New day, new stories

Well, another working day I would say...

Today we had the chamber dicussion in the chamber and I was responsible for the protocol. This was good, so I had more work today and time passed a lot more faster. Thank god. Of course, like every day after lunch, I could really have taken a nap. My eyes get so heavy, it's a pain in the *** to keep them open. Well my remedy is three cups of coffee during the whole day. I have never before drunk that much coffee in my life. Well, the other work, like every day, is reading newspapers. I really like that part. I have already learned a lot about the Korean economy and also about other parts of the world. Althouhg I am so far away from Germany, I am very often even supplied with news from there. Since I am anyway really interested in the world economy and economics in general, this is really exactly what I wanted. So I often come across some really interesting articles, which might not be useful for work, but just awake my interest in general. So today for example I found an article about the Korean flag. I think it's really interesting. Even for outsiders.

Meaning of National Flag Transformed Through Sport

By Kim Hyun-tae

The 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup transformed the symbolic meaning of the Korean national flag named “Taegukki” from a tool of an authoritarian regime to one uniting people into a more friendly symbol representing the nation.

As Korea began hosting international football games, Koreans began using Taegukki in a more liberal way, incorporating it into clothing designs and even in body painting.

The name Taegukki is derived from the center circle named “Taeguk”. The circle is divided equally and in perfect balance with the red upper section representing the yang (+) and the blue lower section standing for yin (-).

According to the traditional oriental philosophies, the two symbolize great cosmic forces, which oppose each other but can achieve perfect harmony and balance.

The circle stands for the eternal principle that everything in the universe is created and develops through interaction between yin and yang, thus symbolizing creation and development.

The four trigrams surrounding the circle denote the process of yin and yang going through a spiral of change and growth.

The three unbroken lines at the upper left represent heaven (dubbed khun), the three broken lines at the lower right represent earth (dubbed kon), the two broken lines with an unbroken line in the middle at the upper right mean water (dubbed kam), and the two unbroken lines with a broken line in the middle at the lower left mean fire (dubbed yi).

The white background of the flag represents the purity of the Korean people and their peace-loving spirit. The flas as a whole is symbolic of the ideal of the Korean people to develop with the universe forever.

I hope you like the info. I am glad if I can bring some of the things I learn here home to my friends. I mean Korea is really one of those countries Germans or any other people don't know too much about. Me neither so far. I am learning about new things every day.

Cultural things and other interesting information:

Internet:
When I was in Spain (I am sorry I have to say this) I thought that people lived behind the moon concerning internet. You can be lucky if you find an internet shop. And if you find one they very often only supply a really slow connection. Luckily I had wireless, but this is definitely not the standard. Here in Korea this is totally the opposite. Almost every house here has a connection, but not ISDL like still a lot of people in Germany (like my parents... please get DSL, so you don't have to wait half an hour to look at one of my pictures!!). But, normal DSL is often even not enough. Here they don't have 768 kbit like in Germany, but 3 mbit. Also the service is very good. Daniel said, they called in the morning around nine and got the connection at 11.30 midday. This is service... dear T-Online team...!!

Opening an account:
I just remember in Germany, you go to the bank, have to fill out a form, get your card maybe (if you are lucky) one week later and your password for the card (if you are again lucky) maybe another week later. Here, you go to the bank, they fill out the form for you, you immediately get your card and can even chose your password yourself and can use your card immediately.

Immigration office:
Although for me it took longer, because I went there with two girls, who had some problems, due to weird, but "special" visas or no visas at all. If I would have been there by myself I'm sure it would only have taken me like half an hour, although there were like 100 people waiting... but with 5 counters, this is not much of a problem. I don't even want to think of how it is for foreigners in a German immigration office...

--> Korea is a better place to live than the USA. Maybe not because of the air in the summer, but definitely for the uncomplicated way of treating things and the way of living. People here, althouhg of course they have other problems, due to some cultural aspects, will have an easier life with less problems to worry about all day long. Bureaucracy is very uncomplicated.

Well, I thought, the last few posts were pretty harsh on the Korean culture, so now I wanted to give you just a few very positive aspects out of many more in Korean life.