Welcome back to my blog. Today I will be talking about the orientation week I participated in at POSTECH. For the orientation, we would have information session, and tours of Postech, Pohang, and Gyeongju (another city of Korea).
On the first day of Orientation, all we did was have our information sessions. Originally it was planned that we would visit the library but the weather decided against too. Actually, on our first day we were greeted with our very first typhoon. Fun stuff. At the information session, we had a series of lectures. Our first lecture, was about what we should expect from Korea and some advice on how to survive in Korea and Postech. The next lecture was more advice except this time it was from a former exchange student. He talked about how Pohang is definitely not Seoul and that to not study too much but make a lot of friends and create a network full of all kinds of people and especially enjoy Korea. All of which I definitely agree because I have three goals. The first is to have as much fun as I can have in Korea. Number 2 is to become Korean(Learn korean fluently and learn the culture). and lastly but must importantly meet Yoon Bomi from Apink.
Yup I definitely will meet her. The next couple of lectures were boring and not really important at all. Something about extending visas or something. Doesn’t matter. That was the first day.
The next day of orientation we got to visit the facilities of Postech. Actually only KIRO and the Pohang accelerator laboratory. KIRO(Korea institute of intelligent Robotics) was awesome. First we got to see many different robots and we got to interact with them. Below is a picture of the dinosaur-like robot that acts like a guard dog and will notify the owner if anyone is trying to break into the house.
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The picture above on the left is a picture of a seal robot that is the first therapeutic robot. It supposedly helps people if they are in mental stress. Actually it does help. After holding the seal I felt like a mother. I have a picture of the family and will upload it at a later time. We then got to see a bunch of other robots. A fish robot, gangnam style dancing robots, and more which I cannot remember at the moment. I loved the place. After this we went to the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory. We got to see a video of the place but touring the place was not really that great. We just walked in a circle and saw not really anything actually. It was kinda boring. Above on the right is me taking a picture of the place and trying to make the place more fun than it actually was.
The next day of Orientation we got to tour Pohang. We first visited the POSCO, The Pohang Steel Factory. This place was huge and employs a lot, I mean a lot a lot, of people. The steel making machines were very impressive and very sophisticated. Loud and Hot. Two things that I won’t forget. I feel bad for the workers because they may lose their hearing and the pollution will make them have shorter lives. But without POSCO their would be no Pohang because Pohang’s rapid growth was all due to the fact that the steel factory was there to provide jobs for a large amount of people. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures or recordings of the place. After that we got to visit downtown Pohang and see what the beach and canal was like. We only really got enough time to snap a couple of photos before we had to get back on the bus and move on.
On the last day of Orientation we went on a tour of Gyeongju (the city with the most historical importance of ancient Korea). In Gyeongju we first visited the ancient burial sites of the nobles and high class of Ancient Korea.
I know what your thinking. These look like Hobbit holes. That is right. Koreans are the ancestors of the modern day hobbits, like the well known Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. On a more serious note, these hilly mounds were created in such a way to prevent grave robbers because it was built with no entrance or exit. The reason it was impenetrable is because you had to dig from the sides because digging on the top of the hill was too obvious. The hill is made in such a way that the whole hill is essentially a pile of river rocks. And so if you tried to dig into the hill from the side, the stones will slide onto you and trap you inside the mound. Ouch, what a sad way to die. After the gravesite, we got to visit a master potter. We actually got to see him make some pottery. What you see below is the finished example. It was so cool to see him create this pottery out of just a mound of clay. Next to it is a picture of my friend inside the oven where they bake the clay until it is nice and black.
After the masters potters house we visited the temples of Gyeongju. They were alright. Below are some of the pictures of the temples
Sorry for the bad ending but I am getting tired from writing this blog. I think in the future I am going to write shorter blogs. As for my goals, I am succeeding in the first one and having a lot of fun. However I have not yet met Bomi and so I failed that one. I am definitely not Korean. See ya next time.
notyetkorean 