Impressions and experiences in Gwangju
안영 🙂
I spent the last few months of my ÖFP in two places in the southwest of Korea, in Gwangju. First, I was at the Gwangju 1st Presbyterian Church. I stayed with different host families there for the duration. They showed me various sights and districts in Gwangju. For example, we went to the nearby bamboo forest in Damyang, which looked magical because of the snow. Or we went strawberry picking together. I didn’t get much to do at the church itself, I helped out at various elementary school and kindergarten camps.
One weekend, the other volunteers with whom I had an orientation at the beginning of my ÖFP came to Gwangju and together we took a closer look at the history of Gwangju. We visited the May 18 Museum, the memorial hall and the cemetery (it’s about the Gwangju Uprising of 1980, which arose from an escalated student demonstration against the military dictatorship and the martial law imposed at the time).
At the end of February, I moved into a guest room in the student residence of the HUTS (Honam Theological University and Seminary). At the university I helped out in the German course, especially with pronunciation and conversation. I was also assigned to a small group of advanced German students who I was only supposed to help with really banal pronunciation mistakes such as umlauts. In addition to the German course, I was also in the university choir where, funnily enough, we sang ‘Mesias’ by Händel but in Korean. There was also a book club that I took part in.
I was at university until the end of May and then I was in Seoul for the remaining two weeks before my flight to Germany.
It was a very nice time and I got to know a lot of nice and kind people.
Goodbye
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