Small corrections

It seems a lot of people misunderstood my post about the self-cleaning bathroom as a mystical new technology, designed with people like me in mind, who truly dislike cleaning by themselves. Sadly, this is not the case. What I was trying to say is, that every time I shower, the entire bathroom ends up wet - see the attached picture and you will understand why. The truly positive part about this is, that mirror and toilet are also reasonably clean again every morning. I also managed to finally fall into the trap, I already noticed the first day - check the post, if you forgot. After coming home after the usual beer with Johannes, I just wanted to wash my hands. But instead of turning on the faucet, the water was still set to go to the shower head - and since the shower head is always aimed straight at the one turning on the water, I ended up quite a bit more wet than expected. Although my hands were still reasonably dry. Don't ask about my clothes. By the way: if you ever have questions or comments, please feel free to use the 'comments' option.
I also decided to show you the awesome bookstore I walked by yesterday on my quest for dinner. Certainly, a very efficient design for storage...

Language lessons

As you can probably imagine, the chairs and desks in my room as well as in my office weren't exactly designed with me in mind. To prevent being completely hunched over my laptop all the time, I decided to get a usb keyboard and in the campus store this meant: a Korean keyboard. It's actually pretty much the english one but you can switch to type in Hangeul, the Korean phonemic alphabet. All I can write so far though is my name: 톨스텐. And for all of you interested in writing me, here is my address: 서울시 관악구 신림9동 1520-7호 5/5. Good luck :-)
The stone with the Korean symbols is located near the dining hall on campus. It probably reads something like 'do not walk down here', because the long flight of steps next to it, which I obviously walked down only led to a fence and to me having to walk all the way up again...

Little differences

An interesting little difference I encountered so far is the counting. The girls in my office were curious about my age and after I told them, I asked them about their age (this is not impolite in Korea, since age is a necessary information to judge the status of a person here, as far as I understand). Anyhow the response was: "My Korean age is..." Reason being, that upon birth your age is one in Korea. So a 28-year-old Korean is 27 according to European counting. Similarly, the ground floor of buildings is the 1st floor. So while my office would be on the 3rd floor in Europe, it's on the 4th here.
Finally, I am currently drinking a "Japanese apricot" juice - quite tasty as a matter of fact. Since I couldn't read what it was, my office mates used the Korean version of Google to figure out the English name and played a sound file reading it out loud. That's what I call service :-)
All in all the workdays start early, end late and are pretty exhausting. Once back in Nok-Du (or so, i.e.: my part of town), I usually meet Joahnnes for a beer in one of infinitely many seeming bars to share the latest news of the day. Two of the pictures show Nok-Du, once around 7 p.m. and once when it's dark. One can say that Koreans like flashy signs, that's for sure... And no, it is not a very exceptional quarter.
The last picture is of a probably artificial, but very nice, litte pond on campus. I decided to go nearby for some suntanning after lunch, but alas another European decided to interrupt my plans. He was actually really nice and I figured this might be a good thing, but he turned out to be one of Jehova's witnesses. Already my second encounter with 'missionaries' here. Last time a Korean woman invited me to her Christian church on the bus. Wonder why they are all so interested in Europeans. Anyhow, the relaxing pretty much turned into taking a picture and then going back to work. Tomorrow five German DAAD students will arrive here to stay for 7 months. Can't wait to see their reaction to the "cultural shock", which is certainly more substantial than when travelling inside Europe :-)

Tales from SNU

SNU stands for Seoul National University, my current work place. My office is in a very modern building - there really aren't any primitive or old ones anywhere on campus - with a nice brick & window panel architecture. The dining hall is a beautiful white building with a glass entrance, which leads to the stories of the day: eating in Korean dining halls. At first glance it's not so different: choose your meal, buy a voucher, get a tray, get the food, sit, eat. But then there is the soup. Usually very clear, either with sea weed or other stuff. I wasn't truly thrilled and was a bit surprised that every single Korean took one. But hardly anyone ate it, most ate a little or nothing. Near the end, the Koreans start pooring all their left-overs into the soup. Seemed like a good idea to me, since with a bit rice and meat in it, it might actually taste better. Note at this point that the main dishes were really tasty so far. But no, turns out it's just the 'trash can'. You're actually in trouble if you didn't take one, since at the tray return every plate has to be empty except for the food bowl. So on we go in single file to a place with tons of metal cups near the exit. Everyone takes one, fills it with water at a machine a step further, drinks it and returns it to a tray yet another step down. Then everyone leaves through the exit, not ever really having stopped walking. Luckily there are water dispensers everywhere giving you free, cold, good water. In my office, I just push my chair back a bit and get some of it. Glorious. And free.

Itaewon and 1st work day

Sunday was about finally setting up the computer appropriately, i.e. downloading & installing Skype as well as finally getting the room organized by fully unpacking my stuff, buying a trash can etc. Once that was done, Johannes and I went to Itaewon, the foreign quarter of Seoul with loads of foreigners (that's one western tourist out of a hundred, of course there may be plenty of asian tourists). Anyways, lots of gift shops, antique shops, custom taylors, clothing stores etc. all on basicly one street. Most importantly: finally a place to eat real German food (no, we did not try it, but they do have sausages and Weizen). We did interview some taylors regarding price and got answers ranging from 200 to 600 € for custom made suits made from all kinds of materials. Since it was impossible for us to tell, what was a really good cloth or deal, we postponed the decision. But buying something custom made here (in Korea not necessarily in Itaewon) is definitely worth a thought. Monday I had my first day of work. I decided to be there early and ended up being 2nd in the office of eight. A bit earlier and I wouldn't have been able to get in. Not doing that tomorrow ;-)
Applied for an access pass and installed the important programs on my laptop at my desk (see picture). Survived my first day in "mensa" with rice and shrimps. Not as much food per person here as in Mainz. Might manage to lose some pounds here after all. Met with my boss and noticed that this visit might be quite a bit of work. We shall see. Probably less pictures and stuff the rest of the week, but you never know...

Shopping attempts

This day started by getting up late - I'm not intending to spoil any good old traditions in Korea - and with the intention of buying a towel, a blanket and a pillow - don't ask how I managed to sleep without either, but it wasn't as hard as I would've thought. Finding a pillow near my place for 3 € only was easy, but shops selling blankets in Seoul seem to be as easy to find as diamonds in deserts. My first attempt to get cash using my credit card also blatently failed, yielding me a receipt with lots of Korean writing, a large sum of money written on it (they us the same numbers here) and no money whatsoever. Johannes explained to me he had made the same utterly distressing transaction before and that getting cash required a global ATM. So ccompanied me to the Hyundai mall, one of the larger ones in Seoul, where - after two more unsuccessful attempts - I finally got some cash. Satisfied, we ate first. I chose something resembling an omlette, but called differently and filled with rice, while he went for a soup filled with something comparable to omlette. The mall was extremly nice, huge and - especially for Korean standards - expensive, but sold no blankets anywhere. We eventually found some in one of the higher floors of the attached department store, but they cost way over 100€, which led us to surrender all hope in that mall. On our search, we came across a nice bar, where loads of Koreans spent their time surfing on classy laptops with their friends, while seated on comfortable sofas. Later on, while having a quick drink, we ran into an American living in Korea, who explained to me how to get to a little market where blankets could be bought at a reasonable price. On my way there, I encountered a weird building, which appeared to be cut in half by forest. Don't ask what it was, I don't know ;-)
After a bit of searching I then found the recommended store, whose owners were - of course - on vacation. Thanks to some exciting discussions with Koreans in sign language more than any other I found another store and ended up paying 15€ for my blanket.
Satisfied, I returned home and met Johannes again to have a beer and one of those amazing fruit platters, which they serve to accompany it. The local beer isn't stunning, but certainly better than any brewed in the US :-)
A promising thing to know before going to bed...

Korea - day one

After an uneventful eleven hour flight, I eventually land in Seoul at 4 a.m. European time (that's 1 p.m. in Korea). Luckily, the weather is less hot and less humid than expected, but probably only since it was pretty extreme in Mainz before take-off. It is another 1.5 hour drive to the university, where I introduce myself, attend the group seminar,look at my new work place and change money in a nearby bank, all before going to my new home.
I exchanged a mere 1,000 € to receive 1.5 million won in 150 (!!!) 10,000 won bills, which I then give to my landlord covering the rent of the first month and the deposit. The building I live in is really classy, as is the room itself, while pretty small but nice. Notice the step in the entrance area of the room, which is typically Korean and may not be surpassed with shoes on. This already lead to some minor complications, since most Koreans wear sandals or other shoes that are easy to take off, while it always takes me quite some time, forcing everyone to wait whenever exiting or entering a new flat. Finally, I get to take a shower in one of the most 'interesting' bathrooms I've seen in a while. How one is supposed to keep towel, door and toilet paper dry while showering is a mystery to me. At least the bathroom is self-cleaning and there are nice surprises when one forgets to switch between faucet and shower head... Afterwards, I decide to meet up with Johannes (another IRTG student here) and go out for dinner, since I'm way past tired anyways. We end up in an all-you-can-eat Korean grill place, with me sticking to the rather traditional types of meat and remembering that Kimchi and Soy bean sprouts are quite spicy. After that, I end my first exhausting but exciting day in Seoul.