last day in Pusan

Four days are just not enough to get acquainted with a city like Pusan. Especially, if you have a hang-over and a blackout. After a long morning, I felt better, but not well, Jae Hyun father came with us to the Hoshimchong hot spring. The place is well known for it's rich water and the hot springs have a history way back to the 19th century. The place reminded me a lot of Aquadrom in Bochum, but it is bigger - and all people are naked. By the way, there are two hot springs, one for men and one for women, so I'm afraid I can't provide you with interesting pictures...

There were many different attractions within the bath,most familiar from the public bath I used to attend biweekly in Kyoto - but Korea lacks the typical miniaturistic aspect as in Japan, everything is build bigger. One part was half outside, which I enjoyed most. One detail was amusing: In the mans' bath, they had a statue of a naked women. I bet the womens' bath had none of a guy. ;-)

After the bath we slowly returned home and prepared for the departure back to Jeonju. The bus we took on the way to Pusan was bigger and more comfortable, the one for the return was nothing more than a coffin on wheels, my back still hurts from those children-seats...

friday

What a day! Instead of doing some sightseeing in the city, Jae Hyuns father was so kind to join us on this day - we drove all the way to Keongju, the former capital of ancient Shilla. One of South Korea's most popular temples, Paegup is located in the very same city. The temple actually is sourrounded by a wide garden, including a beautiful pond with turtles and fish. The entrance to the aera is great in itself. The architecture is so complex, the builders paid attention especially the roofs, to make a certain impression on visitors. The colors used are - I compare at this point with Kyoto's temples - more intense, more diverse. It doesn't look like a circus though, in the contrary, the composition of bright and dark elements, with buddhistic pictures within is well chosen. Paegup doesn't consist of one, but many different buildings, seperated by walls or stairs. The stone pagodas in the inner field are built to resemble wooden pagodas, the right one is famous for that aspect. Close to the exit, I saw a huge buk, a Korean drum and something that looked like a wooden fish hanging from the roof. It was a drum, hollow from the inside, monks used it for praying.

On my way out, how else could it be, we passed a group of children, chatting, running around and at some point pointing at me and saying something containing namza and yoza (man and woman). Yeah, allright, I heard it so many times, guys. There are men with long hair in Korea, not many, but in six weeks I met half a dozen. I should print out pictures of Germany in the seventies and show them around.

After a while, we went to the coast and ate Sashimi! The restaurant had two aquariums from where we could choose which fish we wanted to eat. We were seated right next to the front window, with a breath-taking view to the ocean, one small island to our right. Beautiful. The food was great, too.

In the afternoon, I met again with students from Pusan unversity in a cafe to talk about Germany. First, there were only six, but then more students came, and more, and more, and in the end we were over 22 people! Talk about feeling like a movie star. ;-)

During the meeting, we also started to drink beer, which was nothing special, but sometime in between somebody asked if we shouldn't go to a bar to drink Soju, Korean liquor. I think I said yes, and that's unfortunately not the only thing I remember. The bar we went to was frequented by students of the German language faculty. We continued to talk and get to know each other until somebody suggested to play a drinking game:

Titotitoti was, despite of the dorky name, one of the most dangerous things I ever did. The rules are easy. All participants put their arms in the middle, their fists horizontal. One is the leader, saying titotitoti, and with every syllable the participants turn their wrist, into vertical or horinzontal position. You start and finish horinzontally, but at the end you have to strech out one, two or three fingers. All fingers are counted and starting from the guy who drank the last drink - or in the beginning, starting from the leader - you count all people. The guy who gets counted out has to drink one shot of Soju. That's it. Doesn't sound that horrible, does it? In this night, I can only remember drinking more than one bottle of Soju myself and about a dozen beers. Four beers are enough to make me drunk, so try to imagine what happened that night.

I woke up on...

saturday

...morning and Neonazi was in my bed. Everybody calls him Neonazi because of his shaved head. Koreans don't have that serious relation to Nazi Germany as Germans have. He and another friend of Jae Hyun stayed over that night and continued drinking. I didn't feel very well after I got up, I couldn't really eat much and my head hurt, but we did some sightseeing that day, too.

We went to the university, to meet a student who studied once in Jeonju and another student, whom I met weeks before in the dorm. We drove to Haeunde, a beautiful beach in the eastern part of Pusan. It reminded me of Croatian beaches, and the ocean looked just like the Adria. Swimming during that time of the year was forbidden for some reason, but we saw a few Americans in the water having fun. A few minutes later we passed two policemen heading towards them...

The couples along the coastline reminded me of Kamogawa river in Kyoto - Kamochuu! ;-)

After Haeunde, we drove back to the city, to Kumjongsan. It's a mountain in Pusan, accessible with a cable car or a small way through the woods. It offers the best view over the city, the sight was great and we stayed quite a while up there.

In the afternoon, w went back to the university to meet again with the Mimesis club. They had some questions prepared, but I didn't really hear them anymore. Something was wrong, I just couldn't guess what. I felt weak and dizzy and during the discussion I left the group, heading straight to the bathroom and throwing up. After one day of delay, I couldn't believe it. Bad timing anyway, because after that I felt so sick, we had to go home. I finally could lie down at nine and slept almost twelve hours.

Pusan

Weekend, at last. It's only thursday, but this week Chonbuk university organizes some kind of a students' festival, so there's no class today and tomorrow. Good for me, one of the students, Jae Hyun Ko, who has a great site in Korean about German literature and authors, offered to show me his hometown, Pusan. It's four hours from Jeonju, and to be honest, the ride was killing my back. I don't like to sit for such a long time in a speeding bus, but at times, there's no good alternative. After arriving in the realy afternoon, we went to eat some local specialties. I'm afraid I don't remember most of the names of foods and places which I'm told, so if I don't carry my notes with me I'm lost later. Anyway, if you notice a spelling error or I mixed up two places, let me know.

After I met Jae Hyuns parents, we went for a walk through the neighborhood. We passed a little shop with school uniforms. The strange thing: All puppets were more or less blond, tall ...and maybe even blue eyed?

Later that day we went to Pusan University, which is completely different from Chonbuk. Chonbuk is flat. It even beats the Netherlands in flatness. Pusan University is the complete opposite, in order to get from one faculty to the other you have hills in your way, an endless up and down. I met with Mimesis, a German literature club, of which
Pusan university, meeting with "Mimesis", meeting parents.

hierarchies

Korean students, although they are as young as I am, have a strong hierarchical feeling founded on age. One year difference, in one case even only three months are enough to give a reason for a older-younger relationship. There's a saying that only people of the same age can become real friends. What a pity. When talking in English or German, the difference in status doesn't apply, but the behaviour is still affected. If you are younger, you have to bow deeper, be more careful in all your actions in order not to displease the other side, etc.

On the other hand, I don't have the same sense of hierarchies, in Germany it's simpler and easier to use. Just two levels of politeness and a few behavioral patterns which are common sense in most countries, i.e. don't drool on the table in presence of other human beings. ;-)

teaching

One more hour with students. I'm prepared, I know what to do and how, everything is fine. But! Half of the class didn't bother showing up at all. The weather is too hot, so everybody is sleeping. To speed up, I push through the excercises, play the clown to entertain etc. but in the end, they just say, it's too fast. pffff

On some days you can turn yourself upside down and it still doesn't work right.

alternative school

Highschools in this country ae hell on earth for the students. They have an extremely tight scedule, too many hours until late, there's no room for creativity or anything else then the curriculum - the aim is to pass the entrance exam for a good university. It's basically the same problem as in Japan, where students use the four years during colleague mainly to have fun and get a last time-out before society pulls them back into the vicious cycle of forced collective productivity.

The education system here is in a big crisis. The students know it, the teachers know it, the professors know it, the bureaucrats know it and even the minister of education. nevertheless, nothing happens. The relatively high number of drop outs from middle school troubles many policymakers, schools and of course the parents. Usually, there's no place for such "loosers", who failed to adapt to the rigid hierarchy, the collectiveness and lack of creativity at school. Since a few years, more exactly since 1984, there are alternative highschools in Korea. Ms. Choi and me visited one of those schools today in Chollabukdo.

The Yousong Alternative Highschool is about one hour from Kwangju, but don't ask me where exactly. The Vice-principle was so nice to fetch and drive us a full hour through Korea's beautiful countryside. The school is far from any bigger city, the sixty-something male and 13 female students are on school grounds most of their time. Founder of that project was a national buddhist sect called Won Buddhism. Anyway, no religion is restricted or put before others in school. The estate has about 8000 squaremeters, before the government started to support the school with huge sums four years ago, teachers and students had to make ends meet with school fees, donations and working on the arable land, selling food on the market only. The principle told us he didn't get paid in the first thirteen years of his work in that school, which left me without words. The other teachers seem to be more idealistic than their mainstream counterparts as well.

The education puts an emphasis on the developement of an upright personality, as all drop-outs, not only, because they are all labeled as outsiders by society, but also because Korean education neglects it.

another wedding

The son of the oldest professor at Chonbuk's German department got married at noon time. The first wedding I attended to in Korea was a Korean-American one, but although this one is "purely" Korean, it is not traditional at all. The wedding ceremony took place at one of the oldest churches in Korea. A roman catholic church.

The ceremony was almost identical to the ones I know from the church in Moenchengladbach, my hometown. The only difference I could see to a western wedding was that the bridal couple didn't kiss, and that there was one short procedure in which they kneeled before their parents. In Korea, the respect and admiration in one's life is directed towards the elders, much more than in Europe for instance. When people stood up close to the end of the church service to recieve their ...ah, "cookies". I don't know the English word, sorry. Well, anyway, when they recieved it, about 60% of all people attending didn't get up, probably because they were non-believers or buddhists or something else.

Weddings go like this: There's a weddings ceremony, but it's more like a drive-through. People leave their present - usually a signed envelope with 30.000 to 50.000 Won, then heading to the restaurant, which is open for a few hours so everybody can go there, even if they are too late for the main party. Some people don't even attend to the ceremony, but only leave the money at the reception and go straight to the restaurant. During May and in autumn, most people get married. The time date for the wedding is decided though a fortune teller. On some weddings, in addition to the regular ceremony - of course depending on the religion if the bridal couple - a traditional Korean ceremony is held. The couple changes their clothes and meet with their parents in a room, in which process they show their respect for the parents. I heard that part of this is even to take your mother-in-law piggyback and run one round around the place. No joke.