Today we woke up bright and early and headed out at 7:30am to Eaton, which is a power management company that has a plant a few hours away from our hotel. We were given a short presentation followed by a Q&A, and then a tour of the plant itself. It was really interesting to see the engineering side of things with their new 3d printing integration as well as other generic aspects of a plant manufacturing line. However, as a business student it was even more interesting/applicable for me when discussing things like the marketing and investment that goes into making the company successful. One of the topics of discussion that I was curious about that was touched on was sustainability and renewable energy. Specifically, how Eaton improves on sustainability and renewable energy while minimizing costs or obstacles. It was really great to hear from the managers of multiple areas and get input from a business and engineering perspective.
After the Eaton tour we headed to lunch as a whole group where we got Korean bbq. Kay helped us to assemble the meal and put the pork bulgogi into a leaf of lettuce with things like red rice, peppers, kimchi jjigae, and/or other ingredients. You then ball it all up and take one big bite. It is a lot of food to have at once, but it was also really good! We finished eating and headed to our next location
After eating we checked out the fish market, which was definitely an interesting experience. I am personally not a big seafood person so getting hit with that strong smell of fish and seafood in the market and seeing all of the different sea creatures clumped in those small fish tanks was for sure a unique sight. A lot of people also tried fresh octopus tentacle where they were still moving! I couldn’t bring myself to try it but I know others enjoyed the experience. It was a short trip as we headed from there to our next destination.
The coolest experience for me today was by far the baseball game. We had really good seats along the right outfield and the environment was just so different than any game in the US. Everyone was super pumped from before the first inning till the bottom of the 9th, with energy swaying back and forth from each side of the stadium each half of the inning. The seats were split in half with the Doosan fans sitting on one side and the Kiwoom fans on the other. When each team was batting their fans would stand up and cheer, and cheerleaders as well as designated crowd workers would get everyone hyped up and moving. They even had little dances and chants planned out that all of the fans knew and did in sync. It was crazy to watch so much coordination and excitement from such a large crowd for that long of a time. Unfortunately the home team Kiwoom lost, but I still enjoyed my time at that game. It was a very special experience that I won’t ever forget. Tomorrow is Taekwondo and Seoul City Hall, so we’ll see what happens then!