Liberty Park

I am tired. But the sauna/motelroom is driving me mad, so I decide go for a stroll around town looking for a park or someplace else to relax. May 18 Liberty Park sounds good, such a great turn in Koreas history is sure to have a huge park. It turns out pathetic. A couple of trees next to an 8-lane road. No shade. Fresh smog. Great place. It is surrounded by the picturesquely grey appartment blocks no. 102-108. For some reason all apartment blocks have numbers starting with 100 printed on them in huge letters here. Potentially because they are all absolutely identical.

So much about the park. Opposite to is the huge Kim Dae Jung convention center catches my attention. At least the hero of the democracy movement got an appropriately sized monument. Might be something interesting inside. I steer away from Liberty Park. Only to be engaged by a group of teenage boys shouting random english sentences, attempting to surround me. I swiftly evade them, having becoming more experienced a kojangi.

As I enter the convention center, a sign tells me the "2008 IT Forum Expo" is held here. Loud music comes from the inside. So much about relaxing I think, but enter annyway. As big stage takes about half the room, thats where the music is coming from as well. Its a professional counterstrike gaming contest, with a live audience, TV cameras and live commentary by two anchormen and a woman. The speakers are so obscenely large, everytime one fires his gun the feeling is similar to being punched in the guts. Nobody seems to notice this, however. I watch the happenings for a while, but lose interest soon. Its still just computer games.

I walk on. Young people in all sorts of costumes are gathered around tiny stalls with a mysterious purpose. Then I pass an exhibition stand where two models with huge plastic guns catch my eyes. "FOREEIIGNNEEEERRR" somebody shouts. I swiftly look around, there are only black capped heads, so the somebody must be meaning me. To my disdain I now notice a guy with microphone and camera stepping brusquely towards me. "INTERVIEW!?" follows the inevitable request.

It is quick and effective. Where I am from, he wants to know. "Togil", I say and he screams in delight as this is Korean for German. Do I know the game 'Gold Slam' he wants to know. I have to say no. Do I know the ... game, he then asks. I am not interested in games I say, a smart move as he loses interest at once. Still, I am not free to go yet. "Today you are not photographer" he says pointing towards my camera, "You are model!". "M-O-D-E-L" he spells as a small crowd has gathered around us and shoves me between the two models I had seen earlier. A polaroid picture is taken which I can keep. It turns out nice, the photographer perfectly catches my awkward feeling.

Any feeling of balance I might have had left before has gone now. I leave. Or at least I try to. The main crowd of weirdly dressed people has gathered around the exit. Demons and Androids are taking pictures of two kids dressed as smiling breads chasing each other. Somebody walks along dressed in a black rectanglular costume reading "Death Notice" in big white letters. What is this? An uneasy feeling comes creeping down my back, because I notice him following me as I walk on. I stop abruptly and turn around, but just then he walks away. Was he really following me? Maybe I am getting paranoid.

In the subway I take out my 'Gwangju Metropolitan City Tourist Guide Map' and find "Uncheonsa Temple" is just a short walk from the next station. 'This is it.', I think. Tranquility, finally. But no. I stray around for one hour, cursing the crude map. Perhaps they should have invested less energy in naming it, but in actually drawing the map. A 5-metre-high metal hoarding blocks the way to where the temple is supposed to be. At last I reach a gap, only to see everything behind the gigantic fence has been cleared out to make room for another construction project. There is no temple. I return to the motel room.

IT Convention