On the last day of the trip, we went on a tour of the Topis which is both a government operated system and a private company in Seoul that monitored all of the traffic in South Korea. We saw this headquarters that was in the basement of City Hall, and it was amazing. they have such a well put together way of how to monitor traffic incidents and change the routes along cities like Seoul and they are able to change the routes on electronic signs on the road to indicate a better route or to cut off from causing too much traffic. We saw that there were multiple cameras set out throughout the streets to monitor the speeds and the hazards created that were operated by workers. These cameras were also able to be accessed by all citizens; it has an online website where you can also watch the camera workers operating different cameras. This system was so fast that you were also able to get a text message within seconds of you violating an incident and getting a fine virtually.

The idea of all citizens being able to access these cameras made me a little bit concerned although when another participant in the program asked about it they said that their cameras done collect the private information and that the cameras are do not show any of this information of the public website. This company was also implementing autonomies vehicles along Seoul which could be riden for free and were deployed around 3 AM when drivers did not want to be out on the roads. They spoke about working on higher versions of autonomis vehicles that that they could create cars unable to be drive by humans and purely commanded by an Ai.

I think that at Topis they are really making strides toward making a more unified Korea through the integration of smart cities. They had such a good control over monitoring the area that they were able to really make an impact on day-to-day driving.

We later went to get some Korean street food which was really good it was like a little pancake of dough with honey inside it was very nice and sweet. Then we got a popular sweet served in Korea that had shaved ice with syrup and fruit on top. it was really good and also showing of the health in Korea.

We finally went to a Korea cooking class late in the day where we cooked glass noodles and made bulgogi. I was a little afraid since I pretty bad at cooking but i mean everything turned out great. We had a chef teaching us like ten feet away from us and they guided us through every step, even how to turn on the Oven. Once we had gotten everything prepped, we rolled out bulgogi and to my surprise I actually did pretty well. That was my final day in Korea before departure, and I couldn’t be happier. What a great finish to this already so busy trip. Tomorrow I’ll be leaving and I will definitely have in mind that I need to come back. I think what I’ll miss most is the convenience stores and the fact I could basically live off one.