Thank you for bearing with me with my delayed posts. Let’s talk about our last full day in Korea (Thursday, May 14).
TOPIS
Our first stop was to head back to City Hall to learn about Seoul TOPIS, or Seoul Transport Operation & Information Service. After experiencing the efficient public transportation in Seoul, we finally got to see the behind-the-scenes.
TOPIS itself is a smart system. It uses cameras, sensors, T-money cards, and more to evaluate traffic congestion, fine people who break traffic laws, and report accidents, making Seoul a safer and more efficient place to travel in. The data used to evaluate congestion is shared with digital maps (such as Naver and Kakao) to adjust routes so that people make it to their destinations faster. CCTV cameras and sensors allow TOPIS to identify people breaking traffic laws (i.e. going into a bus lane), and the owner of the vehicle is automatically contacted, informing them of their traffic violation and resulting fine. Some of us had some privacy concerns, especially because the live CCTV footage is available to anyone who goes to the website. They assured us that the CCTV footage isn’t clear enough to identify faces. I’m not sure how much I believe that, since it is clear enough to identify license plates. Also, AI image enhancers could also make the footage clear enough to identify people. Even though I think the system as a whole is very efficient, I’m not 100% sold on the idea that privacy isn’t being invaded by it.
Desserts & Presentations
After TOPIS, Dr. Yun took everyone to Namdaemun Market to get us all hotteok. There were a few different kinds, but I think the kind we got had honey and sesame seeds in it. Either way, it was so delicious. After that we went to get bingsu, which I was thrilled about. Each group ordered two to share, so my group got a strawberry one and a chocolate-oreo one. Both were so delicious (as all bingsu is). Then, as some of us finished early, we went our separate ways before returning to the hotel to finish our presentation. Once we were all back, we found a meeting room in the basement that was available to use. We finished up our slides and practiced a few times before 3pm, which is when we needed to start presentations.
My group wanted to go first to get the presentation out of the way, and thankfully Dr. Yun let us. We turned out to be the only group to a) show our video first before presenting, and b) not talk about one single company. Our original plan was to just talk about one company, but V thought it would be better for each of us (except Jake, since he did all of the video editing) to talk about different companies. We ended up presenting way too long (like over 20 minutes), but it turned out to be alright. It meant we didn’t have to answer any questions, which was nice.
After all groups presented, the group leaders were given a set of pens from Dr. Yun. Everyone was also given a set of pencils and pretty paper. Then, we were dismissed to get ready for our cooking class.
Cooking Class
We had to make our final dinner. I had never been to a cooking class, so I had no idea what to expect. I am terrible at cooking though, and I warned my group that my IQ drops to about 25% when I’m in a kitchen. Turns out, I didn’t really need to warn anyone about anything.
We got paired up, and I got to work with Sophie. We made japchae and gimbap. Sophie already knew exactly how to make both of these dishes, and she was very hungry, so she just got to work, occasionally waiting to make sure the instructor wasn’t telling us to do something extremely different. She pretty much took charge of the japchae, but I did get to do a good bit of making my gimbap (with her supervision and guidance). By the time we were done making our food, everyone else was still putting the rice on their seaweed. The instructor came by and was surprised and impressed that we were done so quickly. Since we were both hungry, we started eating some gimbap awhile (I started with the pieces that fell apart while I was cutting them, so that’s why they aren’t pictured). All of the food turned out very good.
After we got dismissed from the cooking class, some of us went to get dessert. I got some vanilla froyo with chocolate syrup. After that, we went to do some super last-minute shopping in Myeong-dong. Then we headed back to the hotel, and I did a bit of packing, and then went to bed.