On Drinking

Yes, Koreans drink. Excessively. Thanks to Yale's 문화, or culture, I have managed to either outdrink all my uncles or have been able to keep it cool under the radar of interrogation and examination by my relatives of how I act under the influence. 

But I don't drink every night, as many Koreans do here. I knew of this well before I landed on Seoul soil, but I never really asked myself why Koreans drink so much or why drunkenness is accepted from office workers (and by office workers I mean MALES who hold 9-5 office cubs jobs. Rarely do I see women stumbling across the street or taking a shot of soju at the corner 7-11 or steak house). 

Seriously, I've encountered more drunks here in subway stations at 8PM on a Wednesday night than I have at 10PM on a Saturday night in Manhattan. According to my reading teacher at Sogang, Korea is the third "wettest" state, the first being Yugoslavia or some place in that area. The 골목s, or alley ways/ small streets, are SATURATED with hof/soju bars and karaoke bars for after the bars. 

And thank goodness my program enlightened me on some Korean culture otherwise I may have never figured out why Koreans drink so damn much. 

Yes, drinking is part of the Korean culture, but because Korean's stress the "we". The importance of human interaction is on the interaction, not exactly the work productivity (this could also shed some light on why Koreans are so laid back and run on "Korean time" and yet are slightly type A. Possibly). Koreans are all about networking and having good human relations with their co-workers, their family, their brothers and their sisters. 

Tonight, for instance, I drank with my relatives and oooooh boy do I have a food baby or two just from the amounts of soju I was being poured and poured and poured. And since they're all elders, of course I can't refuse lest I want to basically be disowned from my adulthood. As one of my uncles was pouring me my 23084029384th shot of soju, however, he looked me straight in the eye (a rarity in this country. a sign of disrespect) and said that I need to be responsible and careful with drinking, but that drinking like "this" (points out towards table) is okay because this type of drinking is for the enjoyment of company and for family reunions. 

Exactly. Reunions, or unions. 

The Korean culture is so rigid in terms of formality and the status quo ladder that people in offices in the office atmosphere can barely talk to their 사장님s, aka supervisors, without peeing their pants... or something of the sort. But once they whip out the alcohol at the steak house at 5:01PM, the formal tongue is relaxed; the intoxication of the superego frees the suppressed ego and id (as all college students may know). 

So there we go. Drinking is good for Koreans because it take them to a Korea that is free from the restraints of societal mannerism. Good company, horrible Thursday hangovers. 

On Death And Ceremony.

49. The day to celebrate the 49th day of my uncle's death in  Buddhist temple. Why? Hmmm.... easily put, culture? 

According to one website, on the 49th day, the spirit of the deceased body will cross 100 dieties, and more precisely, "58 wrathful and 42 peaceful deities that one will encounter" (http://www.rimecenter.org/dharma.cfm?dharmaID=16).  

But anyways, the experience. Mind blowing. I have never attended a funeral or funeral ceremony, but I don't imagine most, if any, of the Western-style funerals to last 5 hours, complete with chanting, dozens of 절s,  or a deep bow that after the 20th one starts hurting one's knees. My knees hurt, I was periodically numbed from the waist down, and my back hurt from sitting and standing and sitting so much, but I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. 

Imagine. A New Year's parade, but for a deceased soul about to confront a hundred deities. The colors were spectacular and festive, the chanting was soothing, and drums and percussion were involved. The high monk reminded us to think of his death as a passing, and that we must all learn to forgive the mistakes he made in his past life. The monk's message matched the ceremony which matched the decorations which matched everything. 

And the weather! Cloudy, slightly ominous through the morning, until the high monk started speaking. And then, rain. Monsoon rain that seemed to manifest how I felt about my uncle's death, the uncle my dad requested that I go see this summer in Korea when he died while I was on the plane to this place. It's difficult to describe all the events that happened this morning, but in manifesting my emotions, the rain just... washed away any regrets, any burdens of sadness that I had about the whole situation. After the ceremony, a monk came up to me because he knew I was a 교포, or an overseas Korean. He asked that I come back for tea with the buddhists at the temple. Maybe I will. Maybe the monsoon faucet will be on and it will wash whatever remnants of teenage angst I may have in me. 

After all, I am 20 here, not 19.

 

Not money, but close.

Peer pressure

egged the J'Breadster on to create her own blog, as well as contribute to Igor's blog (www.igorinkorea.blogspot.com). Thanks a lot, children of the Light Fellowship. Anyways, J'Bread thinks that this has got to be somewhat more productive than Facebook. 

Time to go work out. or eat. or nap. or poop. You know, just in the shoes of a peculiar furless animal.