Experiments and Pork Belly!

     Today was the second day at the yard, but the first day of actually getting into some cool stuff. We started off the morning in the Ocean Research Division and we got to see their wave flume. We learned about the differences between a regular wave, and the more realistic irregular wave. They put a scale model of a ship in the tank and we saw how the ship reacted to the oncoming waves.

     Lunch today was much better than yesterday, at least I thought so. It was a Korean take on spaghetti with a couple of Korean burgers on the side. The burgers were just burger patties that were absolutely drenched in barbecue sauce. There was also rice, as there is in almost every other meal here.

      After we finished our lunch, we still had about 40 minutes before we had to be back to our conference room, that has become our staging area and local headquarters when we are at the shipyard. So we took a short walk up a large, winding hill to the guest house. This house is used by ship owners when they come to the yard to check on the ship or to sign contracts. It is a very impressive, traditional Korean house that is built completely from wood and mud. There is not a single piece of steel or other types of fasteners! That is some solid engineering!

Here we are in the center of the guest house.

A small group shot of the Wolverines along with Dong-Hee in the back! Also, in this picture, we are wearing the top shirt of our uniform, along with our name tags. 

     We then went back to the wave generator, and set up for a contest. We split up into two teams and we had to change the ballast around on the ship to change the draft as well as the trim, which is how deep the ship is, and then how high the bow is in relation to the stern. The goal was to find a magic combination of draft and trim to achieve the smallest average response to the waves! I was on the team that won and we got a Korean fan for our efforts.

     Then we moved over to the vibration and noise reduction area. We got to see them perform 5 or 6 experiments that showed off all of their equipment that they use to test everything in order to perfect a vessel before it sails. We finished off the day at the yard by playing some euchre and writing in our training diaries, which we got issued today. We are required to write in the diary everyday about what we did and then what suggestions we have.

     We got back from the yard and went straight to dinner. Dinner was another interesting food experience here in Korea. The Korean students had explained to us earlier in the day that we were going to get 'pork belly' for dinner. This gave us a little anxiety during the day not knowing if we were going to be eating an actual stomach lining, or some pig intestine. We were totally unsure, but when we got to the restaurant, our pork belly turned out to be super thick strips of bacon! I was so excited! There was a little grill in the center of the table, so we got to cook our own food as well! It was so good!

     After dinner we took a short break and then headed down to the track and soccer field to get a little work out in. We ran, played a little bit of soccer and football, and just got some good exercise to end the day with. Now I am back up in my room writing this blog. I am looking forward to tomorrow as we are all getting more accustomed to the Korean culture and the time zone too!

- Jake