{dylanw:namsanpic.jpeg?440 }} {{ dylanw:namsanview.jpeg?440}} \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ ==== 9. Notes/Tips ==== My biggest tip from this week involves transportation to and from the airport and Daejeon. There are many different ways to get there, by bus or train. When going from Daejeon to Incheon Airport, I recommend taking the express bus. This is the quickest and cheapest option, as the train can be quite expensive and the station is much farther than the bus stop from KAIST and Hwaam. On the way back however, it may be a good idea to take the airport railroad (subway) to Seoul Station, and then the KTX or Mugungwha (which is even cheaper than a bus) to Daejeon station, as it can be much faster and cheaper, especially during rush hour. ===== Week 8: 07/31/17 - 08/05/17 ===== This last week involved doing some last minute traveling, and working to finish my part of the project we have been working on while at HUBO Lab. ==== 1. Photo of the week & impressions of Korea ==== {{ dylanw:busanbeach.jpeg?700 }} \\ I chose this photo for the photo of the week because it shows the beautiful view of Haeundae beach in Busan, one f the most popular beaches in Korea. This photo impressed me because it shows just how popular the beaches in Busan are, and how many people flood these beaches during the summer. The beach was lined with umbrellas, rented for just 8,000 won the entire day, and there were countless people along the shore and swimming in the water. This is something that is much different than beaches and the US, and was a really great experience for one of my last weeks in Korea. ==== 2. New Korean(s) ==== This weekend while visiting Busan, I decided to stay in a guest house for my first time here in Korea. This was a really great experience, as I was able to meet not only a lot of Koreans, but also a lot of international travelers. In particular, I got to meet Hyunhae, and she helped show me some good places to see in Busan. I also got to meet Jin, Young, and Moonjin, who helped me have a great time out in Haeundae beach. Lastly, I got to meet Adin, Hannah, and Mark, all travelers from across the world (Isreal, Sweden, and Ukraine). This experience was really great to make some new friends and Busan, and I loved how easy it was to get to know these people, and how diverse and fun they were, even after knowing each other for just a few days. I would definitely recommend a guest house to anyone in Korea looking to make new friends and have a good time in a new city. ==== 3. New cultural insight ==== This week I learned how really how diverse and "bigger-on-the-inside" Korea really is. While Korea is a relatively small country in size, taking just 3 hours (by train) to travel from Seoul in the North to Busan in the South, they have many differences between those 3 hours. In Seoul, it is a very metropolitan city, with people constantly rushing around, a sprawling metro, and 10's of millions of people living in the city everyday. On the other hand, Busan is Korea's second biggest city, but has much less of the busy metropolitan attitude. The attitudes in Busan are much more "laid back", and there isn't as much worry about business and metropolitan life. While Busan is still a very large and developed city, it has a much more different attitude than Seoul. If I were to compare the cities to the US, Seoul would be like New York, and Busan like Los Angeles. Daejeon falls more in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco attitude of things. ==== 4. Personal insight ==== This week, as my work winds down and I realize that my time is running out, I am realizing how much I am really going to miss living in Korea. By the end of these 9 weeks, I feel that I have really adapted to the way of living and working in Korea, and I am very sad to leave all of it behind. I think this has taught me that I do have the ability to work as a global engineer, and that I am now more confident about studying and working in other countries. I am really going to miss Korea, but I hope to return someday. ==== 5. Project status & technical learning ==== This week my group and I wrapped up our work with the footstep planning, at least for our time here. We do plan to continue this work in collaboration once we return, hopefully turning this into a footstep planning package that can be used for many humanoids, and not just DRC-Hubo. For my part, I got all things working with ROS, and integrated with Blake's mapping/registration. Now we are able to to take continuous scans from a Kinect, and use these real-time clouds to segment planes for footsteps. I programmed the filtering, segmentation, and plane normal calculation, and organized the pipeline input and output for this process. From here, I still need to create a part that finds the boundary of the plane, so that we can send that data, along with the normal vector of the plane, over the the DRC-Hubo motion computer for footstep planning. Below is a picture of the registered pointcloud map, and my segmentation of the footstep planes. {{dylanw:registrationblocks.png?440 }} {{ dylanw:segmentationblocks.png?440}} \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ ==== 6. Food of the week ==== This week, I went out and had a really great meal in Daejeon with Blake and some other friends from HUBO Lab. We went to a specialty restaurant in Dunsan that served some really wonderful eel. We had barbecued eel, then an eel stew, and finally, some fried rice. This was one of the most delicious meals I have had here, and it was a really great treat that we don't have much of in the US. Below if a picture of us barbecuing the eel. {{ dylanw:eelcity.jpeg?600 }} \\ ==== 7. New Korean Words/Phrases ==== This week I learned a lot about the relationship between Korean people and "ajummas", which are older Korean women. This is an interesting concept in Korea, as these women act as if they were your mother, and are very caring and kind toward everyone they interact with. This is one of my favorite things in Korea, because even as foreigner, you can be treated as if you were the child of the ajummas that work and live in Korea. Other words related to this are "eomeoni/eomma" (mother/mom), "harmeoni" (grandmother), and "abeoji/appa" (father/dad). These are the most common words used for family that you will see in Korea, and a lot of the time you can use them to refer to people that aren't technically your family, but treat you as if they were your adopted child, such as a friends parents/grandparents. ==== 8. New place explored ==== This week I visited Busan, a wonderful city on the Southern tip of Korea. Busan is a beautiful city with large buildings towering across the city, and wonderful beaches along the coast. Busan is built on the idea of the coast, and as such the beaches are a very important part of their culture. I loved visiting the beaches in Busan, as their were so many people spread across the beach. The best thing of all about Busan was the water, which was warm and calm, allowing relaxed swimming in the ocean, something that isn't available in most places in the US. Below are some photos of Busan. {{dylanw:busanumbrellas.jpeg?440 }} {{ dylanw:busan.jpeg?440}} \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ ==== 9. Notes/Tips ==== Since this is one of my last weeks here in Korea, I decided to list some of the things that I will miss most about working and living here during these past 8 weeks. **Unlimited side dishes:** At almost every meal in Korea, especially barbecue, you can expect a whole variety of different side dishes, including kimchi, pickled radish, corn, sauces, and much more. And best of all, these all come with unlimited refills. This is something we definitely don't have in the US, and I am really going to miss it, especially the kimchi with every meal. **24/7 culture:** Living in Las Vegas, I am used to many places being open 24/7. However here in Korea, that expands to more than just restaurants. There many places in Korea that are open at all hours of the day, and you can almost always find people in these places. They include: some restaurants and fast food, cafes, spas/saunas, and PC bangs. Korea is a very 24/7 country, and having these available really creates a whole new experience compared to the tight schedules of US businesses. **Easy & cheap travel:** One of the best things about living in Korea is just how easy it is to travel around the city, and even around the country. Taxis are very cheap compared to the US, and have all different methods of payment, and can even be summoned from an app (like Uber). For travelling across the country, there are two main options, buses and trains. There are even many different kinds of trains that can be taken, depending on price, comfort, and speed. However, even a trip across the country will cost you at most $40 by the fastest and most comfortable option available. These methods of transportation run often, and from 6 AM - Midnight every day. This ease and access to transportation is something that I will definitely miss, and something that really isn't available in the US. ===== Week 9: 08/06/17 - 08/14/17 ===== This week was my last week in Korea. I spent most of the week wrapping things up at the lab, and preparing for my trip back. I went to Seoul on the weekend and did some last-minute sightseeing and shopping before leaving on Monday the 14th. ==== 1. Photo of the week & impressions of Korea ==== {{ dylanw:yeoidoview.jpeg?700 }} \\ I chose this picture because it was probably the coolest picture that I have taken the whole time here in Korea. This is a photo I took while crossing the Han river on the KTX, while the sun was setting behind Yeoido in the distance. The sunset combing with the gold of Building 63 made for a very impressive view. ==== 2. New Korean(s) ==== This week I went up to Seoul with one of my friends from HUBO Lab, Uiuk. We met with one of his friends from university, Donggyu. We had a great time in Hongdae with them, Yeeun, and my friend Daniel from the Hwaam Dorm. On Monday I also met with Dongbin and Yeeun at Seoul Station, as Dongbin was visiting Korea for a week, and arrived the day I was leaving. Below is a photo of us together. {{ dylanw:dongbinselfie.jpeg?600 }} \\ ==== 3. New cultural insight ==== Since this is my last week, I thought I would highlight some of the cultural insights that I have seen during my time but haven't talked about yet. **Small farms:** Something interesting about the city structure in Korea is that almost every city is surrounded by small farms. These farms are usually tended by older Koreans, and they provide fresh produce for a lot of farmer's markets around town. Since Hwaam Dorm was near the edge of the city, I got to see a lot of these farms while walking around the dorm area. **North Korea:** In the US, there is a lot of tension right now with North Korea and the threats they have been making. All of my friends and family are talking about it, and it seems like the only thing that US media outlets can talk about. However, here in Korea things having to do with North Korea and their threats are hardly ever mentioned. South Korea is so used to the propaganda and rhetoric that it doesn't bother them anymore. Attitudes toward North Korea are fairly friendly here, as most people prefer to integrate the two countries instead of going to war. This is something that I keep telling a lot of my friends and family, but not everyone seems to understand how minor the situation between North Korea and the US really is to South Koreans. ==== 4. Personal insight ==== As my last hours here in Korea are coming to a close, I have been going over all of the great things that I have learned while on this trip. I think most of all, the greatest thing that I have learned during my time here is what it really is like to work and live in another country, and how much I enjoy it. I think that after this experience, I have much more confidence applying to work in other countries, and even to do a graduate degree in other countries. This experience has really broadened my horizons, and I am so grateful to have experienced it. I hope to return to Korea someday, and I am glad that this fellowship has allowed me to learn and experience so many great new things. ==== 5. Project status & technical learning ==== This past week was the last week working on our project as a full team, so I finished up the plane segmentation to get the boundaries for the plane. Below is a picture of the boundaries for the footstep planes. {{ dylanw:planeboundaries.jpeg?600 }} \\ Also this week, we got to present our work from this summer to HUBO Lab, and got feedback from Professor Oh about our work. After the presentation, we decided to continue our work to get experimental results, and further the progress of humanoid footstep planning and vision/mapping capabilities. Below is a picture of the team that worked on the footstep planning, and hopefully this project will turn into a much bigger collaboration in the future. {{ dylanw:hubo-eye.jpeg?600 }} \\ ==== 6. Food of the week ==== This week I noticed that I hadn't posted any photos of the great budae jigae (army stew) that I have eaten while here in Korea. This stew comes from the Korean war when the US army would give leftover sausage and noodles from their meals to the Koreans, and they made some great stews out of it. This jigae is one of my favorite meals here in Korea, so I had to post a photo of the great jigae that I had this weekend. Below is a photo. {{ dylanw:budaejigae.jpeg?600 }} \\ ==== 7. New Korean Words/Phrases ==== Since I said goodbye to Korea this week, I guess a good phrase to know in Korean is how to say "goodbye". Korean is actually interesting here because it has two ways to say goodbye, depending on the context. If you are leaving a place, then you say "annyeong-hi kyesaeyo", which essentially means "stay well". If you are staying, but others are leaving, you say "annyeong-hi kasaeyo", which means "go in peace/go well". ==== 8. New place explored ==== Since I spent the weekend in Seoul, I decided to visit Gangnam, a large neighborhood in Seoul that I had yet to explore yet. Gangnam is known for being a very "rich" neighborhood of Seoul, with lots of expensive shopping, and nice cars driving around. The song "Gangnam Style" by PSY is actually about being rich and extravagant in Gangnam. I went to Gangnam with Uiuk in the afternoon and we spent the rest of the day there, meeting up with another friend of mine from HUBO Lab, Seungwoo. We had a great time for my last night in Korea, and I was able to do some good sightseeing and shopping in Gangnam. My favorite parts were the Kakao Friends store, and the largest bookstore in Korea, which were both within a 5 minute walk of each other. Below are some pictures of Gangnam. {{dylanw:gangnam1.jpeg?440 }} {{ dylanw:gangnam2.jpeg?440}} \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ ==== 9. Notes/Tips ==== Since last week I focused on the things that I would miss most about Korea, this week I will focus on the things that I miss most about the US. **No Language Barrier:** Learning a new language can be fun and interesting, but after awhile it gets really stressful to constantly be thinking in one language and having to translate it over for most tasks. This gets especially difficult when you don't know how to say something, or the person you are talking to just doesn't understand your pronunciation well. It will be nice to go back to a place where pretty much everyone understands what I am saying. **Driving:** While using public transportation in Korea is fairly convenient, I definitely miss having the ability to drive wherever I want, whenever I want. It will be nice to get back home and drive my car around, although I'm sure it will feel strange for the first few days. **Hamburgers:** While Korea has some really amazing food, I constantly find myself craving a good American hamburger, as it is one of my favorite foods. You can find hamburgers here in Korea, mostly at places like Lotteria or McDonalds, but they just don't compare to the great burgers you can get back in the US. I think one of my first meals back in the US will be an In n Out burger. **Family & Friends:** Of course the thing I miss the most is my family and friends. It has been nice meeting a lot of new friends and Korea and having some great times with great people. However, I am very excited to get home and see my family, so that I can tell them all about my trip.