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-====== Dylan Wallace IRES 2017 Journal ======
+====== Dylan Wallace IRES 2017 Journal (Part 1) ======
 **Author:** [[unlv_wallace|Dylan Wallace]], Email: <wallad3@unlv.nevada.edu>, Website: [[https://www.dylanwallace.com/]]
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 The main thing I learned this week that is helpful to others involves when you are riding a bus for a long time in Korea. None of the buses in Korea have bathrooms on-board, so make sure you go to the bathroom before you leave, and especially whenever they make midway stops, as these will be your only chances.
-===== Week 6: 07/16/17 - 07/22/17 =====
-This week was a fairly ordinary week, just staying in Daejeon and working on my current project. I was mostly working hard to prepare for a half week next week, as I will be taking a vacation in Seoul. However, on the weekend I did get to have a bit of fun exploring Daejeon.
-==== 1. Photo of the week & impressions of Korea ====
-{{ dylanw:gungdongshishabar.jpeg?600 }}
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-I chose this photo as photo of the week because it is one of the coolest, and most beautiful places that I have seen during my time here in Korea. This was a Shi-Sha Bar (Hookah Bar) that is popular in Daejeon among students. I went here with some friends and we had a really good time enjoying the ambiance after some dinner, and we especially enjoyed the unlimited cheesecake that they offered. This place is very popular as a spot to take a date in Daejeon, and is pretty packed on the weekends. However, on Sunday it was fairly empty, and a nice little experience to end the week.
-==== 2. New Korean(s) ====
-This week I met a couple new Koreans. The  first two were Suhyeon and Lea, two girls that I met at a language exchange in Daejeon. They spoke very good English, and encouraged me to come to future language exchanges. I just found this group, so I will be sure to visit it during my last few weeks here. The third person I met was Sanjay, a Korean engineer that  I met on Sunday. Sanjay was a really nice guy, and even studied robotics when he was in school. Now he works on battery tech and control systems, but he gave me some good tips for doing robotics in the future.
-==== 3. New cultural insight ====
-{{ dylanw:pcbang.jpeg?600 }}
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-I have mentioned PC bangs (PC rooms) in this journal before. However, this week was my first time actually going into one and playing extensively. These PC bangs are usually really nice, large rooms filled with gaming PC setups. These setups have nice, curved 4K monitors, very good gaming PCs, and high-quality peripherals such as keyboard and mouse. Best thing of all is that you can go in and use these gaming PCs for just 1,000 won or less per hour, depending on how long you play and if you are a member of the PC bang or not. This is such a fun part of Korea, especially if you like playing PC games, and I recommend everyone try it at least once. Competitive gaming is very big here in Korea, so these PC bangs are often packed with people of all ages and background, and these PC bangs are usually open 24 hours, which gives you a nice place to hangout after-hours.
-==== 4. Personal insight ====
-This week I learned that even when traveling abroad, I don't need to go out and do some crazy things to have a great weekend. This weekend I just spent my time in Daejeon, working on my project, and on Sunday I went out for a movie, dinner, and drinks with a group of friends. Daejeon is a really good city to have fun like this, and it taught me that I can be comfortable anywhere, doing anything as long as I am with good people and doing something that I like.
-==== 5. Project status & technical learning ====
-This week I got my PCL project working with the plane segmentation and normal estimation. Basically, this program will be used to find normal vectors of any of the planes we can place footsteps. Now that this part is done, we can move onto integrating this with the simulator, and create the cost function to plan the footsteps in real-time. Below is a picture of the segmentation, with the original pointcloud on the right, and the segmented normal vectors on the left.
-{{ dylanw:planenormals.png?800 }}
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-==== 6. Food of the week ====
-{{ dylanw:ovenbakedchicken.jpeg?600 }}
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-The food of this week was some amazing oven-baked chicken that I had with Mingyu on Wednesday. This chicken was the best chicken I have ever ate, and I had to share it. Korean chicken is very good, especially the oven-baked chicken, and is a very popular dish to eat. I have eaten a lot of chicken while here, but this was by far the best yet.
-==== 7. New Korean Words/Phrases ====
-A popular phrase that you will hear a lot in Korean is "chincha" (really?), said with a rising intonation most of the time. This is very common to show surprise, confirmation, and is extremely normal to use in conversation.
-==== 8. New place explored ====
-Since, I didn't go out to any new cities this week, I decided to explore a popular area here in Daejeon, especially among students. This area is called Gungdong, and it is right between KAIST, and Chungnam University, which is to the West of KAIST. This area has many good, cheap places to eat and hangout with your friends, and has a lot of young people around. It also has a lot of international restaurants and students around, and most people will speak enough English to help you out. I highly recommend checking it out if your are ever in Daejeon. Below is a photo of the main street in Gungdong.
-{{ dylanw:gungdong.jpeg?600 }}
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-==== 9. Notes/Tips ====
-If you ever need to order something online, whether it be tickets, or products, you better have a Korean phone number, or have a friend with one. This week I had to order tickets to a music festival in Icheon, and I had a very hard time due to needing a Korean phone number and not having one. So I used my friends, and had him help me through the process, and even get on the phone to talk to some of the people to get it sorted out. Thankfully I had this friend, and if you want to things like this you should make friends with helpful Koreans as well.
-===== Week 7: 07/23/17 - 07/30/17 =====
-This week was a great week, as a took a half week to go down to Seoul and show my friend Caleb around Seoul. This was his first time in Korea so it was a good opportunity to show all of the cool things I have experienced so far. On Friday, we went to Jisan Valley Rock Festival and go to experience some great music and meet lots of great people.
-==== 1. Photo of the week & impressions of Korea ====
-{{ dylanw:valleyrock.jpeg?700 }}
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-I chose this photo for this week because it was one of the most fun experiences I have had while here in Korea. This was after 13 hours at the Jisan Valley Rock Festival, a large music festival that comes to a ski resort 1 hour South of Seoul every summer. This festival boasts many Korean and international artists, and was an amazing experience. I would highly recommend this to anyone living or visiting Korea, and I am glad that I got to experience it while here.
-==== 2. New Korean(s) ====
-This week I met many new Koreans while in Seoul and Jisan. I didn't get any pictures, but I met Alice, Hihyun, and Jaechung at the Jisan festival, and I met Stephanie, Ben, and Hyeonjun in Hongdae.
-This weekend I also met-up with Yeeun and Suyong, old interns from DASL, and we went to Namsan tower. Below is a picture of us at the top of Namsan.
-{{ dylanw:namsanselfie.jpeg?500 }}
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-==== 3. New cultural insight ====
-This week while riding the subways of Seoul, Caleb and I noticed something interesting about the typical businessmen on these subways. It seems that every "businessman" was wearing a blue dress shirt and tie, blue slacks, nice leather shoes, and most interesting of all, a Rolex watch. It was interesting to see these guys wearing such nice and expensive things, while riding the subway. I think this shows just how important and commonplace the subway system in Seoul is. even if you are quite wealthy, the subway is the most convenient and common way to get around the city.
-==== 4. Personal insight ====
-This week I learned that I am very good at being a guide and a leader, even in unfamiliar places. Having a friend in Korea this week, I decided to show him around and demonstrate what it is like to live in Korea. I think that doing this made me realize all of the great things I have learned and experienced while I have been here, and has shown me that I can help others have these experiences as well.
-==== 5. Project status & technical learning ====
-Since I took a half-week this last week, I did not make a large amount of progress on the current project. However, before I left I got my plane segmentation and normal estimation algorithm working with ROS, so that others may start using it with their parts of the project. This next week will involve getting things working in simulation and on hardware so that we can continue this research even after we have left HUBO Lab.
-==== 6. Food of the week ====
-I had a lot of great foods this week, while vacationing in Seoul. However, the best food by far was these noodles and dumplings that we had in Myeongdong with Yeeun and Suyong. This restaurant was very large, three stories in total, and had a 30 minute wait just  to get seated. It was well worth it though, because these noodles and dumplings were some of the most delicious things that I have ever eaten. Below is a picture of all the food that we got to have at this amazing restaurant.
-{{ dylanw:deliciousnoodles.jpeg?600 }}
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-==== 7. New Korean Words/Phrases ====
-After a whole lot of food this week, I think that the two words of the week are very appropriate. The first one is pegopa (hungry/I'm hungry). The other is pebulleo (full/I'm full). These are very commonly used, as it seems that Koreans are either very hungry, or very full, and there is no in-between.
-==== 8. New place explored ====
-My new place of the week was a very beautiful and amazing area of Seoul called Namsan. Namsan is a mountain right in the middle of central Seoul, and it has the large and beautifully lit Namsan tower on top of it. This mountain bears great views during the day, but even more amazing views at night. To get to the tower, you can take a bus, cable car, or you can walk up over 700 steps to the top. When exploring this, we chose the walking option, and it was a very tiring trip, but well worth it after the amazing view I saw. Below are some photos of the tower and the view of Seoul.
-{{dylanw:namsanpic.jpeg?440 }} {{ dylanw:namsanview.jpeg?440}}
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-==== 9. Notes/Tips ====
-My biggest tip from this week involves transportation to and from the airport and Daejeon. There are many different ways to get there, by bus or train. When going from Daejeon to Incheon Airport, I recommend taking the express bus. This is the quickest and cheapest option, as the train can be quite expensive and the station is much farther than the bus stop from KAIST and Hwaam. On the way back however, it may be a good idea to take the airport railroad (subway) to Seoul Station, and then the KTX or Mugungwha (which is even cheaper than a bus) to Daejeon station, as it can be much faster and cheaper, especially during rush hour.
-===== Week 8: 07/31/17 - 08/05/17 =====
-==== 1. Photo of the week & impressions of Korea ====
-{{ dylanw:busanbeach.jpeg?700 }}
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-I chose this photo for the photo of the week because it shows the beautiful view of Haeundae beach in Busan, one f the most popular beaches in Korea. This photo impressed me because it shows just how popular the beaches in Busan are, and how many people flood these beaches during the summer. The beach was lined with umbrellas, rented for just 8,000 won the entire day, and there were countless people along the shore and swimming in the water. This is something that is much different than beaches and the US, and was a really great experience for one of my last weeks in Korea.
-==== 2. New Korean(s) ====
-This weekend while visiting Busan, I decided to stay in a guest house for my first time here in Korea. This was a really great experience, as I was able to meet not only a lot of Koreans, but also a lot of international travelers. In particular, I got to meet Hyunhae, and she helped show me some good places to see in Busan. I also got to meet Jin, Young, and Moonjin, who helped me have a great time out in Haeundae beach. Lastly, I got to meet Adin, Hannah, and Mark, all travelers from across the world (Isreal, Sweden, and Ukraine). This experience was really great to make some new friends and Busan, and I loved how easy it was to get to know these people, and how diverse and fun they were, even after knowing each other for just a few days. I would definitely recommend a guest house to anyone in Korea looking to make new friends and have a good time in a new city.
-==== 3. New cultural insight ====
-==== 4. Personal insight ====
-==== 5. Project status & technical learning ====
-==== 6. Food of the week ====
-==== 7. New Korean Words/Phrases ====
-==== 8. New place explored ====
-==== 9. Notes/Tips ====