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--- santiago_log [2016/08/21 06:41] – santiagoricoy
+++ santiago_log [2016/08/23 13:34] (current) – santiagoricoy
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 This is tough because of the sheer number of things I've had to learn. For this week, I'll go with the personalist mindset in Korea, with some help from a book I found outside the cafe in W2-1 (a building at KAIST) called __Insight Into Korea__, which I hear is a series. This is indeed something to get used to and you won't realize it until you're here for more than a week because everyone is so nice. There is much more to it than that though.
-Within Korea, to break it down quite simply, you ARE your circle of friends, and you're obligated to connect your groups to most of your actions. "Minding your own business" is not the same here. This is normal among friends; counseling exists but it would be odd for a person not to seek help among their friends first. Especially among friends (perhaps at parties it's a little scary) your personal space is a figment of your imagination. I've been on several excursions so far. I've gotten lost, had great experiences, and some...interesting. For a few of these I went alone (well, before meeting new people) and upon talking to labmates and other friends about it, one of the most common questions I get is "why did you go alone?" Not as frequent as "were there cute girls?" but still.
+Within Korea, to break it down quite simply, you ARE your circle of friends, and you're obligated to connect your groups to most of your actions. "Minding your own business" is not the same here. This is normal among friends; counseling exists but it would be odd for a person not to seek help among their friends first. Especially among friends (perhaps at parties it's a little scary) your personal space is a figment of your imagination. I've been on several excursions so far. I've gotten lost, had great experiences, and some...interesting. For a few of these I went alone (well, before meeting new people) and upon talking to labmates and other friends about it, one of the most common questions I get is "why did you go alone?"
 This will become normal and I'll bet most Americans coming here will enjoy the change of pace. It makes all your relationships feel more substantial. People really care about their friends and family. Expect to (on occasion) find the opposite with strangers on the bus or subway though. If you're not part of someone's circle, there's much less concern for your well-being. Foreigners, however, sometimes get a break for not being Korean and I often get hordes of people just trying to give me directions when I'm lost.
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-====End of Week 9: Saturday 08/13/2016====
+====End of Week 9: Saturday 08/20/2016====
 .) **What I learned about Korea**:
+I learned about schools in Korea. Korea is accepted in many lists as having the best education system in the world. I know quite a few teachers, so I can see how. However, among Korean friends I've discussed this with, some people disagree with it being the best. It isn't that the statistics aren't true; it's the experience for the students. That top ranking, for some people, comes at great cost. I was told primary school is practically 7 days a week, 12 hours a day; it can be brutal. Besides that, literacy rates and comprehension of various subjects may be the best in the world, but my Korean friends tell that too much of the education system is aimed at having students do well on tests.
+The largest example of this is English speaking ability. Since getting into a good university requires good test scores on English tests, like TOEFL or TOEIC, at KAIST everyone has a decent score on these tests. Many Korean people have told me that they've been studying English since they were 5 years old. Essentially no one I met was exempt from that, but it seems that very few people have the ability to fluidly carry a conversation in English, and even when they can, it can be quite difficult.
+Even so, I find the schools really impressive, as Las Vegas sometimes ranks near the bottom of primary school district comparisons in the United States.
 .) **Project status**:
+I'm also really sad to be going...BUT I'm mostly worried because I am holding up Keitaro and I. This last tutorial I was told by my labmates is improbable to get finished, but possible (yay hope!). Gazebo should be integrated with ROS and I simply show how to begin doing our own things, i.e. not just launching SLAM in the simulator; which should also be simple.
+Dr. Lim seems to know how to work on the issue, but when it comes to testing, everyone else just uses the actual robot since it's easier. Now while I find that absolutely hilarious, it might be just a little useful to be able to simulate new actions, or rather, just my goal which is waving hands.
+Installation is simple enough; follow instructions. Running is not quite the same. Sometimes Gazebo runs. Other times it doesn't. After that PODO ought to connect and it always refuses.
+I suppose this is a nice solid lesson in why beginning a project AS SOON AS the prerequisites are done is important. If I had followed Dr. Lim's ROS and Gazebo tutorial once I figured out how to create the hand waving command in PODO, by now I'd at least be sorting out bugs instead of worrying over reinstalling things correctly to get something to run.
+For now though I'd best get ready to fly back. Missing a flight because you slept at the lab and didn't pack can't go over well...
+**NOTE:** Do **NOT** switch out SSDs from the Intel NUC in order to make hard backups for the computer. If you're very lucky you can do that, but for me it didn't work. After 2 days of setting things up to work just right on the backups, so we had some for the lab back home, I found out that method won't work. It won't boot the disk after the swap. So all work on them is now gone. Just insert an SSD, do a fresh install of your operating system and other software, and work with that; don't swap.
 .) **Photo of the week**:
+This photo is part of KAIST Munji campus. I was supposed to be headed to my own farewell party, but unfortunately it was a Saturday, and I forgot the shuttle from my dormitory hardly operates on the weekends. So I was stranded, but eventually found my way.
+What is cool about Munji campus is that it has its own unique things about it that I don't think I would have found if I never got stuck there for a few minutes. In just that 10 minutes, I found a greenhouse, research wing, a KAIST logo-ed car, and upon leaving bumped into the Samsung Heavy Industries complex.
 .) **What I'm learning about myself**:
+I think positivity has really accelerated my ability to move forward on tasks regardless of how confused I am, and it's probably good to see and know that as opposed to just blindly saying yes to things. So when things get a bit concerning and I begin to freak out, it is valuable to see the bright side.
+Aside from that, after a while, you notice keeping a good attitude can begin to affect others as well. At first, I could see frustration in the faces of my teachers upon asking for help with things that were ultimately very simple, but after a while I think that finding reasons to keep a smile on really changes the outlook from a waste of time to an investment to save time later.
 .) **New Korean person I met this week**:
+I had the opportunity to meet Tae Hyung (Terry) Choi, the CEO and president of Seoyoung Engineering. We had a great discussion of the future of robotics/technology as well as the more interesting differences in Korean lifestyle versus American lifestyle. I was quite impressed with what his company does and his current dreams in the next steps for the company. What I found intriguing was 5-dimensional project and city planning simulations. The 4th dimension is of course time, but the 5th involves monetary changes, like maintenance over time. This is important to the company because there may be several projects being done at once and small but important financial details about projects sometimes can be overlooked. Terry's company is doing too many interesting things for me to discuss here, so if you're interested in learning more, the website can be found at [[http://www.seoyeong.co.kr/en/|http://www.seoyeong.co.kr/en/]]