We started the day with breakfast at the hotel. Unlike any other hotel breakfast I’ve had, the food was great and there were so many options. Never before have I had chicken wings, tiramisu, and orange juice all with the same meal. After breakfast, we took the bus to Suwon to see the Hwaseong Fortress. The six-kilometer wall was built during the late 1700s and currently encloses a modern-day Suwon. We walked around the perimeter, observing where archers would defend the village. We even got to put our own archery skills to the test at a range within the fortress.
After walking around the perimeter of the fortress, we took a break to get lunch. Dr. Yun graciously rewarded the group I was in after coming in second place in yesterday’s competition. He treated us to a traditional Korean meal at a restaurant in Suwon. The meal consisted of a spicy kimchi stew shared between the table and a large kimchijeon (kimchi pancake). To finish off a delicious lunch, I got blueberry ice cream at a local shop in Suwon.
The next destination was the Samsung Innovation Museum, which gave a history of the electronics industry as a whole and specifically the recent ingenuity of Samsung. The guided tour started with the discovery of electricity and the first implementations of it, such as the radio and the original models of washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators. The guide then highlighted the development of the television, showing the progression for a grainy black-and-white TV to the moder day high-definition flat screens we know and love. This took us to the next part of the tour, where we saw the first cellular phone and its transition from flip phones all the way to Samsung’s highest tech smartphone. The last part of the tour was perhaps the most exciting, where we saw some of Samsung’s newest innovations. As we learned before arriving, Seoul has smart systems deeply integrated into the city, which was also evident by the products we saw. For example, we sat in a smart living room in which the TV, lights, curtains, room temperature, and more could all be controlled by a phone. We then saw different Samsung TVs for different living styles. For example, there was a TV that rotated to a vertical orientation given the growing demand of Tik-Tok, Shorts, and Reels media. On the other hand, the Samsung Frame TV displays classic art from the Louvre when off rather than a blank black screen. This TV also had the ability to interchange the frame to best fit the room. We then explored the newest Samsung folding phones, and the powerful features built into them. My personal favorite part was the appliance section, seeing a fridge that keeps track of the ingredients in your fridge, or the washing machine and dryer built in one with automatic detergent dispensing. It was inspiring to see how technology is being used to make the quality of life even better than it currently is.
After the Samsung Museum, we went to the Myeongdong Night Market. The market was filled with shops and street food in every ally. Despite this, we had to resist filling up on delicious street food, because we had a traditional Korean dinner coming up. At this dinner, we were seated at a circular table with a lazy Susan in the middle. This made sense when the food came out with a total of 18 sides to share. Unlike any meal I’ve had in the US, we all took a little of each side and rotated around. The food was absolutely delicious, and during the meal we got to talk to some Pitt Alumni currently living in Korea. Even without the room for anything more, Dr. Yun challenged us to another challenge. Each group was given a picture of the window of a Korean Desert Cafe and the first two groups to find it would get treated to bingsu (shaved ice with a sweet topping). Being one of the first two groups, we shared a mango and an Oreo bingsu and a strawberry desert toast. Lastly, we finished the night with some more shopping in Myeongdong. It was a great day filled with reflecting on the past, looking towards the future, and enjoying great food!
