Week 3 -- CAN completion and Mt. Sikjangsan

Another good -- and productive -- week.

1. (What I learned about Korea)

I went up to Mt. Sikjangsan this week, and I saw some very nice trails and did some hiking. I ended up going about 3 km into the woods. It was a lot of fun. I found out later that this was known as one of the 8 most famous attractions in the city. I also found the temple section of the mountains, and I explored Gosansa and Sikjangsan temples. It was a good place to get photographs.

I also went and applied for my alien card (as well as to upgrade my visa to multiple entry, in case I later want to visit another country in East Asia during my stay here). So I learned how to do that and how to get to the Immigration Center.

Finally, as it was my birthday on Wednesday, Sean helped us get a cake, and I learned where to go to get cakes in Daejeon.

2. (Project status)

I extracted the CAN from the rest of the HUBO code early this week, and used the documentation to write a program that would test the CAN bus. Clayton wrote drivers for the CAN code, and when this was done, we sat down and debugged the system. It now works -- we can send and receive from the CAN bus.

3. (Picture of the week)

Sikjangsan temple on Mt. Sikjangsan.

4. (What I learned about myself)

I learned that I can hike through the woods pretty well. I also learned that I really like these '8 Daejeon attractions,' and so I'll try to go visit more of them in the coming weeks (next up, I think, is Lake Daecheonghosu. Expo Park, literally next door to Nuri Hall, is on the list as well, but that one's so close that I want to see some of the further ones first).

5. (New people I met)

I didn't meet any new people this week.

6. (Current events)

North Korea claims to have launched a missile a few days ago. America is denying this claim. It's a little bit strange to think that we're relatively close to a hostile country, but at the same time it doesn't feel like we're in imminent danger or anything. Even setting aside whether the missile got into orbit or not, it just seems hard to imagine an actual attack on the city. Some of it may be due to language disconnect, though -- it's hard for me to tell if average people in the street are nervous about it, since I have trouble understanding them.

Week 2 -- Settled in

Week 2 in Daejeon ends tonight. It was a pretty good week. Things went very well.

1. (What I learned about Korea)

The KAIST auditorium has biweekly concerts, it seems. I went to one this Friday. There was a cellist and a pianist, and they went through some classical pieces. It was really good music and quite enjoyable; they even played an encore at the end, a Chopin prelude, that I know well, and that was a fun surprise.

I also went out for my first Korean barbecue meal since arriving, and was reacquainted with all of the delicious side dishes that come with it. Some of the sides were actually new to me; I hadn't had them when I had barbecue in Korea in November.  One was a hard-boiled egg in soy sauce, another was squid, and a third was a sort of sweet-potato kind of food. It was very fun.

Apparently I was holding my chopsticks incorrectly. I was holding them so that they crossed; the guys in the KAIST lab showed me how to hold them so that they don't cross. This is the more acceptable way to do it. So I guess I'll practice using the new way.

Finally, the KAIST guys and I went to lunch on Friday at a Chinese place. Like the first night we came, we got a big sweet & sour pork platter before the main course of noodles or rice. I suppose it's traditional that Korean Chinese restaurant do this. As I generally enjoy these pork dishes, I think I like this custom.

2. (Project status)

I went through the CAN bus code and made extensive notes on what all the functions do, what variables they manipulate, where information is actually written to the bus, etc. Clayton also asked me to make some flow charts showing the operation of the more important functions.

I also read up some more on RTX.

It looks like in the coming week I'll begin studying how to surgically extract the CAN bus from the rest of the HUBO system. I may also (if things work out) begin working on programming my own version of a CAN bus.

3. (Picture of the week)

At KAIST, a part of the path I take to go from the lab to the piano that I practice on:

4. (What I'm learning about myself)

I spent a lot of time this week traveling without Clayton, and so learned that I'm able to get around Korea fine on my own. Among other things, I ate at several restaurants, hiked some more, and went through Daejeon's downtown area. 

5. (New people I met)

In the dorm I met two students named Baat and Lan. The former was from Pakistan, the latter from Vietnam. I talked to Baat for a while, we discussed the city environment (he was from an urban city near the India/Pakistan border, while I was originally from the Chicago suburbs but moved to Philly) and what we thought of the city. It was a fun time.

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.