DASL Wiki

Date last edited:06/25/16

I learned that even though the culture and environment may seem similar to Japan, the actual cultural norms are very different. The way buses, gps, cafeterias, etc. work are all different. These were all new experiences that have really hit home that I am in a different country. Santiago and I also learned how to get out and about from our dorm. We were put into Hwaam dorm which is about a 30min bus ride from KAIST main campus, and is in the mountains close to the edge of the city. Though it is very cool during that day there are a lot of bugs. Most of the bugs are spiders who love to leave behind webs on the sidewalk. So learning how to use the bus system was imperative to getting out of the dorm. I also learned that getting cash out of an atm using a visa card is impossible on campus. The atm's only take mastercard, so I've been dependent on Santiago to withdraw cash. I had brought an unlocked phone with the intent of buying a sim card in Korea. I was able to find a store that sells sim cards to foreigners. There weren't many options for me since I am only staying for a couple months. I got a 1.5gb data or 300hr talk plan and was able to get a Korean phone number.

Santiago and I started work on red-teaming the HUBO manual. We are also learning about the hardware as well, playing with the various motor boards, motors and sensors. We split up the 6 chapters between the two of us and will proof read each others work. This is so that we can finish the red-teaming quicker and can both read through the whole manual at least once. I am confident that we will be able to create an edited version of the manual by the end of next week.

This is a photo Santiago and I took together with a majority of the lab members. This was the first time we had lunch together with everyone else and was really fun and made me feel welcome in the lab.

Unfortunately I lost my wallet on the KAIST shuttle bus this week. It had all of my cards, some money, and room key. I learned from that experience that I am not afraid to admit to others that I made a mistake and ask for help. I also learned that my pitiful knowledge of Korean is insufficient to get by. This has motivated me more to learn the language.

　This week was spent trying to remember the names of all of the KAIST HUBO lab. Hyobin has been really helpful driving Santiago and I to places we need to get stuff done for paper work. Deungyun and Daun are first year graduate students who have also been helping us get ourselves situated. They are also the students who are teaching us about HUBO. Buyon is a student who knows Japanese well. We have been having conversations in Japanese which is really fun and relaxing for me. It is also easy for me to talk to him since he knows Japanese more that English. Seungwoo is really fun to talk to and super helpful. Seongwoo is the first student at the HUBO lab to work on a hydraulic pump system and is always surround by boxes. Thus his nicknames are “box king” and “pump man.” He is also very kind and helpful. There are more students who work at the lab and are all kind and helpful, but unfortunately I have yet to remember their names. Outside of the lab Santiago and I have met Ben who is an American student here at KAIST with a similar program as us.