Respectfully Yours

So, before we got to Korea, I didn't google "Korean culture and traditions" or anything. For some strange reason, I wasn't the least bit interested even before I got here as to what this place was about. I did have about a thousand or so hits on google for my search "koreans eat dogs" though. Somehow, this was the beginning and end to my interest in Korea and their culture. Now, I am not trying to say that all their culture and traditions are bobo; I am just saying that upon learning about their taste for dog, I closed some all of the doors that led to my giving a shit about them. Ok, moving on. Despite the fact that I did not attempt to learn about Koreans, this was inevitable upon arriving here. I learned a lot as I worked in the school. I learned to take my super cute shoes off and trade them in for a pair of communal, hideous, 2 sizes too big, blue or red slippers (thanks for the choice, guys...really, really, thoughtful) which more times than I can count, caused me to trip and on a daily basis and made me wear a face of disgust. Why? Why do they make you wear these pathetic shoes that ruin your day? One reason, respect. Another reason, they don't want to bring the outside grossness into their house. Okay, I can deal with these...but only because I have to. My thoughts on this??? Hmm, let's see. First of all, why do I have to respect you and take off my shoes when clearly you don't respect the fact that I want to wear my own shoes and not share with a bunch of people who I don't even know if they took a bath today!! To combat feet fungus, I wore socks....every single day...no matter what I was wearing, socks came with me in my purse to school, so that I could put them on to go with my stylish slippers. After a while, who cares what your wearing because you are about to ruin that cute dress with a freaking pair of socks and bright blue slippers!! Infuriated...every single day about this which leads me to my second thought about this. Sometimes, I chose to only sport my socks around and not wear the slippers. Why not, right? The floor is clean because nobody is allowed to walk around in there with shoes on, including the guy working on the toliet or fixing the air conditioner or bringing a new supply of water (since you can't drink the water here thanks to some parasite...yippiee!) Anyway, all these poor fools are walking around with no shoes on! It just looks so strange and is just gross to me. So, back to the clean floor...I just wear my socks since this has clearly got to be cleaner than any floor ever. Wrong!!! Not true at all. I get home the first day of wearing my socks at school, and it looks like I've been slipping and sliding all over the dirtiest Piggly Wiggly in the south for 100 hours! WTF? Can someone please explain the damn logic behind this? Like most everything else here, there is no freaking logic. It is pointless.

Koreans also have this hierarchy system when it comes to walking on a sidewalk or...anywhere for that matter. It is respectful and expected for you to move out of the path of anyone that is older than you. So, if a person that's older than you is walking toward you on the sidewalk, then you move over and let them pass. It doesn't sound that bad, right? Well, its not, until one of them purposefully steps into your pathway just to make you move out of their way and show their superiority. This is definitely up there on my list of "I hate all these things about this place". While running with the dogs the other day, this older-than-me man was walking towards me and this older-than-him couple was walking in front of me, going the same direction I was. So, ra-tard, moves out of the way for the couple in front of me and quickly steps right back in my path. I'm thinking, "little buddy, this aint tha day"...haha! Now, I have stayed in the same place as I have been running the entire time. He was on the other side of the sidewalk before, but moved across the sidewalk just to walk in my path. So, what had happened was...he got smashed into. I mean, really dude, really?!?!? I was just trying to get a little jog on with my dogs and forget that I am living in this freaking place, which is impossible, by the way, because I have to launch myself over piles of trash, rotten food, and puddles of phlegm as I run...but hey, that's not so bad, huh?! Anyway, Ra-tard got what he deserved in my opinion. And before you go getting your feathers ruffled, it wasn't like he was some wrinkled old man, hunched over with brittle bones and a crooked back, just barely making his way down the sidewalk or anything! He wasn't that old. Gah. The only thing that would have made it better is if my dog would've nipped his ankle. *evil laugh*

Ok well, I've done enough bashing for one blog entry I guess. The point is, there is no point to most of this and that respecting others here is a one-way street. Give respect and get....to smell and see the gutter that is this country.