Week 1 -- Music and Mountains

Week 1 drew to a close this Friday. Everything's been good so far.  

1. (What I learned about Korea this week).

On Friday I decided to continue exploring the local culture, so I went to the Culture and Arts Center and got a ticket to the orchestra. They were doing a big concert, and I knew that I liked a lot of the music (such as Haydn's Clock Symphony), so I got a ticket. It was pretty cheap, only 10000 Won (about $8.50) It was an excellent show too, so that was money well spent.

Also on Friday, the other students in the lab and I went out to lunch at a local restaurant. The meal was good; soup and a salad that contained some raw fish. We sat cross-legged at very low tables, which I hadn't done in this country until then. It was a nice experience. And the guys were fun to eat with.

This weekend I decided to explore the hills behind Nuri Hall. The first path I took didn't go anywhere, but the second took me up into the hills and onto a nice selection of trails. I discovered there were a lot of graves up there, though. I found out from Clayton later that a lot of the hill area is a private cemetery, although people are allowed to walk the paths. But it was very peaceful walking among the trees.  I got some great photos from when I was high up, one of which is shown in section 3.

2. (Project status).

The lab work has been going well. I've finished doing the preliminary reading on C, C++, and the CAN bus system, and have started looking at the HUBO code proper. My first task is going through all the CAN functions and mapping out what everything does and which shared variables everything uses.  This way we can redo it in a more efficient manner later. There's a lot of code, but I've made good headway, and I've learned my way around the syntax of C++ pretty quickly.

3. (Photo of the week).

From the mountains behind our dorm, looking over the city:

4. (What I'm learning about myself).

I'm learning more about where my Korean is good, and where it's deficient. And I'm making lists of common phrases I need to know so that I can rehearse the Korean for those. I'm not as strong in it as I'd like to be, but I think I'm improving.

 

5. (New people I met this week).

The lab people are very nice, and it's been good getting to know them. In particular, Sean was really nice in telling me where the various pianos are on campus so I know where I can practice. Arthur was also very helpful -- he was our guide for the first day, taking us to the nano and satellite labs. They're a great group of people.