This week's weekend adventure was a trip to Gyeongju arranged by the KISS program at KAIST. We (a small group of KISS students and a student mentor of the program) had the luxury of our own tour guide, van, and van driver to take us around and teach us about a bunch of the historical sites in this historical city. I learned that, of 307 national treasures in South Korea, 36 of which are located in Gyeongju. One of these treasures, and one of our stops on the Gyongju tour, was Cheomseongdae (meaning 'star gazing platform' in Korean), an astronomical observatory built under Queen Seondeok of the Silla dynasty when Gyeongju was the capital of South Korea.
Another stop, the Bulguksa temple, houses seven national treasures:
Dabotap (Many Treasure Pagoda),
Seokgatap (Sakyamuni Pagoda),
Yeonhwagyo (Lotus Flower Bridge) and Chilbogyo (Seven Treasures Bridge),
Cheongungyo (Blue Cloud Bridge) and Baegungyo (White Cloud Bridge),
and two Bhudda statues that we were not allowed to photograph. It was awesome to see monumental pieces of Korea's history in their actual ancient architectural setting, rather than preserved within a museum as some treasures were.
2. Summarize your project status.
This week I finished my robot simulations for the emotions sadness, anger, and disgust. I also wrote up the research behind my decisions in the process. Here is a sample. the simulation and write-up for Anger:
Anger
I began with the forward transfer of weight (de Meijer, 1989; Coulson, 2004) and a backwards tilt of the upper body in order to create the angular posture of anger (Coulson 2004). I chose many intermediate positions both directly and indirectly forward to simulate the aggressive movement characteristic of this emotion. The inclusion of both direct and indirect movements reflects de Meijer’s inconclusive findings on directed movement in anger (1989). I included an upward head tilt to create the jutting chin characteristic of anger (Coulson 2004). I chose the fastest time step (1) to make the motions as fast and strong as possible (de Meijer 1989).
3. Take photos and select one to be the photo of the week. Describe it and why you shot and selected it.
This is a picture of drinks that I collected from the campus convenience store, campus vending machines, and the cafeteria. I took the picture because I wanted to capture at least some of the awesome variety available to the thirsty student. The canned drinks range from oaky teas to soda to coconut juice drinks with chunks of coconut in it. I love how vending machines here are so reasonably priced, but at first I was put off by the drink can size. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but the cans are a bit taller than those in the US, but much slimmer. As I came to realize, Koreans are smart about their food. They don't drink water during meals because that dilutes the stomach acid and impedes digestion. They treat soda as a dessert. And they have very reasonable portions for their food. After a while, I realized that I was getting just as much drink as I needed and no more. The same went for meal portions, which were also shockingly small to me at first, but that I found to be more filling than I expected.
4. What did you learn about yourself this week?
While in Korea, I've been treated as an honored guest both in the lab and as an American foreigner in this country. I've been stared at, I've been told that I'm pretty for my height and my blue eyes, and I've been approached with interest more than I ever was in the States. It is a lot of positive attention. This week, I've been tempted to dye my hair blonde to achieve the trifecta of desirable foreign features, but I realized that I wouldn't want to get attention that way. It is one thing to be appreciated for what I am, but I believe it is something else to go after that attention, to change myself for it. I learned that I wouldn't want to do the latter.
5. Who are the new people (Koreans not affiliated with the Hubo Lab) that you met this week?
Our Gyeongju trip included an overnight stay in a traditional Korean guesthouse, with sliding paper panels for doors, mats on the floor for beds, and a gracious host living with her family in the next house over. Our host also served us breakfast on picnic tables between the two houses, which is where I met this young girl. I asked her for her name (in Korean, thanks to my language class at KAIST!), but I couldn't understand her speech. I spoke to her a bit more in Korean, which I could tell that she understood, but she didn't answer. She scooted over right up to me on the bench and watched me eat. It was sweet.
She is pouting in this picture because her mother (our host) was demanding that she go inside and leave us alone. She whined and refused and dragged her feet but eventually did as she was told. It was funny to see, because I knew the gestures and the script from so many similar interactions in the States. I could make out a few of the words, such as 'Ande!' (which means 'Stop it!'), and JB translated the rest. "She's being stubborn," he narrated. Little kids really are the same the whole world over.
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