Upon the conclusion of my Plus 3 trip to South Korea, I have reflected on my experiences in Seoul. This trip brought me lifelong experiences through our cultural visits, company visits, and the bonds that I created with my classmates that I will remember forever and helped me gain a more complete perspective on the…
Tag: Eric Van-De-Putte
Day 11: Korean Fried Chicken and Seoul Waterworks
Today, our day started around 9 AM with a subway ride to the Oil Tank Culture Park. After about a 40 minute commute by bus, we arrived at the park, which was across from the Seoul soccer World Cup complex from the 2002 World Cup. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the park, we found out…
Day 10: DMZ and Baseball
Today, we started off around 9:30 with an hour-long bus ride to the DMZ. Since December, this had been a part of the trip that I was very excited for. At first, I anticipated being able to see the JSA (Joint Security Area), but Chris told me that it had been closed ever since that…
Day 9: Camp Casey & CoEx Mall
Today, our day started with a one-hour bus ride towards Camp Casey, the northernmost American military base in South Korea. At the camp, we received a tour from Grace and Will, the Pitt alumni, around the base. I was very interested in finding out more about how their lives were on the base and their…
Day 8: Bukhasan National Park & Cooking Class
Today, a group of roughly 10 of us left the hotel at 6:30 AM to embark on a 1 hour bus ride to Bukhasan National Park to do a hike. At the spot, we met up with 2 Pitt alumni who are currently serving for the military and stationed in South Korea. The trek to…
Day 7: Hanok Village & Hannam-dong
Today our itinerary included multiple small things in the morning, and free time all afternoon and night. With that being said, our day started by going to a traditional Korean Hanok village. The architecture in the village was stunning, and I was shocked to find out that people currently live in those homes. The neighborhood…
Day 6: Day at Yonsei University
Today we spent nearly the whole day at Yonsei University. Our day started off with a long commute, taking both the subway and bus, and arriving at the Sinchon campus of Yonsei University. When we first arrived, it was slightly raining, but we got out of the rain and into the cafeteria, where we enjoyed…
Day 5: Taekwondo and City Hall
Today we were finally able to sleep in a little before taking the subway to Taekwondo class. I was looking forward to the class a lot, and it did not disappoint. At the class, we went through some drills, got to do a form of sparring, and kicked through a wooden plank. Afterwards, I got…
Day 4: Hyundai and Hacky-Sack
Today, we woke up very early and left the hotel at 7 AM for our company visit at Hyundai. Since we left before the hotel breakfast began, we were given a boxed lunch by Jinny. The lunch was quite tasty, including fruit, a sandwich, and some mochi with red bean. After a long drive south,…
Day 3: Yogurt Drinks and Elevators
Today was our first day of company visits. Our first company visit was to HY, a company I was initially unfamiliar with. On the bus ride to the factory, I briefly researched what they did and found out they made yogurt drinks. After finding this out, I was extremely excited for the visit, for these…
Day 2: Exploring Seoul
Day 2 first started with a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then quickly getting on the bus early on the morning. We were able to visit the Suwon Hwaseong fortress, where we were greeted by amazing views and architecture. Additionally, when we were there, we were given the opportunity to do some archery, which…
First Day In Seoul
After nearly 20 hours of combined travel time from Pittsburgh, we finally arrived in Seoul at 4 am this morning. It is pretty fun to me how we entirely missed the date of May 10th. When we arrived, we stopped into a convenient store in the airport where I got a strawberry drink and this…
Getting to Know Eric
Hi everyone, I’m Eric Van de Putte, and I’m a first-year engineering student here at Pitt. My plan is to study electrical engineering because of my interest in technology and physics. To give a quick introduction on myself, I was born and raised here in Pittsburgh by my mother, who is from Taipei, Taiwan, and…