10.000

Anjong,

I know the ten thousand click is 400 clicks ago, but I still want to write a short review on my life in Korea.

First of all: kind of happy birthday to uyuheartsmicha!!!!!!

Sunday is temple day!

Anjong,

yesterday I went with Marlena to Haedong Yonggungsa temple. 

On friday we decided to go there, but didn't talked about it again. 

So I was confused last morning.... do we go today, or is it cancelled? My alarm clock woke me up at ten o'clock.... no message.... ok...11 o'clock... no message..... so I send a message to Marlena.... no answer.... 12 o'clock..... she wrote I don't know.... so I wrote maybe yes... next time I woke up she knocked at my door and I took a quick shower.... So we left after a short night again.....

See more pictures after the jump!

Every start is hard....ICEA

Anjong,

yesterday was interview day!

As you know I participated ICEA (International culture exchange activity) last semester. This semester my bro Dawoon asked me if I could help him (He is the official leader this time) with the foreigners in this ICEA. Of course I agreed to help him. The first appointment was the interview day. It was crazy. There were 200 resumes to read for Dawoon and the other Korean team members (The leader team behind Dawoon is composed of five Koreans and for the first time in ICEA history two foreigners (me and Melissa(she is from the US))). After selecting 100 replications we started to interview all of them.

We had to get out of bed so early to go to university. We prepared the room, hang up some signs and of course waited for the key.... Always the same in Korea.... Waiting for the key....

Here waiting....

But before Dawoon and me had korean breakfast....

Dreaming...

Anjong,

las night I dreamt again from my former hometown Berlin! Maybe because I try to reschedule my flight back to Europe.... maybe because I miss my friends....

But the fact is, that I dream and think a lot of Berlin.

I remember the first days after moving to this (honestly fantastic) city. I was just...sad.... and I really cried a lot. Because I left my beloved Zurich and my friends over there.

City Run!

Anjong,

today I was going out for a run, but what can I say... the place I usually go for a run was occupied by lots of people playing baseball.... mhm 

This beautiful picture is from former times, I miss the baseball free times.....

Hungry for some sports I decided to run through the city. Because there is always something to explore....But I think this time I mostly explored .....the Vengaboys would say "Up and down", I would say... a very hard run! I know, that Busan is very hilly, but I honestly didn't expected jogging in this city as hard as it was...

Surprise Surprise....

Anjong,

I think last night was crazy night again....

But this time it was really really different to other crazy nights...

I spent the day with Youjung at the hairdresser, so we talked kind of a lot and got new hair.... hers looked amazing, but mine is way too short!!!!

Anyway, after the 4hour hair dresser we separated... I was about going home, get some food and stay the night in my room... Kind of relaxing.... but during the time I was in my room... for about 3 hours I felt like I wanna do something tonight....

Whats your flavor, tell me whats your flavor - UUUUUUU!

Anjong,

last night, after a crazy week in the lab Marlena and me decided..... to have fun.... Robert, or should I call him "Old-Nerd-Robert" kkkkkk, decided to stay at home to study for his exam in about 10 days. So Marlena and me started the night with the Soju classic "Coju (Cola and Soju) in my room.

Really unexpected we started to feel a little bit of the one glass of Soju, because we didn't eat during the day... so we stopped at Dunkin Donuts! kkkkk

After a snack we met up with Sung Yong, and the disaster started...

Korean Laboratory - Algae ALARM!

Anjong,

today I wanna share some experiences from the laboratory. I have to go there every day and I spend there lots of hours. 

So, check out what I do there....

Here with my algae! They grow and grow and grow!

 Todays work... preparing lots of media and flasks... to sterilize them!

 tadaaaaaa

 I hope they will take the new DNA from the bacteria! Would be so cool! Thats why I treat them so good... cuddling in the morning and in the evening...

 Here you see lots of plates with different concentrations of media and antibiotics to find out which are the favorite conditions to grow kkkk

I think tomorrow I will check out what all the other students do in the lab...kkkk

Korean Graduation!

Anjong,

honestly, I don't know what german graduation ceremonies are like, because I just graduated high school till now... It was kind of a big ceremony. Everybody had to dress up and got the degree. There were some people who had to made a speech, like the school principal or the school captain. Some students had to sing a song or performed something else.

Afterwards everybody went out to have dinner with their families.

And now I tell you what Korean student graduations are like.... mostly the same...kkkk

But they are able to wear kind of american dress... I was so jealous... And everybody had to bring flowers for the graduating girls. Which was kind of cute.

Weekend review!

Anjong,

I know it is already tuesday, but I think I can tell you about my weekend. In the end it was a Robend! Because most of the time I spent with Robert, which was very good!

 First practice at friday night.... playing superman, David introduced us to this very funny and exiting game...kkk

Korean Gays!

Anjong,

I know that it has been a while since I posted something, but as you know I have to work all day long in the laboratory. So there is not really so much time for new experiences. But I do my best to make some....

In these days I wondered about what kind of life do korean gay people live... I know its not interesting for everybody, but maybe some of you wanna read about it.... It is not so much fun in the end...

(just 2pm members, no gay commercial)

I think everybody knows, that there are plenty of gay-websites in europe and america, but searching in Korea for kind of platform is pretty depressing. After a long time googleling and navering I just found about four websites, two in korean two in english (just one especially for Korea).

I think today the internet is the most common way for gay people to meet. Of course besides the clubs and bars. In germany are so many bars and clubs that you really have to choose which one may be your favorite. You can choose the location, the music and sometimes you can choose the people. I know sounds crazy, but there are always like stereotypes in every bar, so you can choose your favorite stereotype...kkkk

I heard, that in Busan is kind of a gay street, but I never went there... Maybe because everybody who I talked to tells me that it is soooo fucked up... but maybe I should give it a try...

Anyway, after research I thought about meeting korean gay people. Because I wanted to talk to them.

But before telling about them I could mention, that there is kind of ignorance in Korea when it comes to gay people...
I could tell you a million examples, but I think two or three are enough to show that Koreans are not homophobic, but I think they feel very uncomfortable to think about. So "it" doesn't exist....

When I met up with the global tutoring girls we talked about music. They told me that they love the UK's former hit maker "Blue". Especially the big white guy, Duncan. They really started to rave about him... so I told them that they don't have to fall in love with him, because he is gay. Their comments: "No comment" they really stopped talking from the one to the next second and so the meeting was done...

Even all the Korean guys tell me "Awww you are handsome"... Of course I like it, who wouldn't... but most of the time they tell me... hey but I am not gay... like they are afraid of being related to gays.

But thats okay...much more exiting are the stories the gay guys told me I met.

Sometimes I was really sorry for them, I don't know why... they are not close to me, but maybe because I can understand how they feel....

One guy told me, that he would loose his job if he would tell at work, that he is gay... even if there are anti-discrimination laws in Korea.
So he would not get fired... he would be bullied till he quits... Thats so crazy in a developed country...

The next thing is that not a single one has told anybody. Not their close friends, not their coworkers, even not their families. Because they would be cast out of the family. One guy had tears in his eyes by telling me that he really wanna tell his parents, but he is afraid, because he has to go to university and has no money to move out. I really felt so sorry for him. That moment I had to think about José, because he had to wait for such a long time to tell his mum.... but in the end everything was fine. But I don't know if it would work out in Korea.
I can imagine that feeling you have if you want to tell your most important people your biggest secret, but you can't. He told me that he often feels so lonely. I can understand, because he can't talk to anybody about his dreams, wishes and hopes. He even doesn't know anything about himself. And nobody helps him...

I thought maybe they are just too afraid to tell.... but maybe the Korean society is not poised for accepting other ways to live. What is very sad...

But besides all the bad stuff I told you there are really very open minded people in Korea I met. I never had problems in Korea. Maybe because of my very good friends over here. I think that there is a new generation growing up in Korea, so maybe in 10-15 years all the stuff I wrote about is just nonsense....

So, young generation, be nice to the gay koreans....

Möchtest du diese Rose?! U wanna take this rose?!

Anjong,

last week I started to work on my bachelor thesis. What can I say... I have nothing special or interesting to write on my Blog.

I have to work on Agro-bacterias (who carry a special transferred vector). I try to make them transfer this vector to some algae. So I try, under different conditions to make the bacterias transfer the DNA to different kind of algae. I know... Sounds pretty boring...

But I think if it works it can be very useful. There are some publications about some procedure like this. So at first I just wanna imitate the work. To see if it really works.

Afterwards I try with some algae nobody tried ever before. So if I get them to produce some marker in the end, there are possibilities that we can transfer other DNA to the algae. And in the end they can produce some very useful stuff....

Last week I had to start to mix artificial seawater, to give the algae a new home. Afterwards Maiko and me created a growth curve referring to the agro-bacteria growth.

So we know what time we have to lift them from the culture and put them to the algae....

Yesterday we started the first co-cultivation of agro-bacterias and Pavlova (kind of algae).

So, today we have to watch out if they cuddle or not... I hope they make some love....and take my rose...kkk

Goodbye with style!

Anjong,

today was Julias last day in Korea. I think she is still at Gimhae airport, but I had to say goodbye about 1,5 hours ago.

Last nigh we had kind of "Goodbye-Dinner" at a wonderful place, the "PoshNosh". We walked through the streets of Seomyeon seaching for the Rilakuma-Store. Suddenly in an outlying area we saw a restaurant, so beautiful!
It seemed like it came from another time and place, compared to the family mart and the little shigdangs at the other side of the street!

So we decided to enter, pretty underdressed....

After a warm welcome the really cute (male) waitress took us to our table. We felt really very comfortable.

Even the water was kind of special. Coffee flavor! I really enjoyed the water. Julia wanted to have kind of soft drink, but this place was too special for soft drinks... Instead of Cola hange I ordered a lemon ade...

Our appetizer was salad, the best I had in korea since today! And it was really nice draped...nice and simple... like the whole place!

 Main dish was Pizza, and it tasted kind of italian pizza, not perfectly, but really close! We enjoyed our meal and left!

The cashier asked us if our meal was okay and we told them that it had been so good! She was so proud of her restaurant... so cute! I can advise this place for all pizza fans who want to eat at a more special place like Hello Pizza or something... But please put on something more special than shirt and jeans :-)

So, it was a fantastic last night with Julia!

German night! Drinking and DANCING!!!!

Anjong,

last night I went out with Julia and Robert to rock the city! 

After three days at the laboratory for me and three days sitting in my room for Julia we were hungry for fun and honestly for a little alcohol.... And surprisingly we had no Soju last night....(maybe because it was german night...)

We went to Seomyeon and started with some food and Maccoli in WaraWara, Jinny introduced us one week before...

So we ate chicken, chicken and drank 1l Maccoli, 2l Beer and one Cola for Julia, kkkk

 Prost!

After finishing everything we changed the location and went to a place where a Tequila party took place...  At 12 o'clock they gave as much Tequila you can drink for 10 min... We had seven each head... so... the entrance fee was very profitable for us...kkkk

 Join the dark side! Or maybe green this time...

 She's a barby girl...with too much tequila at her hands...

 There you see all the shot glasses... I think all the german guys shake their head by seeing the raped beer pong table...kkk

 This is the last pic... Tequila party goodbye...

After the second location we went to Fix club. Surprisingly great!

We entered the VIP area and started after 10min dancing. The music just hypnotized us.... And of course the light shows... 

 Julias Hand in the middle of Nirvana... We danced our ass off...

 The two guys loved the DJ... so cute

 To our amusement there were not only Gogo girls, nope... there were boys too!

 And he had just one message....

 I think they set fire to the rain... and yes Adele was in the remix...

So we say goodbye! Thanks to Robert and Julia for an awesome night!!!

Kings tomb!

Anjong,

last post referring to Gyeongju shows you one of the really uncountable tombs of former local kings. Comparable to the egyptian Pyramids are the hills (looking like bis termites houses) tombs for the kings.

I was really exited to see a few or at least one of them... even if we were so exhausted, because it was the last stop on our trip.

But we got totally disappointed by seeing them. You even couldn't see the entrance or anything... Just the hill... covered by grass.... Okay, they build a wall in front of one....

 A jump in a park...

 Dreaming of cooler tombs!

 But at least we found one... at the KTX station, and we were  able to look inside!

 King and Queen!

 Welcome to Korea!