Strange Utensils, Cultural Commentary, and other Ramblings

I hadn’t planned on writing a blog entry tonight but since I had some not so solid plans downtown that seem to have fallen through, I decided to scribble this out on the piece of paper I had jammed as a bookmark into the comic book Adom mailed me last week (woowoo!). I’m at a place called Coffea Coffee. “Coffee Art,” just like coffee in general, is super popular in Korea and I’m sitting across from a wall of coffee competition certificates. I ordered a mango smoothie. It tastes good, if not particularly strong, but what is notable about it is that I didn’t come with a straw but rather a bizarre metal thing. It’s really skinny and long and on one end is a very small shovel-like shape that can’t hold very much. I don’t really understand how one is supposed to drink a whole smoothie with this strange utensil.

Anyway, this place reminded me of something I wanted to comment on: Korea’s strange relationship with germs. As you are mostly all aware, people will often wear face masks when they are sick here. This might lead one to imagine this to be a rather germaphobic society. On the contrary. Korea does not adhere to most of the anti-germ spreading practices most North Americans take for granted. Example: the frequency with which you find home-style hand towels in the bathroom of public establishments, including this one. Or even the fact that I’ve encountered a couple of bathrooms with a bar of soap attached to a metal rod instead of a liquid soap dispenser. Or the numerous stories I’ve heard of people using the same thermometer on several people consecutively without sanitizing it. Add to these the constant horking on the street by people of all ages and you have numerous means of germ spreading that a face mask does nothing to prevent.

As an aside, I just noticed that this place offers “wine ice flakes,” in case anyone has always wanted a Chardonnay snow cone. There’s also a sign on the counter that says “self service” which is pretty confusing.

Another bit of random cultural commentary: substitution. Korea isn’t into it. See, if you order something in Korea, they fully expect you to take whatever they give you. As in, if you go into a burger joint and say “no mayo, no pickles, no lettuce” of whatever, people look at you like you are crazy. Also, they usually give you your burger with most, if not all ,of the things you said you didn’t want. Similarly, if you order pizza here you are ordering one of whatever combinations of toppings they offer. None of that pick whatever you want business. Even when things are made from scratch (as one would hope their pizza, among other things, is), people just aren’t into the idea of making things to your specifications, even if those specifications aren’t difficult to execute. People I know have discussed this with Korean friends and students, and the response seems to be that the idea of picking whatever you want on your pizza is foreign to them. Word to the wise: people with special dietary needs in Korea have to be super vigilant. I don’t have this problem, but non-pork or meat eaters will order things having stressed that they don’t want meat only to find bacon in their food. So yeah, vigilance.

In other news, last weekend was quite nice, as usual. Friday there were some b-day festivities (also my first time in Daegu showing up at a club by myself and knowing that I would find people I know there, which was nice and made me feel a little Guelph-pang). Then there were some goodbye festivities on Saturday, but those weren’t sad since I know I’ll see Bryan again so it’s not a big goodbye. Sunday was hip hop class and burgers followed by domesticity. Hip hop class was highly strenuous again, but Monday I didn’t feel as bad as I did the week before, which I’ll take as a good sign. I’ve also done the GRE English Subject Test practice test and it went reasonably well. As I told Adom, I don’t think I’ll rock it but I’m confident I won’t bomb it. In more mostly just interesting to me news, there’s this store that I walk by downtown that has this beautiful maroon zip up with a golden tiger on the back that I’ve been admiring for weeks and I finally check the price on it today. 130,000 won. Boo. There goes that that plan. Or maybe I’ll buy it for myself for my birthday present. We shall see. There’s a girl beside me playing with bubble wrap, which makes me simultaneously jealous and annoyed.

Anyway, the space on this piece of paper is almost all gone and I’ve long finished my smoothie (I gave up on the tiny shovel and just drank it once it melted a little) so I should head home.

Today’s music recommendation is one of my favourite dance down the street / private go train dance party songs. It’s by a lady named Lyn. Check check check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG-IPU5Q7pA

Love
AAA