At the beginning of the day, we visited our first company of the trip, Eaton Korea. Eaton is a power management company that produces an assortment of products related to energy. Their headquarters is in Dublin. However, they are located all across the world. There is even one near Pitt. At Eaton, we got a short presentation about the company, followed by a factory tour. They explained Eaton Korea operates mainly in the automotive industry and produces many parts that help make vehicles safer. Also, they mentioned that the company commits to improving its sustainability. Eaton is working on becoming more environmentally friendly in many ways, mainly by switching to solar. Finally, the representatives told us about how Eaton uses technology like Artificial intelligence and 3D printing within their processes. For the tour, they let us walk through the factory during daily operations. I have never been in a factory before, so I liked seeing how the assembly lines operated. In particular, the factory had many smart systems helping with the manufacturing line. In doing this, they are reducing the risk of defects in the product. However, they still do regular checks to ensure everything is up to standard.
After the Eaton visit, we had some time before the baseball game. We ended up going to a fish market. The fish market is hard to explain, but I know it is unlike anything I have seen. When entering the fish market, all that can be seen are vendors and their fish tanks of live fish. In the United States, this would rarely happen as people often do not want to think about what they are eating. While in Korea, the fish are out in the open for anyone to see. While there, Dr. Yun bought us all live Octopus to eat, as it is unique to Korea. I did try the Octopus. It was very chewy, but the sauce made it enjoyable to eat.
Toward the end of the day, we attended a baseball game. The matchup was the Doosan Bears vs Kiwoon Heros. Due to our seats, we ended up rooting for the Heros. Baseball games in the US and Korea are very different. In the US, watching a game can often be boring. Most people sit back in their seats silently watching the game. This is because many games lack an interactive feature to it. In Korea, cheerleaders guide the crowd through different cheers throughout the game. Every play had a movement, and every end of an inning had a singable song. The crowd was loud and energetic until the very end. This has to be my favorite game so far. The only disappointing part of the game is the Heros lost 6-1.
