Polish community in Seoul

My social life in Seoul is improving instantly. Thanks to the Korean course I know more and more people, including one very nice polish family. I think it is the best occasion to describe the polish community life in South Korea.
Agnieszka & Radek are very nice people. On every friday their home is always open after 7 p.m. and enourmous hospitality of the hosts makes this home always, really always full of people. There are no better like polish parties. Not many things are needed. Enough to move the table to the balcony and 30 people can have fun crazy dancing until the very down. And if someone is too tired to go home, finds his place to sleep too. This is called polish hospitality.
Speaking of the hospitality, recently I have paid a visit to the polish pallottine church and small monastery situated south - east from Seoul in the woodlands and mountains of Yangdeogwon. For the information of the unfamiliar ones - it is near the Vivaldi Park.
However it is very difficult to escape from very overwhelming civilisation impact in Korea, there is a place to experience contemplation and silence. Built for many years step by step by step it is almost finished now. Enourmous amount of work has been done by many volunteers and helpers led by priest Paul, a very funny guy.
We got there with my friends and spent a really nice weekend, only far too short. Eventually I was requested by priest Paul to do some photos at the celebration of kids first communion. However I am still looking for my ways with God, I was really happy to do that. Some of the result is above.

Next post is coming soon.

Country of engineers

South Korea is a country of engineers. With it's average salary in the sector reaching 27000$ annually, it is a leading country for engineer's jobs in the whole region.
Normally in all anglo-saxon background  financial white collars doing their stock exchange hocus pocus are the best paid sector. And we can see the result in recent crisis.
Here unlike in many countries, engineers who are responsible for growth and development are the best paid. If not for their inventions there would be nothing.  
It is visible everywhere, with scyscrapers, roads, and amazing constructions just like the one above. The fountain is attached to one of the bridges and there is a free music & light show every single evening in the summer.

Food, fiest & life.

Koreans are very social people. This is very impressive and it is the fact I would always emphesize while remembering my trip.
Lunch is a sacred time even in the corporate background known of spying own employees elsewhere. Of course any joining labor unions is prohibited but if it comes to the free time during work hours, lunch time is when everybody goes off the hook of any bosses surveilance,

Does not matter what one eats or where one goes, what is important are people to be in touch with and talk to in aim of maintaining social ties. In the evening, despite of quantities of work left to be done for the other morning everyone meets with friends for a Sojo or rice wine somewhere in the nice small or bigger restaurant. People talk laudly, laugh, tell stories... end yeah, go eventually drunk. Really drunk, despite of the age or social background.

Recently someone told me that it is because that Far East Asian Cultures did not develop crop eating heritage and therefore the digestion system cannot stand alcohol that much. Nevertheless they gather together and noone sits and eats alone and..if this happens it is considered awkward.

The conclusion is that I maintained all my social ties in Europe instantly. Connected back even with people who I had not seen for years.

Dear reader. If you sit alone in the evening and there is noone to talk to, start from talking to others yourself.

This is all for now. Next post is coming soon.

An-nyong Hasseyo

I have recently started my korean course, first level. I can say "hello" and "thank you". Wow, I can even order the meal in the restaurant.

Rice rolls- my favourite- are called "gimpap" in korean. The language itself is of an unknown origin. Isolated, spoken mainly in South and North Korea and the Chinease Province Yanbian.
Some 80 million people use this language in the world. Some of them live in the ex Soviet Union area, some in Brazil, and some in USA apart from Korean natives. This is a Subject Object Verb language which means that I can say: I apple ate. It was supposedly invented by King Sejong the Great of Joseon Dynasty, or more precisely his Royal Academy is credited for that. Indeed it was early XV century when in the Far East one of the rulers regularly gathered scholars and advisors to know their opinions. To compare, it happened in Poland as late as XVIII century and still was considered innovative for then time Europe.
An-nyonghi- kesseyo. Till later.
Next post is coming soon.

Seoul Subway

Seoul has got magnificent and very efficient public transport system.
Especially I recommend subway for everyone to use as it is impossible to get lost.
There are a lot of stations with numerous exits and very detailed neighbourhood maps displayed every corner of the station.

Seoul Transportation Card can be easily charged at any self service machine which is as well very very easy to use. You only need to place the card and choose the amount of money to be charged. Usually 10 000 KRW is sufficient for a weekly usage with a "go there and back" routes.

Unlike in many cities I have been before, Seoul subway is very well protected indeed. Like at Sadang or Gangnam stations, almost everywhere the automatic doors open as the train arrives.

This is how the city fights with suiciders.... Indeed plenty of people commit suicide here in Korea. Even ex president lately did so due to some corruption accusations. It is an easy way out with long tradition in asian cultures.

There might be several other reasons to that as well. There is no welfare system here. There are no retirement solutions, and the state neither takes care for handicapped people. People have got lots of money as long as they work, but if the health declines... or there are job cuts due to any economic crisis...

In other parts of the world there are social research works done on an instant to investigate possible reasons to any of the patology which occurs in the society.

I cannot say that there is no research done here in Korea as I simply did not ask anyone about it yet. From myself I can only say that closing the subway tunnels is not a solution. Solving social problems is.

Next post is coming soon.

Bugak Mount

Cheongwadae - Blue Roof/ Blue House Presidential Residence

Situated near Insa - dong the Government Area with the Presidential Palace is a must see spot in Seoul. Therefore I was taken there by my Korean friend, Youna as one of the first attractions.

The name Cheongwadae more resembles the "roof" not the "house" as I was informed. Several buildings in the area have indeed blue roofs, as it was a sophisticated color to paint high standard buildings.

The very surroundings of the palace are guarded by the cctv police monitoring and plenty of police around, all very nice but as well ready for intermediate and brutal action on the spot if they see any sign of danger. Photos of people are forbidden to take, especially with a camera like Sony Alfa of mine. There are two or three spots marked as "This is the best place to take a photo" where just everyone uses the opportunity. One of the spots is in front of the main gate - as above shown on the photo.

It was a very hot day. Humidity reaching 80 % and temperature of my favourite 38-40 in the sun. We didn't enter any palace on that day and as well a livery parade was not the one to attend due to some renovation spoiling potentially the photographs to take.

Therefore we hit the Bugak Mount, the one in the background of the photo. Koreans believe that the best place to place the important buildings are in the naturally guarded spots as the one resembled here. This is so universal instinct of people worldwide, enough to mention medieval castles and cities always "hugged" to the safe mount or rock site.

On the Bugak Mount, or more presicely, next to the top of it, is a famous caffeteria with a nice view to Seoul and it is the top point of the trail where people are allowed to go. We had a nice peppermint and lemonade drinks. However the most favourite drink of Koreans is the rice drink in the hot days. One of the small but important things is that almost nowhere tables are provided with paper towels or tissues which is a standard in the western countries. So it is good to have that always in the handbag, otherwise we have to show off with mouth full of fat around on the way to the restroom.

Koreans are very romantic people in a way. The caffeteria itself is famous due to the drama series being shot there several years ago. Now everyone wants to experience that romantic athmosphere pictured in the movie. As soon as I know the name of it, I will place it here.

This is all for now. Next post is coming soon.

Copyright: Agnieszka Piasecka 10.09.2009

Way of teaching

This is not very surprising to many people conscious about the world. However hearing about the thing is one, and seeing it with own eyes is another.

Here in Seoul, and in Korea in general, students are forbidden to ask questions if they don't sufficiently understand the issue once explained by the professor. It changes with time, as the more foreigners are employed the more they understand that one should be able to ask the question, yet I have many Korean friends who complain that they need to spend long hours self studying through the subject.

Currently I teach english one of my neighbours, and I had inquired if he could ask his tutor a question related to the study or write an email to one. The answer was: "Well, if I new one and there was any previous contact I could, but now...".

For my experience, only one person I know in Poland would not reply to an email from a stranger, and this is a man who genuinely hates internet or any other modern inventions.

Here in Korea, and I suppose in East Asia in general, position of an older person is unquestionable, despite of actual achievements or real knowledge. It is an offence to get in the elevator together with professor or to sit at the caffeteria too close to the one.

Is this issue related to eye contact? I don't know. I am not skilled in social research that much yet. I am only wondering if this might be the reason of such behaviour. In class, everyone watches the booklet instead of a teacher.

This is considered a lack of respect to the superior or to anyone if one avoids an eye contact in anglo-saxon, roman or slavic background. I don't look at you, means I have something to hide, I lie, either I don't like you at all. Here in Asia if I dare to look at someone older straight then it means I don't like him or don't respect him. This prooves that however universal some rules might be, they apply to just about one cultural background.

Yet, the question is, might this "watching, observing" issue be the reason for not asking for help during the class? I don't know...this is one to explore.

Copyright: Agnieszka Piasecka, Seoul, 26th August 2009

Next post is coming soon.

Changes to the world

And so it is. I have finally arrived to Korea and settled down a little bit. It is 11 p.m., a nice quiet summer evening, a good moment to start this blog I planned for so long.

I had a very nice trip. Whole plan was realised, well almost.
I reached Amsterdam so quickly that I no onger believe it's 1000km from Warsaw. It seems so close.

At Schiphol I was greeted by a long time unseen friend. We spent far too long time at the airport drinking coffee and wondering around all the shops there. Before I got in the IC to Amsterdam Centraal it was noon and too late to visit Rijksmuseum, I went for a walk around the city instead.

Amsterdam is a city which used to be my home for a long time. A place where I felt well and lived on my own making independent ways in life. Magnificent experience!

However lots of change has occured since I visited the city last time in 2006. Changes all around, and to my disgrace for worse... The economic crisis has stroke Netherlands very severely and it is visible all around. Prices of all goods doubled during that time, everything what I remember is now twice more expensive. Economic crisis in the west was highlighted in the news, but this is something one must see with own eyes... The unfinished constructions, smaller number of cars around, etc. Compared Poland is doing very well, I wonder if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is using that fact anyhow...?

As I've mentioned above I had fulfilled my plan almost totally. Besides the fact I had to walk myself with a very heavy hand luggage to the train station because my friend suddenly felt homesick and got angry with me for some reason. O Tempora, o Mores!

Stoptrein, local airport service train gets into Schiphol in 20 minutes, so 10 past 4 p.m. I could start my check in. Train was almost empty as everyone usually gets to Schiphol by bus 300, which is usually very crowded, or by taxi.

KLM is served with no check in, and after not very detailed passport control I could wait for boarding. I haven't bought much in Amsterdam, or other words, I bought almost nothing.
All my favourite brands are not available there. Apparently noone believes that someone wishes to buy Roger Gare instead of Max Factor. But I have my own tastes and marketing spin doctors cannot do much with me :)



While boarding I was lucky to get in the plane as the passenger no 1, because the Economy Class was let in as first. Most of the Economy Class passengers were Korean, there were some fellow students, 3 Europeans going for holidays and that's all. As for the Business Class, these were Russian people, and among them women breathtakingly beautiful and also very luxury. They say Polish women are pretty, but Russian emigrants...I cannor find words to describe it. The picture of those people waiting had got gentle and noble scent of the Upper Class in many meanings.

In Netherlands the richest people are Russian so it's not surprising they just fly arround the world.

I got the seat next to the window. Astonishing!! I made the photo of the borderline between the day and upcoming night. And the projection of the setting sun on the clouds somewhere above Petersburg. I had planned to do these photos for a very long time...



I couldn't do a sunrise and I am very sorry about that. KLM policy says to shut down the window covers, so I obeyed. I saw Gobi desert and Northern China. It was one of the most beautiful flights in my life...

After arrival it appeared my cellphone is dead. I forgot about the differences between Western and Korean GSM frequency. Luckily my fiend Chang heard his name being called by the Information Desk. Later on I was taken care of as the hounourable guest and taken by the hospitality of my Korean hosts. I was shown the laboratory and the University Campus.

First glance and first impression...Seoul is a giant Zakopane. It reminds me of San Fransisco as well with it's roads climbing many mountains. The city itself is situated in the mountains 600m heigh but impressing in their features due to the big differences of the relative altitude.
The city of churches and buddist temples, very modern cars and subways next to the old markets where everything is sold on the ground . City of very brutal business and fierce competition to survive next to very nice and welcoming people, who always take their shoes off before entering somebody's home.

Seoul is copycating New York, a lot of tall high rise buildings which spoil the skyline everywhere. 20 floors, tall, narrow with small, uncomfortable apartments.

For now I've got the studio hired 30 minutes walk from the Campus with the window to the noisy street, but the building is not that tall and people are very nice. Surroundings are more accurate to the center of London, if compared.

Subway station is just next to the building I live in.

That is all for now. Next post is coming soon.
Agnieszka Piasecka

Seoul, 16th August 2009