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….
Category: School of Computing and Information
Days 6-7: High Speed Rail to the Southeast
I’ll combine these two days, since they’re interconnected and very unique. For the first time on the Plus3 Korea trip, we are visiting locations other than Seoul. I feel very lucky to be part of the first group to experience this opportunity! On the morning of day 6, we departed Seoul for Gyeongju, the old…
HOT (POSCO, Steel, and More!)
Today, we had plans to tour the entirety of the POSTECH campus and see more of the POSCO Steel Mills. As I mentioned in my last blog, POSTECH is a very small school in terms of enrollment/current students, but has quite a large campus (supposedly about 3x as big as Pitt). We got a glimpse…
Pohang and POSTECH
Today, we visited POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), which was founded by a steel company called POSCO here in Pohang. Something that really stood out to me was that despite the scenic differences, there’s quite a bit of similarities between Pittsburgh and Pohang! POSTECH is definitely smaller in terms of class sizes, has…
Day 8 – Peaceful Day at POSTECH and Prancing Around Pohang
This morning was a little rough waking up. I stayed up late writing my blog and calling my sister. Tonight, I still have to do my laundry too. We quickly hopped on the bus and headed out to POSTECH, which stands for Pohang University of Science and Technology. The campus was absolutely beautiful. I can…
Day 5: Solidarity and Excitement
Our fifth day in Korea was one of the most unique and interesting so far, and it was our last full day in Seoul for now. It consisted of two main activities: visiting the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and a baseball game. We left for the DMZ in the morning, which was about an hour…
Day 7 – Gone from Golgulsa
We failed to wake up this morning. Someone maybe happened to set an alarm from their highschool days that was set for Monday through Friday and today was a Sunday. That person may or may not have been me. So, we missed the morning meditation and breakfast as well. We did wake up at the…
Tea & Shopping!
We woke up around 6:00 a.m. today and got ready for breakfast at the temple. I definitely felt the effects of sleeping on the traditional hard bed because I woke up super sore. Breakfast was simple but good — I had toast, rice, and cucumbers before we started our day. After eating, we walked up…
Temple Stay
Today we arrived at the temple, and it was unlike any place I had ever visited before. The temple was very isolated, surrounded by tall trees and peaceful nature, which made it feel calm and quiet the moment we arrived. Since we would be staying overnight, I was both excited and a little nervous to…
Travel and Temple
This morning we checked out of the hotel we had been calling home. We had to leave by 8:20 to catch the train to Gyeongju. I had the last breakfast with the orange juice and then checked out with Sophie. We rode the bus about 20 min to the train station. At the train station…
Temples!
Finally going to bed early, tonight! We started our day off by packing the rest of our stuff really quickly, getting breakfast, and then checking out. We’ll be back in Seoul on Wednesday, and our current location is the Golgulsa Temple in Gyeongju. We went to Seoul Station to take a train to Gyeongju; the…
Day 6 – Train to Busan 2: Going for Golgulsa
The vast majority of today was spent going to Golgulsa temple. We started the day by packing everything up and vacating our home base of Ibis Styles Hotel. Honestly, I liked that hotel a lot, but I think it’s mostly because of the bidet and smart toilet. The rooms themselves were mid as they were…
Baseball Miracle
Today we departed later than normal at 9:20. It gave me and Sophie time to call our friend Rujuta who lives back in Pittsburg. Then we got back on the bus to leave for the DMZ. It was a long ride there. At the DMZ we got a quick tour from Ester of some statues…
Home;Run
We had quite a long day this time around. Charter bus was back (different driver), which was nice, because I was oddly tired pretty much all day and needed the little breaks in between locations. We started out with the DMZ. I’ve gone before, but it was interesting to be able to see it again….
Day 5 – Take Me Out to the Demilitarized Zone
Today, we took a bus over to the DMZ. With an armistice agreement in 1953 to “end” the Korean War, the demilitarized zone was demarcated, establishing a tentative peace between the nations. Despite this, multiple infiltration tunnels were found by South Korea, clearly showing North Korea was preparing for an invasion. We went to one…
Borders & Baseball
Today was one of the most memorable days of my trip to South Korea because we visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone, also known as the DMZ. The day started with a very long bus ride, but honestly, it was nice because everyone got a chance to relax and catch up on sleep before the tour….
Day 4: Suwon, Samsung, and Shopping
Our fourth day in Korea started a little bit differently. Instead of taking the subway as we had in previous days, we took a private coach to Suwon, a city about an hour outside Seoul. This was a change of pace and convenient for what was a longer trip than what we had done previously….
Markets, Museums, & Memories
Today in Korea was packed from start to finish, and it ended up being one of my favorite days of the trip so far. We started the morning with an archery activity at the fortress, which was something I had never tried before. Using a bow and arrow looked much easier than it actually was,…