Week 19 -- Gestures and shoes

1. (What I learned about Korea)

While at lunch one day this week, I took note of the shoes near the front door. Most of them did not have laces. It seems that in general Korean shoes use straps or buckles, as opposed to laces. This makes sense, as shoes are removed much more often in Korea -- namely, whenever entering a residence (even a dormitory room or hotel room) and also when entering most restaurants.

I tried a new kind of food this week; I went to a kaiten-zushi place. This is a restaurant where a conveyor belt runs through the restaurant, passing every seat, and plates of sushi, sashimi, and other small foods go around on the belt. Diners take whatever plates they want off the belt, and the price is calculated by counting the number of plates at the end of the meal. It was a lot of fun, and the sushi tasted great.

2. (Project status)

I cleared up some issues with ICAHRR and ICHIT, and wrapped up the motor controller documentation. Next week I will write the presentations for the two conferences.

I also crafted some HUBO gestures so that it will be able to dance with a variety of motions, and passed those on to Jungwoo for simulation.

Clayton and I gave Major Korpela a lab tour as well.

3. (Photo of the week)

The sushi belt and Major Christopher Korpela.

4. (What I learned about myself)

The HUBO lab tour went off without a hitch, so I learned that I've become knowledgeable enough about the HUBO lab and all its assorted projects to describe them to others.

5. (New people I met this week)

I met Major Korpela to do the lab tour. He was a very nice person, and very enthusiastic about the research going on in the lab. He seemed eager to do research at Drexel once he fulfilled his current set of military obligations.

Minji and I also exchanged more emails, trading our photos that we took in China.

Week 18 -- David in China

1. (What I learned about China)

China was really awesome!

We stayed mostly in the south eastern region, traveling to Shanghai, Huangshan, Hangzhou, and then Jiaxiang for the eclipse itself. We saw a great many cultural artifacts, markets, and modern attractions. We saw a good cross section of the region.

One of the main attractions of the trip was the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai -- the third largest tower in China. We went all the way up and looked over the city, and it was a great view. The floor was transparent so we could see all the way down too. It was really nice.

We hiked on Huangshen mountain for 3 hours one day. This gave us some great views and also some knowledge of local Chinese legends, like the rock that supposedly granted different wishes depending on how many times one touched it. Getting onto the mountain was also interesting, as it required both a bus and a cable car ride.

We saw numerous Buddhist temples. The largest was in Hangzhou, called the Linying Temple. It was in a very large park, and included some cliff-sized rocks with tunnels and Buddha statues carved into them. The stonework was incredible. Other temple buildings on the complex included a hall with many statues, all bearing a different face, and visitors were supposed to pick out the statue whose face most closely matched theirs. Unfortunately, cameras weren't allowed there, or I'd have taken a picture of the one the group decided looked most like me. It was a beautiful place.

Also in Hangzhou we saw a large lake called the West Lake, and we took a boat around on it. The guide went over a little of the history of the area (such as the mythological reason why the rowers on the local canoes face the opposite way from the passengers), and we had fun sailing around.

Before leaving Hangzhou we got foot massages. These were a lot of fun, and were very relaxing. They were a little painful at times (we all agreed on this afterwards), but overall it was a fun way to spend an evening.

In Jiaxiang, of course, the major event was the eclipse. We met up with another eclipse watching team, and we all set up our telescopes and got our solar glasses. Unfortunately, it was overcast where we were, but we still saw everything go dark when totality happened. It was a very strange feeling, it being night out at 9:35 AM. It really was the highlight of the trip. Plus, as the eclipse moved past totality and began to end, the clouds cleared enough to see the obscured sun through our glasses. It was extraordinary.

2. (Project status)

After returning from China, I prepared the camera-ready version of my ICHIT paper.

3. (Photos of the week)

The first photo is the view from the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower, the second is of the Linying Temple park, and the third is me during the eclipse at 9:35 AM.

4. (What I learned about myself)

I learned that I can handle being in a country where I speak none of the language. The guides helped immensely, of course, but even when we were on our own -- such as in a particular museum complex, where we split up -- I didn't get lost or confused.

5. (New people I met this week)

Another person on the trip with us was Minji Kim, a friend of Dr. Oh's daughter (who was also traveling with us). She was fun to talk to, and Clayton, she, and I struck up a good rapport. We're going to keep in touch to exchange photos and the like.