Intercultural cake

Апублікавана: 14.05.2024


The view from my room to one side...
... and to the other side! 😅

Today started with me having a pebble removed from my knee that had apparently been stuck there since Friday. Now I'm hoping that the ointment will work the miracle of healing, otherwise I'll probably end up going to the doctor. 😬 I also have a swollen eye again, but there's always something wrong.

So much for the disgusting news! 😄

A shrine on the way to school

I've been here for a week and a half now, and what I've realized is that a month is too long to be alone and too short to really make friends - at least if you live alone. For a moment I thought that Interpals (a language exchange platform) could be a good idea to quickly make contacts here. But after the first three conversations I immediately had a really bad feeling, and as Jiyeon says so beautifully: "Feeling lonely and safe is better."

That's why it was really nice today that there were a few moments when I realized that I'm not really alone here! In the group lesson today we laughed so much together, and in the short break we all chatted animatedly with each other for the first time. And after the lesson I chatted for a while with the Italian woman (who works in Zurich and speaks perfect German 😄).

Festive decorations for Buddha's birthday on May 15

In the individual lessons, I then discussed my subjects and somehow (with the help of hands and feet) I managed to explain the topic of my bachelor's thesis. What a triumphant moment! 😁 If school is so nice, it's actually not so bad to be alone for the rest of the day.

Fish in Cheonggyecheon

After school, I walked up the Cheonggyecheon (the river) in the other direction until I reached Gwanghwamun Square. (Do the places look a bit familiar from the previous chapters?)

Gwanghwamun Square with a view of Mount Bugaksan, with the roofs of Gyeongbokgung Palace in the background.

I wanted to go back to Sejong “village” (the part of town to the left of the big palace where I was strolling on the day of the Ramen rush hour). There is a street with lots of small restaurants. I was sure: today is the day, today I will have Korean food! 😄

There are many small restaurants and shops in Sejong

What I hadn't taken into account, however, was that many restaurants have a lunch break from 3-5. And I was there at 4. But no problem: I remembered from my last visit that there was a small square with benches at the end of the street. I would just sit there and write a bit for my blog or do some homework (I had my school backpack with me), and then kill time until 5 p.m.

No sooner said than done: I stroll up the street and sit down on one of the free benches. Shortly afterwards, an elderly Korean couple comes along and she puts her husband down on the bench and goes to run a few errands. And as I sit there fiddling with my cell phone, the man next to me rustles something in a plastic bag and then hands me a small chocolate cake without saying a word (packaged as a snack, about the size of a milk slice).

I didn't want to be rude, so I accepted the cake and ate it politely. 😅 And then he handed me a small packet of almond milk and said that the cake was making my throat dry and that I needed something to drink. And that's what we started talking about.

He asked a lot of questions, like how long I've been learning Korean and where, how long I've been there and what I've seen, what I liked and tasted the most, why I'm traveling alone, where I'm from, and then we somehow got onto politics and the topic of separation and reunification (which has a lot of parallels in Germany and Korea), and the changes that Korea has gone through in the last 50 years, and what problems there are in Germany after reunification.

A few times I was tempted to take out my phone and look up words, but somehow it worked out. I actually had a really good conversation and it was so nice to feel the interest and friendliness and to have the feeling: Wow, I can do that! It's not grammatically perfect, but it works! As I left, I thanked him for talking to me. What a great, intercultural encounter!

Finally a decent dinner: rice with shit (from left to right: very spicy meat 🔥, tofu, egg, sprouts, spring onions?, similar to spinach but tastes like butt, radish kimchi, seaweed soup)

Feeling very elated, I then made my way to a restaurant that I had picked out beforehand. Luck was on my side: I found it without any problems, it was open, the food was amazing, the people were friendly, everything was great! When I got on the train at around 6 p.m. and it was unexpectedly completely empty, my lucky four-leaf clover was complete. 😊 🍀

Адказ (4)

Ktotheatothettothehtothei
❤ 고생 끝에 낙이 온다 (oder so)

😂😂😂😂 oh man, meine fleißigste Schülerin. Sehr gut gemacht, Baby

Annipopenni
"dass von dem Kuchen dein Hals trocken wird" Liebe geht raus an diesen Mann. Solche Menschen machen die Welt mit so kleinem Gesten wirklich ein großes Stück besser. 🫶

Ich weiß gar nicht, was mein größeres Highlight ist, eure Kommentare oder die Namen, unter denen ihr kommentiert 😂😂😂😂 großartig

Паўднёвая Карэя
Справаздачы аб падарожжах Паўднёвая Карэя

Яшчэ справаздачы аб падарожжах