Week 23 -- Buddhas and ICHIT

1. (What I learned about Korea)

This Saturday I went to several of Daedeok shrines and other historical structures.

One of the more interesting ones I went to was Okryugak. This was an old pavilion built for study. It was constructed over a small stream, and was put next to a temple. It was very serene, and it was nice to take a few moments to rest there after the hiking I'd been doing (I'd walked up Gyejoksan while there, as well as to Yonghwa Temple nearby, and also walked up another mountain to look at the Wusul Fortress monument.) It was good to get a rest.

I also saw Ssangcheongdang. This was a small building within a larger old structure. I was only just able to get into the larger one, as it was getting a bit late, but I'm glad I did. It was fun to look over the old architecture, and to examine the sprawling grounds.

I also had occasion to examine some Korean instruments this week, with Dan. Dan plays several string instruments and was able to go into detail about some of them (including one that was very much like a ukelele). It was a good learning experience.

2. (Project status)

I presented successfully at the ICHIT conference.

I also got video of the HUBO arms dancing, verifying that the RoboNova algorithm is indeed scalable.

3. (Photos of the week)

The first photo is of me at the ICHIT conference:

The second two photos are the two famous Buddha statues that I saw on Saturday. The first is the one at Yonghwa Temple, the second at Birae Temple.

The fourth and fifth photos are for comparison -- the other two famous Buddhas I've seen in Daejeon, both over a month ago. They've both been on the blog before, but I'm including them again for reference. One is the carving at Bomunsan, the other the statue at Bongsosa.

4. (What I learned about myself)

When I was climbing to the Wusul fortress monument, I went off path. It was a slog through a lot of brush and undergrowth, but I was able to get through and get up the mountain. I showed that I can overcome such an obstacle.

5. (New people I met this week)

I met several people at the conference, and we discussed the dancing robot project. It was a good time.