4 day weekend woohoo!

We had a four day weekend this past weekend due to the Lunar New Year. I can’t complain about that! I did not venture extremely far, but I branched out, or attempted to, quite a bit more than I did last weekend. We went to a field trip on Friday to see a movie, Puss in Boots, (which was adorable by the way, I loved it) and within the area that the movie theater was in was a mall. I scoped out a few places and decided that I was going to do a little shopping over there during break. I wrote down the street name and was going to attempt to get a taxi to bring me there. It was fool proof, or so I thought. Totally confident in what I had written and that the taxi driver would know where to go I hopped in a cab feeling good due to coffee and the stolen Wi-Fi I had just found. I say hello to the cabbie and tell him where I would like to go, trying my best to say the Korean words right. After a battle of understanding each other the cab took me where he thought I meant. I at first thought I had done it and got excited and soon realized he did take me to where a movie theater was, but it was not the right one and it was only a few blocks from my apartment. I decided I would maybe see a movie instead since my shopping venture did not pan out and the confusion with the driver left me feeling a little defeated, and crammed in an elevator to the 12^th floor with other movie goers.  When I say crammed, I mean it, no sarcasm. They fit as many people in an elevator as possible so you better hope you don’t get stuck next to someone smelly, or get cast as the smelly one yourself. Once reaching the top I had changed my mind and decided to go explore the town by foot instead. I popped in my headphones and hoofed off down the sidewalk in search of anything to peak my interest.

I found a couple of cool restaurants, a few Hofs/bars and another coffee shop I could steal wi fi from. While I was on the walk I passed a lot of “loogie hawkers.” This is where I need to break from telling you about my somewhat mundane adventure on foot and fill you in on more Korean tendencies, besides the elevator cramming. Let me explain “loogie hawking” for those who are unfamiliar with this term. A loogie is phlegm that works its way to a bothersome place in your throat. Hawking is the action you do to get that phlegm right where ya want it to spit it right on the street. I failed to tell you about all the “loogie hawkers” I came across in Seoul and while I was there I thought maybe it was just a fluke and because I noticed it once it was one of those things I could not stop noticing. Like when you buy a new car, let’s say the color of your new car is red, now you notice a ton of red cars on the road that you never really noticed before, and I realize my example is not the same and a lot less grotesque, but you get the picture. I realized this weekend that loogie hawking is wildly accepted here in Korea. I don’t think I will partake in the act as I think it is kinda gross, but hey I can’t hate. If they want to hawk, let em’ hawk.

Koreans also like to slurp things, like soup or noodles. I mean you can’t blame the noodle part 'cus believe you me eating noodles with chopsticks is quite the task, but they love a good slurp. My boss told me that it’s okay to slurp because it means that you think the food is good so it’s a compliment, which made me feel better when I looked up at him embarrassed due to the noodles that were half in my mouth. Anyway, point is, I can’t judge them for this or think it is rude or gross, because I am here in their culture and if this is their norm then so be it! (Plus the slurping thing is something I can maybe adopt while being here).

Loving and missing you! Ab