World Cup Futbol

After a "hard" day of research, Gustavo and I rode our bicycles 3 miles from the dorms to watch a local futbol game at the World Cup Stadium in Daejeon. Gustavo has a terrible sense of direction. We get on our bikes in front of the dorm. His bike was pointing in one direction and mine in the opposite. Asking, where are you going, he says the stadium is left, out of the main gate to the university. I persuaded him the stadium was to the right. Before we exited the university, he wanted to stop to make sure we were heading in the right direction. I responded by saying we did not have time to stop as we might be late. We kept going, riding out the west gate of the university meandering through and toward the general direction of our destination. The adjacent neighborhood is where many of the students go for lunch, shopping, bar hopping with narrow one lane roads intended for two-way traffic. The right turn out of the main gate is a very busy four lane road going right by the stadium which happens to parallel to our meanderings through the neighborhood at the west gate area of the university. The pedestrian traffic is heavy at times as the neighborhood extends to a public school about ten blocks to the west although far better than riding the sidewalk of the highway with vehicular traffic and the loud noises. After the neighborhood, with Gustavo still unconvinced at every turn, we took a right onto the main highway leading to the stadium with the university main gate about a mile and a half behind us. I stopped immediately on a river bridge with Gustavo stopping beside me from about fifty feet behind, I look at him questioningly saying I do not recognize this place as an area I had looked at on the map earlier this evening and I think we should turn around and head back in the opposite direction. He looks at me with an irritating look on his face and begins to ask the next person, a Korean female, walking toward us if she speaks English to ask for directions. She holds up her hand with her thumb and forefinger close together as she says a rittle Engwish. The bridge where I happened to stop, noticing the sign before stopping, had a huge sign overhead about ten yards further reading World Cup Stadium 1.6 km and an arrow pointing ahead. As Gustavo is trying to ask the girl if the stadium is in the direction where we had just come, I lightly interrupted tapping on his shoulder and pointing at the overhead sign. It took him a few seconds to realize the sign I was pointing toward with the big smile on my face.

Bridge Damping Research

I think I have learned enough to try and explain what type of research we are conducting here in South Korea. Our group, consisting of three undergraduate students including myself representing Univ of Connecticut, Ben Davis representing Univ of South Carolina and Abby Hurley from Univ of Akron, Ohio is researching how to harvest energy from the ambient vibrations in cable stay bridges. Close to the anchor points at each end of an individual cable on a bridge has a damping device called a Magneto-rheological(MR)Damper which currently is powered by an external source of electricity. These MR Dampers act as a means to reduce the vibrations in the cables by pushing on the cable in one direction as the wind pushes the cable in the opposite direction. There are other excitations which cause the vibrations such as traffic from cars, trucks, even pedestrian traffic can cause a frequency vibration. As the cable vibrates, there are sensors which send a signal through a control device telling the damper how much force to push or pull reducing the cable vibration. In our daily lectures, there have been several examples given of bridge failure due to these vibrations caused by wind or traffic loading forces. One such example was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge which collapsed under a 42 mph wind in 1940. Watch the vibrations by clicking Tacoma Narrows Bridge With my lack of knowledge from not having a class in structural dynamics and the computer programming class called Mat Lab (this coming year when I return), I have been assigned the task of collecting pertinent information from published technical journal articles relating to MR Dampers in preparation to an introduction and general overview for the beginning of our research paper. So far the three of us have collected 22 related journal articles of which I am sifting through and collecting text for future writing and documentation. My other two team members have been self delegated the computer programming aspects of the project which involves...I have no clue what this involves...maybe I will be able to answer this question toward the end of the summer. The short two hour lectures covering MatLab and Structural Dynamics given here at KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) would normally be taught in a semester long class. Having no prior introduction, I may compare this to trying to learn the fundamentals of a new language within the same time period. While bicycling around the city this past Monday, I rode 10.5 km one way to a traditional Korean market with fresh seafood both live and on ice, many fresh vegetables and 30 varieties of kimchi. With the somewhat popularity of dog meat, I half-way expected to see dog carcass hanging amongst other large cuts of meat. The meat vendors had only family size packages of a variety of cuts. There may have been dog meat there but all the signs were illegible to me being in the Korean language. On the return trip, a came across a Korean couple who I had passed hearing the guy speaking broken English. They were on their bikes traveling much slower. Out of curiosity, I turned around to talk with someone outside of the KAIST. As we talked, I asked him of points of interest within an hours radius by bike from the university. When he asked about me, I told him I was studying/researching at KAIST. He said I must be really smart as the university is very prestigious and is in the top ten engineering research institutions in the world. Seoul was a wonderful trip this past weekend as we saw a Royal Palace in the city center and a night view of the city atop a mountain overlook with a skytower on the top. This coming weekend we are going to Busan, on the southern coast. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and hosts the largest fish market in the country. I read a restaurant review today of ordering baby octopus as an appetizer. Apparently the octopus is served still squiggling on the plate prior to consumption. I may have to try this.

South Korea Photos

I have posted all my pictures to date at http://www.facebook.com/williameric.white/photos which also includes photos posted of me by others.

Electronic Toilet Seats

I sat the other day to do my business and was curious about the various controls on the toilet seat so I stayed in the stall quite a bit longer than anticipated. The green/white button closest to the seat flushes the toilet. The next button I tried produced a stream of air while another press caused a stream of water between the cheeks. These streams were controlled by the brown buttons closest to the rear wall allowing for an increase/decrease in water/air pressure. As I finished the paperwork and pressed the red button to turn off the stream of air and the power to the system, I got up to see where these streams were coming from. There seemed to be nothing there. I started pressing buttons. Still nothing. No power! I realized the seat was sensor activated by weight as shown by the red circle on the right front of the seat. Maintaining firm pressure with a couple of fingers, I was able to press the green/white button again to turn on the power. If I released the pressure with my right hand, the power would go off. I again started pressing buttons not remembering which ones performed which duties in order to see where the stream of water came from. The next one I pressed rapidly extracted a thin rigid tube from the rear and squirted a stream of water almost to the door. With my right hand holding the pressure down on the red button and my left hand pressing a button with instructions written in Korean, I happened to be standing in the middle of the stream as I got hit from my chest and below. Immediately afterwards, I washed my hands, took a shower and did laundry. The other toilet is self explanatory. I have yet to try this one as the ones with a seat, I feel are much more comfortable.

gahm-sah-hahm-ni-da, Thank You!

I am beginning to wonder when our actual research is going to start as tomorrow one of the KAIST doctoral students (Thomas, English name) is taking the seven of us on a tour of Deajeon and its surrounding areas. Thomas came and picked us up at our dorms at 2300 this evening to take us to his office where he showed us a short presentation of our itinerary. He has rented a Hyundai 8 passenger diesel van for tomorrow. Some of the locations include a National Park with temples and a small canyon, a 4.8 km hike round trip with lunch at the entrance to the national park, an arboretum close to the city, a city center tour with a traditional Korean dinner and some drinks, then off to a mountain overlook area on the opposite side of the city for a night time view of the city. Starting at 0930 in the morning, he expects we will be out till midnight. With gas nearly US$7 per gallon, the entire trip including the rental van, food, park entrance fees, etc Thomas expects the costs to be about 90,000 won per person for the day ($76). After supper with Professor Jung, Kaist students and the REU interns, I did a self guided tour of the city aimlessly wondering trying to get lost on the bicycle while taking a few photos. I ended up at Time World, a popular entertainment district of Daaejeon with clubs, street food vendors, bars, and a massive amount of people walking the streets. After taking about ten photos, a local man about my age approached me and asked me where I was from. A short conversation later found us drinking a beer at a bar just around the corner. One beer was all I had time for as I had to be back at the university for our 2300 meeting with Thomas. The man turned out to be a local realtor who spoke no English. He used his smart phone to translate his Korean characters to a few phrases in English. One of which was I am a realtor and another, would you like to join me for a beer. The proprietor in Lucky`s bar spoke good English and had the time to join in our conversation while acting as a translator for the Korean language I have no knowledge of. So far I have only learned how to say one word, thank you, gahm-sah-hahm-ni-da.

Bicycling on a Dollar a Day

We were introduced to the engineering building today with a short lecture on things to do around campus; where to exercise, restaurants, swimming pool, entertainment, ping pong, even a Burger King (yuck!) on campus next to the dorm we are staying in. The seven of us with four Korean students whom we will be working with for the next five weeks joined for lunch adjacent to campus in a popular location for inexpensive restaurants and entertainment. This was the first restaurant Gustavo and I had eaten where we did not have to sit on the floor nor take our shoes off at the entrance. Subsequently, the prices were a little more expensive. Was this because of the extra costs of chairs and higher tables? Maybe there is a correlation there. No dog for lunch today. We were then dismissed until the evening meal where again we will meet with the other students and our professors of KAIST. We will travel maybe by taxi to the city. The city center is only three miles away from the dorm. After lunch, two of the KAIST students walked with Gustavo and I to a bicycle shop on campus to help and translate for us to buy two used bikes. Daejeon is mostly flat and very bicycle friendly as a couple main rivers join together after surrounding the city. I paid 80,000 won while Gustavo paid 70,000 won. With the exchange rate being 1,181 won per US dollar this equals $68 and $60. The manager also included a bicycle lock and said he would buy the bikes back for half price when we leave in five weeks. A little more than a dollar a day for having bicycle transportation at our disposal. Unlike my home university in Greensboro where one may find three or four bikes locked up adjacent to a building, here at KAIST, bicycles are very common with parking spots where one can lock their bike are very crowded. Bicycle riders enjoy covered parking three to four rows deep and are usually in front and behind the buildings.

Our hosts have several entertainment and cultural events planned for us over the next five weeks in including a trip to Seoul next weekend for the two nights/three days stay in the city. Population 10.5 million in 2010.

Bee Larvae and Dog Meat

As I write, it is 0045 in the morning. 1145, 15 minutes before noon in North Carolina. The seven of us have just returned from an evening meal of traditional Korean food after which we all went to a bar to try Korean vodka with a variety of appetizers including lightly sauteed larvae from a bee of some kind, I think? Our two Korean hosts, Gil and Thomas, 24 and 31 respectively ordered for us from the menu from both places. Their Korean names I can not even begin to say as they said it. They also gave their given English names as well. About half of the Koreans I have met here will tell me their name in Korean then they will tell me their given name in English. I wonder if they have a given name in English for those who are not of Korean descent in order to make it easier for us to remember. The majority of the group were very hesitant to even taste the Korean delicacy of bee larvae. I will try anything, especially if washed down with Korean vodka. The larvae had a consistency of a once hardened shell softened by being lightly sauteed with an inner consistency of liver mush which oozed out of the soft shell upon the first bite. I thought the larvae appetizer was tasty as I ate a few more tiny morsels through the evening conversations. Thomas, our remaining host at the second location did not try any saying he was not fond of them but wanted us foreigners to have the chance to try something out of the ordinary to US custom. Here are some interesting things I found out about dog meat. According to the National Assembly of South Korea, more than 20,000 restaurants, including the 6484 registered restaurants, served soups made from dog meat in Korea in 1998. Dog meat is often consumed during the summer months and is either roasted or prepared in soups or stews. In North Koreain early 2010, the government included dog meat in its new list of one hundred fixed prices, setting a fixed price of 500 won per kilogram. That`s about 45 cents per 2.2 pounds of dog meat. In contemporary times, some cultures view the consumption of dog meat to be a part of their traditional cuisine, while others consider consumption of dog to be inappropriate and offensive. In response to criticisms, proponents of dog meat have argued that distinctions between livestock and pets is subjective, and that there is no difference with eating the meat of different animals, while countering that those critical of dog meat consumption are guilty of cultural supremacy, if not racism. During teleconferencing and casual conversation about odd Korean foods before we all met one another in Chicago, the conversation once led to the personal consumption of the meat form a dog which can be found and is somewhat common here in Korea. After eating the larvae, I brought up the subject again at the dinner table as all but two of us said they would never consume what we here in the United States consider a pet. Our remaining host whose English is slow but understandable said he would never eat dog meat as the dogs which are raised here for restaurant consumption are not treated in the best manner of factory farmed animals although there are many establishments throughout the country which serve dog from the menu. If the opportunity arises, I am sure I will try it. Earlier in the day, Gustavo and I took a taxi to the city center with a goal in mind to walk indirectly back to the University, a distance of about 3 miles as the crow flies. As we meandered through the central shopping district including a shopping mall about 10 stories high, we say many karaoke bars, night clubs and entertainment venues which would open later in the evening. These establishments were mixed with the daytime street vendors selling a wide variety of things from clothing to fresh live seafood sold street side.