KAIST 16: 2012 Yeosu EXPO

What I have learned in Korea

Korea is hosting 2012 EXPO in Yeosu city where is located at the southern part of the Korean peninsula. Since the city is close to the South Ocean which is called “Nam Hae” the main slogan for the EXPO is “Living Ocean and Coast”. On this past weekend my dad, mom, aunts, grandmother, and I visited the Yeosu EXPO with so much excitement. The Yeosu EXPO has been started for about two months and I was wondering how great the expo is. This Yeosu EXPO is the second expo which has been hosted in Korea therefore many Korean people expect of this Yeosu EXPO successfully finished. All the transportations to Yeosu City were provided to the people for free during the EXPO season. We took the shuttle train in the early morning. When I got there even if it was early morning there were so many people lined up to wait for the entrance, especially in front of the aquarium. Unfortunately as the weather centre said, it was rainy so hard outside therefore it was painful to wait for the line with holding an umbrella. Despite of the extreme weather condition, we diligently went around to watch the each exhibit hall. For the Yeosu EXPO, 105 different countries come to Korea and open their booths to exhibit the culture, custom, and traditional clothes or housing of their countries. It makes the people indirectly travel the world without actually flying around. Since the weather was extremely hot and humid I directly ran into the Russian booth. For the night there were two big performances waiting for us; one was the Big-O show and the other show was K-pop star concert. I had to choose one of the two performances due to the time conflict so I chose more meaningful event which was, I think, the Big-O show. As the name explains, there is a huge circular fountain vertically located on the ocean and once the show started it spurted water in the air and flashed the colorful lights through water drops. It was really gorgeous and fantastic to watch. I think that Korean people are still unfamiliar with the foreign countries because almost all of the Koreans are composed of only a Korean race and international marriages are not generalized. Through many international festivals like EXPO I hope that Koreans welcome the foreigners and understand their cultures and traditions instead of unkindly looking at them.

The people I have met in Korea

                There is a security who works at the gym where I go often to do work-out or to take a shower. Even though I am much younger than him, he warmly welcomes me every time I visit in the gym. Therefore I say hello whenever I meet him on the campus because I was so thankful to his greeting. On this past Friday one of my friends at KAIST unwarily tripped his ankle while playing basketball at the gym. I ran into the security office and ask him to call 911 (In Korea the number for 911 is 119). My friend was safely sent to the close hospital by the ambulance. Through this chance I got to talk with the security man and know each other. He was a really generous and kind. I will more respect him and say hello every time I go to the gym.

The statue of research

                On this week I wrote up the tutorial about motor control. Due to the wrong writing format I decided to rewrite the tutorials in the right format it was supposed to be written.

What new thing did you learn about yourself?

                When I was little I used to have difficulties to get along with people who I met first time. As I grow up I could overcome my weakness and be more sociable in the community. As of now I think that the life living in US changed me a lot and helped me to learn how to get along with people. Therefore I had no difficulty to stay and work with the new people while staying in Korea.

Photo of the week