March 22, 2004 - Suwon, South Korea

It's now already almost a month since I and my friends left good-old Switzerland. We are nine Swiss exchange students here, all from the same home university. My room mate Anita and I are having a great time together with the other people here on campus, which is pretty big by the way. The town in which my University is, is called Suwon and has almost one Million inhabitants. I went to Seoul several times already. It's a great city! There's nothing you can't get there, there are even a few places where you can eat Swiss food, for instance the ‘Mövenpick Marché'.

The courses I take are very interesting, especially ‘Current issues in Korean Society'. There we learn a lot about the history and the current problems of Korea. Did you know, that Korea officially still is in war with North Korea? The two states never signed a peace treaty! And that the demilitarized zone along the 38th parallel is the most-militarized on the world? Our lecturer does not talk too much about the political problems which the south has with the north, it's prohibit by law. But he advised us to read a book, which is supposed to be very good: ‘Korea's place in the sun: a modern history' by Bruce Cumings. It's kind of difficult to buy the book here, because it is outlawed (which means if I get caught carrying this book, I have to go to jail... I bet this would be an ‘interesting' experience, which I prefer not to make. So I will never leave the dormitory with this book ;).

My other courses are Marketing Management, International Business, Business Communication, Korean Language and Taekwondo. The Taekwondo class is very funny. The lecturer speaks about 10 to maybe 15 words English maximum, and we are only three foreign students which take this class. It's a special experience not to understand, what somebody means. The Koreans are funny people: even thou it's obvious that I'm a foreigner, they always try to speak Korean with me, and as if this would not be enough, as fast as they can. It's impossible to understand a word! It's even hard here to buy a Big Mac at McDonald's! Coca-Cola is the same in Korean, that's about the only thing, which is easy to order. They don't understand ‘small', nor ‘water', nor ‘please' - simply nothing!!! (Like my already-mentioned Taekwondo teacher...)

Life is really fun here. There are a lot of most scenic places, especially around Seoul. And the best thing, no tourists! (Which is probably the reason why it is so hard to find postcards from Korea!) Last Sunday for instance we (my Swiss friends Anita, Claudia and I) went to the Bukhansan National Park in Seoul. It's huge and really beautiful! We just wanted to go for a walk. We could neither read the map, nor the signs, because it's all in Korean. So we asked a nice man who could speak English (yupee!) to show us the right way. He must have thought ‘stupid tourists' and led us into the wrong direction. So we ended up walking right through this huge park, about 10 km up the mountains and down again. But it was so beautiful! As we passed a temple, an old monk offered us a cup of ginseng tea which we took with both hands, a bow and a friendly ‘kamsahamnida' (thank you the formal way).

I would like to give you some useful tips about South Korea, in case you will ever get here:

- When greeting somebody with the same or higher position (older, higher business position, customer,...), you are supposed to bow. If you don't do it, they won't kill you (I'm still alive), but it is seen as a very friendly gesture of a foreigner to a Korean.

- If somebody offers you something, take it. For instance if you go hiking it can happen that people offer you part of their orange or even to join them with their lunch. If you reject it, the one who made the offer will be insulted, which has to be prevented in every case. You should also consume the offered thing right away. Don't put it in your pocket and leave!

- If somebody gives you something, take it with both hands, or at least with the right. Never use your left hand!

- If you are invited to somebody's home, bring a present. Every Korean would bring fresh fruits, so do the same. A couple of oranges, strawberries or a pineapple will do. And they would never reject Swiss chocolate.

- If you're lost somewhere in Seoul, a National Park or anywhere else, don't be afraid. Someone will offer his help for sure. The only problem is, that a Korean never would say that he doesn't know. So he/she will tell you something, you will find out later if the given information was right (remember my story from the national park). It's not that you can't trust them, they just don't want to lose their face (Kibun).
Another example would be, if the taxi driver does not bring you to the place which you wanted to get to, pay, get off and take another taxi. They are very cheap here, so no problem for you, but it would be a problem for the taxi driver if you told him that he is wrong. He would loose his face.
One day a man in a bus in Seoul wanted to help us to get back to the university. It was hard to get rid of him. We didn't need his help, because we know how to get where in Seoul. He did not accept a ‘no' from us, so we just left, which was very unfriendly of us.

- Never give a tip. If the food and the service in a restaurant was very good, leave a note for the cook or say something (don't ask me what). If you leave money on the table, the waiter will run after you and will give you the money back (we tried this once, it's funny to watch...).

- Everything is huge here and everywhere are a lot of people. But you never have to be scared. I feel very save here. You don't have to watch your purse all the time, nobody will steel it. I opened an account at the Korean National Bank, Saturday around five o'clock in the evening. The bank was closing but there were still about 20 customers in the bank. Behind a desk in the middle of the bank an employee was counting money, millions of Won (10'000 Won = 11 CHF). No bullet-proof glass, no security person, nothing. Everybody was just watching him. I think the bank does not even have a save...

- The food is spicy but very good and cheap. Mostly rice and ‘Kimchi' is served to all different kinds of meat and fish. The table is always full of fresh food. Always wear clean socks, because in most restaurants you have to take your shoes off and sit on the floor. Koreans eat with spoon and chopsticks.
Some food is even for my taste too special. For instance the cooked silkworms and squids. If you order a squid, you will get it in a mug with its arms hanging out. It looks disgusting! The silkworms are supposed to taste like potato chips, but they still look like worms! I think that I don't have to try everything. Don't you agree?

Yes, the Koreans eat Dogs! But its very difficult to get and quite expensive. I have seen a dog farm on my first day on the way to Suwon, but I haven't been to any place so far where you can buy that stuff. There are special markets, I will just simply not go there.

So, are you still with me? I hope that I didn't bore all of you who read the hole story to death! I'm sorry that I wrote a story that long, but maybe you found it somewhat interesting, to read how my current world looks like. To make the long story short, Korea is really a very interesting and beautiful country. I like it very much here, and I would have a lot more stories to tell, everyday I learn something new.