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Korea, 2nd stint

Felix — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:30:08 +0000

Some weeks have passed already since my short trip back to Germany. Not much has been happening since then, for the last couple of days I’m trying to get rid of a nasty flu (without swine), other than that work is keeping me busy and doesn’t allow much action during the week. On weekends I usually play some pool or foosball at Road King. The weather changed from sunny blue sky to gray and cold, sometimes it rains so I haven’t really been outside of Cheongju lately.
But I finally managed to go climbing! There is a bouldering gym only a five minute walk from Ramada Hotel with polished holds and strong climbers. Although communicating is rather tough they are all really nice and helpful.

Back home

Felix — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:33:58 +0000

Unlike the previous days the sky was clear and blue this morning. A shame that I had to return to Seoul to catch my flight back home. But the trip form Sokcho to Dong-Seoul was really stunning: Leaving the houses behind there were only hills, covered with this amazing patchwork of red and green and yellow forest. And above it all the granite towers of Seoraksan. I had this Idea of asking the driver to stop for a little while but quickly dismissed the thought because a: he wouldn’t have been able to do so and b: there was no way I could have made him understand me anyway.
Only two hours later I was back in Seoul, hidden in thick mist. I dropped some postcards off at the post office and went on to Incheon International Airport where I’m preparing some blog posts that I’m going to upload later in Dubai – unlike here they have working WiFi over there.

Seoraksan National Park

Felix — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:30:58 +0000

From Sokcho Intercity Bus terminal I took bus number 7-1 to Seorak-Dong. This small place is the gateway to the National Park and offers accomodation and basic supply – assuming you have cash, international ATM’s don’t exist up here. I checked into Han Gang Park Motel and fell asleep after a long day.

Ulsanbawi

I woke up two hours late since I had forgotten to activate my alarm and when I left the motel around 11am there were people everywhere. It seemed that half of the Korean population had decided to visit Seoraksan that day. The path up to Ulsan Rock is steep and rocky and mostly narrow. Combine this with masses of tourists and you hace perfect conditions for another Korean experience: as kind and forthcoming they may be in interaction with friends or business partners, as stubborn and oblivious they are in traffic. A push here, a kick there, and giving way doens’t exist in this country. Surprising that I made it to the top of the 808 stairs that take you to the very top – but it was for sure worth it. The view across the valley and other summits of the park was simply breath-taking.

Geumganggul

There was still enough time left to visit another recommended place which is a cave in the middle of a granite face high above the valley. This time it wasn’t as busy as before because most people were already on their way down. It wasn’t less steep though and I almost turned around before reaching the cave. Maybe I should have since the view from up there was nothing compared to before and I can still feel my legs from the many steps and stones. I arrived at the motel quite exhausted and was happy that I had brought some left over chicken soup. Without any cash left on me I wasn’t even able to buy dinner.

Gwon-Geunseong

Without any cash or food I decided to take the bus back down to Sokcho where I wanted to stay one more night at the Good Morning Hotel right next to the beach. There’s also a 24h Family Mart that offers an ATM which takes foreign credit cards. Looking back at the park however I felt like missing out on something and changed my plan again. Back in Seorak-Dong I noticed the huge difference between weekend and weekdays. I felt almost lonesome when I walked towards the cable car that would bring me up to the remainders of the Gwon-Geun Fortress. Not much reamains of it but the summit offers another amazing view this time from the opposite direction. I think I spent almost two hours up there, relaxing in the sun.

Sokcho

Apparently it is the most popular city of the east coast in South Korea. On this Monday afternoon it was rather quiet and I spent the rst of the day walking thorugh down town and along the harbour back to the hotel where I’m sitting right now typing these words while in the background a hippo is munching on a crocodile?! Not kidding, it’s National Geographics channel. But in Korean unfortunately, I would have loved to hear the commentary!

Northbound

Felix — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:28:06 +0000

Before leaving Korea for a short visit to Germany I wanted to squeeze in some travelling. It came in handy that I still had a free day due to my volunteer work last Saturday and my flight leaving late Tuesday. That basically gave me more than three days, enough time to visit Seoraksan National Park up north, supposingly the most stunning in whole Korea (North and South). But first things first and another nightout at the Road King was due – I had a great time playing pool and ended up returning to the hotel just one hour before my bus departed from the City Bus Terminal. Who needs sleep anyway? And there’s this thing called caffeine, and I had had lots!

Stopover in Gangneung

10 o’clock, arrival in Gangneung, sunshine, I’m still awake – why not take a little detour and visit some historical places? Said and done, I dropped off my luggage right inside a fish shop and boarded bus 202 as I had been told by the tourist information. Only no-one told me that I had to pay attention to the direction of the bus and I ended up nowhere near the historical site but rather at the beach. No worries, hadn’t seen the sea in a while anyway. The sandy beach was deserted although the weather was definitely beach worthy. But I had been told that Koreans are somehow special with that. The also tend to put barbwire fence all along the shore to keep foreign (i.e. North Korean) spies off. And while lights in the water are supposed to attract shrimps, the coast is illuminated making it easier to spot intruders.
Eventually I decided to take a cab to Ojukheon Residence where I originally had planned to go to and spent some time there wandering between Kimchi pots and temples, “chatting” to little kids that kept following me around for quite some time. Taking another bus I returned to the terminal and continued my journey up north towards Sokcho.

Cheongju: The Ramada Hotel

Felix — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:51:35 +0000

As mentioned earlier we eventually moved to the Ramada Hotel which offers the comfort of large rooms, gym, pool and sauna and a great breakfast buffet. The helpful staff is very friendly and generally speaks some English, too. Located at the northern end of town it’s a 20 minute walk downtown or a taxi ride of less than 5 minutes. If you don’t wanna go that far then there’s a supermarket right below the hotel, a cinema in the same building and a few Korean restaurants nearby. Apparently there’s even a bouldering close but I haven’t been able to find it – yet.

Cheongju: Garden of carnivorous plants

Felix — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:33:28 +0000

Sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought anyway when I found this alleged gem while browsing a map of Cheongju the other day. Paolo and I took a cab to the other side of town to pay the garden a visit and not even the ignorance of the usually omniscient Ramada staff could hold us back. When the taxi driver dropped us off we realized why no-one knew about this place: Instead of a garden we entered a shady shed where hundreds of tiny and even tinier plants were grown – at least they were really carnivorous. So I wouldn’t call it a highlight but they’re still pretty to look at.

A new home

Felix — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:47:51 +0000

Open map in new window

Originally the whole team stayed at Grand Hotel in Chungju. But then a few incidents concerning the sanitary facilities were reported … for example, this toilet that stopped working – and got fixed in th ewrong room which from then on had problmes with leakage.

And then there was this rumour of another, much nicer hotel where you’d get your fresh omlette every morning and not only when Mr. omlette chef deigned to show up. And since those minor and major issues couldn’t get resolved the whole gang moved to Cheongju and settled at Ramada hotel.
And what a difference! Pool, sauna, gym, and even an indoor driving range, all included. And Cheongju has a lot more to offer with its University and cultural scene, a few pubs and bars, apparently two bouldering gyms (have yet to check them out though). On the downside, the bus ride takes almost one hour now. Which means that after eleven and a half hours at work I’m usually too tired to make use of the facilities … but I COULD and that’s all that counts, right?

Korea here I come!

Felix — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:36:11 +0000

On 1st September I boarded the aircraft at Zurich Airport, heading for Incheon International Airport in Korea, stopping in Dubai. Roughly 15 hours aboard the plane, followed by a three hours Bus ride to Chungju and another five minutes by taxi. Final destination: Grand Hotel Chungju. That was the plan, and despite some communication issues it worked quite well – there I went straight to bed just before midnight, exhausted but excited.

Just arrived

The morning came way too early, but the bus to the fab didn’t wait but left at 8am sharp. At breakfast I met the first colleagues from Centrotherm and also Tamara from GP Solar who’d be introducing me to alot of things on the first day, too many to remember. The next day she was already off to her holidays. There were so many things to see and learn and almost all of them turned out to be quite different from what I had been expecting.
Exhausting eleven hours later I was back at the hotel and tried to overcome the jetlag, and although I wasn’t overly successful I managed to get up the next morning in time for breakfast.

Yongsan Electronic Market

Weekend already! Paolo, Xavier and I had planned to pay Seoul a visit, more precisely Yongsan Electronic Market where you can find pretty much everything from cameras to huge LCD screens. Not everything is a bargain but sometimes you can save some 10-20% compared to European prizes. While I was saving my money for another visit Xavier left Seoul with more than a million Won less but with a (hopefully) brandnew EOS 500d plus two lenses and other things.

Lost in Translation…

After a long day of walking around we went down town to a place called “Garten Bier” – a homage to Oktoberfest in Munich and Bavarian beer gardens, only indoors and somehow misspelled … was fun anyway and one of Chungju’s highlights was ticked off the list.

A story about Kimchi and Gaegogi

Seriously, who invented this stuff?? Kimchi is the main ingredient of Korean food – unfortunately. Everything tastes like Kimchi … so far I can’t see myself becoming a fan of the Korean cuisine any time soon. To make it worse, ordering some meet always leaves this doubt whether your eating the advertised beef or maybe the dog you petted the other day (for all you hard-boiled nonbelievers out there – check out this poor fella).

Job als Chance – Bewerbungstraining für Akademiker

Felix — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:28:47 +0000

Zwei Wochen Seminar. Zwei Wochen Gruppenarbeit. Zwei Wochen lang lernen, wie man eine Bewerbung schreibt? Zwei Wochen lang lernen wie man sich auf ein Vorstellungsgespräch vorbereitet?
Ein ganz klein bisschen skeptisch war ich anfangs ja schon. Aber nach der Einführungsrunde war dann eigentlich klar: das kann eine sehr spannende Sache werden. Und nachdem die letzten Formalitäten geregelt waren, gings dann los. Mit 13 wildfremden, mehr oder weniger frischen Hochschulabsolventen, die alle das gleiche Ziel hatten: Wie finde ich möglichst bald einen Job, der möglichst gut zu mir passt?
Woche eins war geprägt vom Kennenlernen, Arbeiten in der Gruppe sowie kleineren Teams, Assessment-Center-Übungen und viel Selbstfindung. Selbstfindung? Also doch so ein pseudo-psychologisches Experiment? Nicht wirklich. Eher die Frage: was kann ich, was will ich, und wie verbinde ich diese beiden Aspekte erfolgreich, um mich selbstsicher und überzeugend im Bewerbungsprozess zu presäntieren. Wichtigstes Hilfsmittel dazu meiner Meinung nach: das ständige Feedback von Mitstreitern und Coach, direkt, ehrlich und überaus interessant. Jeder hat so seine eigenen Punkte, die auffallen, wenn man jemanden bei der Selbstvorstellung beobachtet oder in einer Gruppenübung, in der ein Unternehmensproblem gelöst werden soll.

Die zweite Hälfte brachte dann den etwas formelleren teil ins Spiel: Wie hole ich Informationen zu Unternehmen ein, die für mich als Arbeitgeber interessant sein könnten. Wie komme ich an der “Hürde” Sekretariat vorbei, um an Personaler oder Fachpersonal zu geraten. Wie formuliere ich meine Fragen höflich, aber direkt? Und vor allem, was für Fragen stelle ich eigentlich überhaupt? Und wi egehe ich bei einer Initiativbewerbung vor, so daß ich auch Erfolg habe?
Garniert wurde die Woche noch vom Besuch eines Ex-IBM Personalchefs, der konkreten Einblick ins Leben und die Arbeit der “anderen Seite” gab. Und dabei doch sehr die Unsicherheit nehmen konnte vor dem Schreckgespenst Personaler.

Fazit? Wäre eine tolle Sache gewesen schon vor meinem Studium. Während die erste Woche ein gutes Grundgerüst aufbaute und man sich einmal intensiv mit sich selbst beschäftigte (wann nimmt man sich schon die Zeit dafür? Viel zu selten oder nie), um herauszufinden, wo man steht im Leben und wo man gerne hin will, gings in der zweiten Hälfte um konkrete Fragestellungen zum Thema Bewerbung.
Ein super Team von Coaches und tolle Persönlichkeiten in der bunt gemischten Gruppe vermittelten Sicherheit und Ansporn. Unbedingt zu empfehlen, sofern man nicht nur nach einer Erklärung der DIN für ein Anschreiben sucht – diese findet man auch im Internet. Es ist übrigens die mit der Nummer 5008.

Buschfeuer toben in Victoria

Felix — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:35:03 +0000

Karte in neuem Fenster öffnen

Man hört es ständig in den Nachrichten: Victoria wird von den schlimmsten Buschfeuern aller Zeiten heimgesucht. Zeitweise mehr als 400 Feuer gleichzeitig haben bereits über 200 Todesopfer gefordert. Erschwerend wirkt das extreme Wetter; Anfang Februar wurde in Melbourne der heißeste Tag seit Beginn der Aufzeichnungen gemessen: 46,7°C im Stadtzentrum! Wenn dann auch noch der Wind mit Böen von 85km/h eine Temperatur von 40°C hat, kann man sich vorstellen, wie verheerend das sein muß.
Erschreckend für mich persönlich ist abgesehen von dem generellen Ausmaß der Tragödie, daß ich viele der betroffenen Orte selbst kenne, teilweise schon besucht habe. Und auch Freunde haben ihre Häuser verloren oder vermissen gar Bekannte und Verwandte.
Man kann nur hoffen, daß das Wetter bald kippt und ein bisschen Regen bringt, aber wann das sein wird kann lieder keiner sagen …