Aakash was able to extend breakfast to 9:20 AM this morning. This worked great for me as I woke up basically at 9 AM, so I was able to eat a little something before starting our last tour of POSTECH. We boarded the bus and got off at the school, near RIST for Industrial Engineering. Only after the bus left did I realize that I left my wallet on the bus. Luckily, we were using the same charter bus, but I now needed to find workarounds for buying items. Our tour guide, whose English name is Michael, took us around all the different sites that we missed on the more academic tour yesterday. My group was Will, Ben, Emma, Chris, and Jacque. We checked out ChangeUp, which housed a recreational area on the 4th floor and many startups. Then, we moved over to the library and saw many students studying during their finals season. They also had another recreational spot for students to take breaks after studying. We moved on touring other various places on campus. We stopped at tennis courts, the pub (closed unfortunately), and finally at the eSports Colosseum. One stop was the anime club room, which Michael was the president of. We did talk briefly about some anime, including Jujutsu Kaizen. We also joked about League of Legends and how all the CS majors play it. We ate at ChangeUp Garden, where the smart system of choice was a robot that delivers the order. I ordered a pork stone platter, officially making pork one of my most eaten food while in Korea. To pay, we used Will’s card and had everyone venmo him. Emma couldn’t pay anyone though, so I payed for her and she owed me $8.25. After, we went back to the eSports Colosseum to get some souvenirs. I had Emma buy me a phoenix plush keychain of one of the mascots of POSTECH named Ponix. The bird was 13K won, which is 700 won over what Emma owed me. So, I’m forced to pay her back 2 quarters next semester which she definitely wants me to do.
Leaving POSTECH, we went to visit their founding company, POSCO, the steel Titan of Pohang. We walked through the first park1538 museum as part of the POSCO Museum. The first part was an entire room with the steel making process as an interactive experience, complete with cursed recreations of a select few of our group. Then, we realized everything there was all steel, the walls, the paintings, even the people (not really). The wall also had the moving screen that can even reflect what is in front of it through moving the steel in and out. Next, we went to the POSCO history museum, which had a brief run through of the history of the company and steel in Korea. Lastly, the piece de resistance, the Pohang Steelworks.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to record anything within the actual Pohang Steelworks plant, but it might’ve beaten the PAL as the coolest things we’ve seen all trip. We took a bus tour and saw everything we saw miniaturized in the museum come to life. We saw the giant blast furnaces and the torpedo cars that transport the molten iron. We saw the entire logistics network. We got off the bus to look through the rolling process, which saw the steel heated up and shaped into thinner sheets. We weren’t able to see the cooling or final product, but this entire walk was absolutely worth it. The heat radiated off the steel as it was passed back and forth through the roller. The entire experience was surreal as the heat was palpable as we walked along steel catwalks above the plant. I’m so glad I came for this Plus3 trip.
During our free time and final night in Pohang, we went for dinner at a crab restaurant with Dr. Yun buying us unlimited crab. It was a group C free meal without Jacque and V, so just Emma, Ben, and Jake along with Big Chris. The crab was so juicy, it poured all over all of us. My pants got horribly discolored, but it was completely worth it. I did try to eat meat from the body, but I struggled. I just stuck to my crab legs. We all got into a rhythm of getting the next crab and just tearing it to shreds, leaving no claw unsnapped and no meat wasted. We ended up staying for so long, it got dark. Emma was the expert at eating crab, and tanked all the bodies. It was Ben’s first time eating a proper crab, but he adopted my patented suck strat. To get the meat, just suck on one end and enjoy. Jake didn’t seem to like my strat, but I maintain that my strat is 100% effective sometimes.
Wasn’t full after crab :))
