[Old post - 09/2014] Now, what is this?
Was my first thought when re-discovering this blog which I created in 2012, just before going for my second Korean adventure to work in a human rights NGO in Seoul. The header of this blog makes it rather obvious for insiders, because this blog was created to cover topics in and around the Korean peninsula. Now obviously I haven’t used this space to express my thoughts and tell the experiences I had made in Korea back in 2012 in English, while on my German blog I did. And it would be near to impossible for me now to post about all the beautiful experiences I had made between July and November 2012.
Now to make it short, I had my first professional work experience in the human rights field, North Korean human rights in particular. The work was absolutely interesting, my workmates just awesome and I had a lot to learn about how a NGO is run. Also, I taught English to students in Seoul who originated from North Korea. It was simply a great experience.
My home in Seoul turned out to be just as great. My hosts, MJ and Ji, were a lovely couple, and their small dog Bailey became one of my best friends there. We stayed together for the whole 3 1/2 months, and I even moved together with them. Today they live in Australia, and I wish them all the best on their way. We still keep in contact, and I am sure that we will meet again.
Due to the 3 month visa restriction I had to leave Korea for a short visa run. I decided to go to Japan, where I had a friend living in Osaka, Japans third biggest city. I had only a weekend, but it was a great time, and felt so different from Korea. Coincidentally two friends from Vienna had a piano competition at the same time there, which enabled us to hang out together as well. I loved it, and it was for sure not my last time there.
Well, I came back in November, where university work already awaited me. I spent the following year in Austria, but moved to Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital in the Baltics, in January 2014. I did an exchange semester at Vilnius University, and also worked for a NGO. My departure was originally planned for August, but you never know what life gives you. And so it came that I got a job as Intern in the Austrian Embassy here in Vilnius. Now I will stay until January 2015, before returning to Austria.
And that’s about it.
Now the question is what I am going to do with this blog, which I created to be centered around one country, one topic. It’s a fact that I am living around 8000 Kilometers from Korea for the past two years, and that I won’t return the coming months.
This country has never left me, and I am still reading and talking about it practically every day. I have a strong will to return one day, but I can’t now.
Also, I developed a strong desire to have a space online that would enable me to express my thoughts not only about one topic, but about everything. A facebook without friend request, so to say. Maybe even a bit less personal, and more political.
Since living in a baltic state, European affairs, and foreign affairs have become a increasingly interesting topic for me. It’s almost 1000 kilometers to Moscow, but roughly 35 to Belarus, Europe’s last dictatorship. When I go to University, work, or wherever in town, I am crossing big NATO and EU flags. I feel the fear people have of a past, that isn’t that long ago. I feel more fear here, or at least not less, then I felt in South Korea. A country, that has been formally at war with it’s Northern neighbour for six decades. Naturally, the crisis in Ukraine, and in general the perception of Russia as a threat is very interesting to me now.
Furthermore, Vilnius used to be known as the Jerusalem of the North. I don’t want to explain every detail here, but Vilnius had a huge Jewish community, which was decimated to a few thousand after World War II. The city that once had more than 100 synagogues, now fights to deal with its difficult past. This made me also being more interested in Jewish history and culture. More, than only the hideous genocide called Shoa , or more commonly known as Holocaust. The war in Gaza and the middle east sparked my attention and awareness of this conflict’s complexity more than ever before. I am reading now several books in order to get a deeper insight into the problem, and I might be tempted to post something about it here later.
However, this blog will visually remain largely the same as before. At least that is what I think for now. I will surely use this blog also a lot to talk about Korea, language, and maybe even Japan. But I will also allow myself to stretch the blog’s sphere a bit, and include some other topics that I mentioned before.
Now to make it short, I had my first professional work experience in the human rights field, North Korean human rights in particular. The work was absolutely interesting, my workmates just awesome and I had a lot to learn about how a NGO is run. Also, I taught English to students in Seoul who originated from North Korea. It was simply a great experience.
My home in Seoul turned out to be just as great. My hosts, MJ and Ji, were a lovely couple, and their small dog Bailey became one of my best friends there. We stayed together for the whole 3 1/2 months, and I even moved together with them. Today they live in Australia, and I wish them all the best on their way. We still keep in contact, and I am sure that we will meet again.
Due to the 3 month visa restriction I had to leave Korea for a short visa run. I decided to go to Japan, where I had a friend living in Osaka, Japans third biggest city. I had only a weekend, but it was a great time, and felt so different from Korea. Coincidentally two friends from Vienna had a piano competition at the same time there, which enabled us to hang out together as well. I loved it, and it was for sure not my last time there.
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| Ancient Kyoto, Japan in October 2012 |
Well, I came back in November, where university work already awaited me. I spent the following year in Austria, but moved to Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital in the Baltics, in January 2014. I did an exchange semester at Vilnius University, and also worked for a NGO. My departure was originally planned for August, but you never know what life gives you. And so it came that I got a job as Intern in the Austrian Embassy here in Vilnius. Now I will stay until January 2015, before returning to Austria.
And that’s about it.
Now the question is what I am going to do with this blog, which I created to be centered around one country, one topic. It’s a fact that I am living around 8000 Kilometers from Korea for the past two years, and that I won’t return the coming months.
This country has never left me, and I am still reading and talking about it practically every day. I have a strong will to return one day, but I can’t now.
Also, I developed a strong desire to have a space online that would enable me to express my thoughts not only about one topic, but about everything. A facebook without friend request, so to say. Maybe even a bit less personal, and more political.
Since living in a baltic state, European affairs, and foreign affairs have become a increasingly interesting topic for me. It’s almost 1000 kilometers to Moscow, but roughly 35 to Belarus, Europe’s last dictatorship. When I go to University, work, or wherever in town, I am crossing big NATO and EU flags. I feel the fear people have of a past, that isn’t that long ago. I feel more fear here, or at least not less, then I felt in South Korea. A country, that has been formally at war with it’s Northern neighbour for six decades. Naturally, the crisis in Ukraine, and in general the perception of Russia as a threat is very interesting to me now.
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| Tatar mosque Kaunas |
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| Karaite Kenesa in Vilnius |
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