From Korea - with kindness

Blogspot/blogger has been blocked in China thus the lack of posts here besides the usual busy-ness.
I'm now using a breath of freer air for a little update.

From Korea – with kindness
When meeting with old friends it is like touching something immortal within, something that time’s merciless scars can’t access or even if they did, had only made it feel better then – in memory, and now – every time the present exhibits the gold of old friendship manifest. It’s tremendous for me being here, indeed. I work hard, play a lot and sleep little, i.e. live it with passion, intensely as I usually do.

First of course, I am learning a lot, exchanging ideas, sharing experiences, and all this and that, but also it’s so superb the way I’m taken care of by my former labmates and friends. I eat way more regularly that when I am at home and mom is taking care of me, for one example..

(nothing wrong with my most fantastic mom, it’s just that to her I can say no much more freely..)

And then, all the care and consideration and kindness for my schedule, my meetings with other guys, my accommodation, my lifestyle, and entertainment are arranged.

And if that is not enough, it seems I’m also learning totally new dimensions of softness and gentleness in human interaction by deeply exploring them on a every-day, every-contact, every interpersonal communication/connection basis.

Yesterday, for example an elderly couple sold me a product at 15,000 won instead of 18,000 because I was a foreigner. I remained stunned – every other place else I have been charged more as a foreigner, even in my own country – for the fact I live abroad. I kept asking my Koran friends in total bewilderment/ bemusement was that true/ possible?! Yes, they said, that is the attitude, yes that product costs us more..

No one ever checked my train tickets (and no one checks them in Korean trains – unless you sit at a place your ticket is not sold to) but the conductor give me thumbs up for working on my seminar’s abstract with an open laptop. No one even checked the little ticket of my friend who bought one one to be able to come to see me off to the tracks. The luggage is not scanned at the railway/buss stations. The trust is the norm..

The bus driver at another occasion and location wasn’t concerned if I was picking up my own luggage – the trust is the norm. Another exhibition of it is that hotels do not take (even less did they think of copying it and sending the information to the police as it’s in the neighboring country to the south-west..)

Also, you leave your shoes at entering in many Korean restaurants, of course, at private houses, and other public places like some hotels, and temples, and can always relay on finding them upon exit.

Then, there is all the cleanness of this crisp early autumn air Korean world.

Yes, one has to take off shoes when go to a restaurant, even in the lobby of hotel! And walk with shoeless in the elevator/halls/all the interior.

Korean people wash their hands very often and brush their teeth after each meal (and carry with them toothpaste/brush). Tools for sanitation (e.g. hands cleaning) are everywhere at public places – even in parks, in open air.

But the cleanness from inside is even more striking to me - the one that seems to be the norm in the human relationships.

With warmest Korean greetings.

L