South Korea, Day 10
I started my morning by slipping and falling on my butt on the way to the bus. It's still sore. I only brought one pair of shoes with me and they get very slippery when certain surfaces are wet. I... regret not having a second pair of shoes with me.
We went on our second site visit, this time to ETRI, a government-funded research institute. We weren't allowed to take photos, and they were only allowed to show us stuff that the public already knew about. But it was still pretty neat and science-fictiony.
We then went downtown to find lunch and have free time. A few of us spotted the conveyor belt sushi and had to stop and eat there. It looked even more foreign than usual. I was a bit of a wimp, and mostly only ate things for which I could tell what they were.
Then most of us went to the national science museum. It was neat, even though most things didn't have english labels. It was kind of like the pacific science center, only turned up to 11.
We went back to the hotel to rest (I finally successfully took a nap), then met up at 7 for dinner. We went to a U-district-like neighborhood near another one of the universities in the city. We stopped at a korean bbq place, but it wasn't as good as the first bbq place we went to last week. They also only served pork, so 2 in our party had to leave to find something else.
After dinner we walked to a neat little coffee shop, whose name meant "playground". It had a great atmosphere - there were little cubbies and loft areas with pillows and neat art on the walls. It's difficult to put into words what was great about it. We all shared a giant shaved ice, covered in oodles of goodies (mostly fruit and sweet red beans).
We finished the evening by drinking soju with the dean. :P Interesting conversations were had.
We went on our second site visit, this time to ETRI, a government-funded research institute. We weren't allowed to take photos, and they were only allowed to show us stuff that the public already knew about. But it was still pretty neat and science-fictiony.
We then went downtown to find lunch and have free time. A few of us spotted the conveyor belt sushi and had to stop and eat there. It looked even more foreign than usual. I was a bit of a wimp, and mostly only ate things for which I could tell what they were.
Then most of us went to the national science museum. It was neat, even though most things didn't have english labels. It was kind of like the pacific science center, only turned up to 11.
We went back to the hotel to rest (I finally successfully took a nap), then met up at 7 for dinner. We went to a U-district-like neighborhood near another one of the universities in the city. We stopped at a korean bbq place, but it wasn't as good as the first bbq place we went to last week. They also only served pork, so 2 in our party had to leave to find something else.
After dinner we walked to a neat little coffee shop, whose name meant "playground". It had a great atmosphere - there were little cubbies and loft areas with pillows and neat art on the walls. It's difficult to put into words what was great about it. We all shared a giant shaved ice, covered in oodles of goodies (mostly fruit and sweet red beans).
We finished the evening by drinking soju with the dean. :P Interesting conversations were had.