first days back home

the first days back home were – as expected – a little bit stressful but also very nice. i am now trying to meet as many friends as possible since from next week on i have to start to work. university also already started and… well its just nice. calm, peaceful, weather is cold but kind of nice after the hot time in seoul, german breakfast is great i love it… but something is missing…

yesterday i met 2 friends, both korean and we talked about this and that but mainly about korea. let me put the main points into this short phrase:

„한국에서 일하는 거 맘에 안 들어…너무 힘들고 „빨리 빨리“태도 때문에 스트레스 많이 받고…“
„어, 맞어. 한국은 원래 그래.“
„그리고 아무리 열심히 해봐도 한국사람들의 사고방식 이해 못 할 것 같애…“ 
„어…“
„…“
„…“ 
„….가고 싶어…“ 
„나도 가고 싶어…“

back in berlin

this is weird. last year i have been away for 10 months and sure, when i came back it felt kind of strange… but this time its way different. even though i have been away for 2,5 months only, it is so much more weird to me to speek german, see all the europeans around me… i guess the reason is that this time i spent almost all the time among koreans only also speaking 24/7 korean and having almost no contact with students or other foreign employees. 

BUT berlin is truly beautiful. compared to seoul its damn cold but the city is simply so charming, it is really a pleasure to go out and just enjoy it. i have no jetlag and went already for some party yesterday with really good friends – that kind of friends that are so hard to find in korea…

today also checked my schedule again, rechecked all the course applications and made up a plan for finalizing this very last semester. time to finish this study program. also i guess i will have to change my original plan of writing the final BA paper about energy in korea, since it is just too much stuff. already the basic structure made up 10 pages so filling this now with usefull information would blow it up to something about 50 pages which is way too much. it should be only something about 30 pages and also there is the strong advice not to invent something new but to proof that we are able to work on a scientific level which means that actually we just have to puzzle together theories and facts proofed by other scientists. boring he? well, the fun part will have to wait for the dr. or phd degree i guess.

the korean studies in berlin changed a lot since i left. actually our whole small korean library has been moved to a central library in the main university building. good thing cause even though i really liked our small library and enjoyed every hour i spent there, this development will provide me way better conditions to finish my final paper cause now i can access all the information every day – the central library is open every day from early in the morning until late evening – even on weekend. this is great.

so, tomorrow its „back to the books“. i should now get ready for this. there is a lot of work waiting for me, lets get it on.

goodbye korea – again

i am sitting right now in front of gate 118 at the incheon airport and have something like 30 minutes before i can get on my plane… another visit to korea has come to an end, since i already passed the immigration i already officially left korean ground…

the last 2 days were great, i wont describe details but i didnt sleep at all, instead enjoying all advantages korea offers that are almost impossible or way too expensive in germany like hot japanese sake, karaoke, all the different food dishes and of course… well the right company ^^ a great time and even though i had a small „down“ the last week, these 2 days recompansated me gladly.

so, in few hours i will be back in berlin. i would like to stay just few more days but…어쩔 수 없지…

how i almost got married…

the last days i was in a kind of…reserved mood… the reason for this is that somehow i put myself into the situation that i… almost got married.

everything started very harmless. i sent my ex-girlfriend a short msg that i am leaving seoul on friday and probably do not come back in less then 2 years and proposed a meeting. since we seperated in a good way and also kept little contact continuosly, i had no other idea about this then simply to say goodbye.

good food, a drink in a stylish bar and a short walk… well how should i say, after something about 3 hours we have been sitting on a bank and…well, we kissed and then… started talking about „our future“. it was one of the strangest conversations i ever had… on that day, she looked really beautiful, amazing and… it was like another part of me was leading the conversation while me was watching myself speaking. somehow we got on the point to start over again and then she asked me seriously whether i consider the fact that restarting means marriage… and i could hear the words that came out of my mouth, i could see how my lips are moving to formulate the answer that i never was even thinking of to say: „YES„.

in fact she didnt expect this answer. she was as same astonished as me… and we decided to think this whole stuff over for 2 days and then meet again… ok, to my parrents and friends: the situation just got cleared. i am not going to marry – at least not very soon and not with her… even though she is a great girl and i know i would not regret this, she made the point clear that the situation would be just too complicated for the both of us so… hach, she is such a smart girl…

what really shocked me was the fact that… i was never even thinking about this kind of stuff seriously but at this very moment… i felt like being… ready for this… holy shit, i am getting old i guess… now, things start getting serious… i need to get out of here very fast, otherwise something unpredictable could happen

seoul is a village

there’s the old saying that if you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative by 60 you have no money/brain… quite interesting he? nowadays i really wonder. even though obamas charisma is astonishing and mccain is bubbling around without even giving the impression of having a concrete concept of what to do except for saying „i know how things have to be done“, obamas official advantage right now is only 6%. for this, honestly, mccain deserves a medal or something cause for a person who does not have any charisma at all and whos ideas like the „joe“ guy have been disguided so quickly, he is still on a good run. i guess it has also a lot of to do with the fact, that obamas program will actually hurt some people in a way – thats why he is talking a lot about sacrifices… actually, i remember somehow the carry & bush election… lets hope the result wont be the same this time. less then 2 weeks to go for the election in the us and the results will have great influence on europe as well as asia and especially korea.

as already mentioned, with mr. obama on top korea will face some problems and in order to be able to continue its cooperation they will have to make some sacrifices especially about opening the market and as i hope not only for trade, but also for young professionals. at my old class reunion i talked with all the people i was studying with last year and almost everybody has the same problems like me with getting a working permission here. this simply cant be… why attracting foreigners to study here with all this easy scholarships programs and trying to promote it as an attractive place to live and work if they do not allow people to take part in it? until now, only 3 groups take part in the positive development of the foreign workers policy:

1. engineers and technical oriented professionals
2. kyopos and half koreans
3. teaching staff like professors or language instructors

i hope this will change. it is funny that experts on korean studies, people who decided to learn about korea, who put so much effort in mastering this difficult language and who try to understand all this local rules, customs and try to get along with it are not given an opportunity to start a living a here… kind of frustrating so i decided to write an article about this and send it to the journalists i worked together with last year. i hope they remember me…

today i had an appointment in insadong. honestly i do not like the main street of insadong. its so full with all this tourist stuff…but i like the small side streets where all this very nice coffe-shops and either traditional or fusion restaurants are „hidden“. there is even a vegeterian restaurant so i took the subway from hongdae and get out at city hall just to check whether there is any event today. just a concert of some kpop star, not interesting at all. passing by the seoul finance center i entered the cheonggyaecheon area and passed a coffee shop when suddenly heard a well known german voice… i turned my head and… went up the stairs to the coffe shop, gave mr. ruediger frank a hand and refused to take a seat since i was late to my appointment, went on and suddenly saw the ex-boyfriend of my ex-girlfriend, changed the way to avoid trouble since i guess he still hates me for what happened almost exactly 2 years ago and finally arrived at my destination. seoul is small. very small. the high buildings do not change anything about this. no matter where you go, somehow you always meet somebody you know…