Meat

As I walk around the city I am struck by all the cartoon images and lighting. It as if the city was designed by an eight year old. Albeit, a horny eight year old who's a devout Evangelical Christian; because there is also a ridiculous amount of near naked women and crosses (what a confused little eight year old).

However, it is the cartoon images that I am going to focus on in this post. It is because the majority of the cartoon images are of cows, pigs, ducks, chickens, octopus, eels and fish. The animals are plastered on the top of a majority of restaurants and then bellow is poorly lit photo of the animals meat on top of broth and vegetables (if all I saw were these poorly lit photos juxtaposed to the professional looking photos of fast food restaurants, then I would never eat good food). The cartoon animals on these restaurants always have enormous smiles and seem to be ecstatic that you are about to eat them.

So I got to thinking why in a society that absolutely loves cartoons (the Simpsons and Sponge-Bob are incredibly popular) do they cartoonize these animals they are about to eat? Do they consciously or subconsciously make any connection between the food on their plate and the animals on the signs? Do they secretly have blood lust for killing the adorable cow?

I would imagine most Koreans do not make any connection between the cartoon animal and the food on their plate other then the fact that the cartoon pig signals that this place is selling pork. Further, the culture does a lot of repressing and my arm chair psychological analysis would guess that probably factors in to their love of cartoons. Finally, the Korean people have been treated terribly for decades and that perhaps caused them to crave all the treasures that they were neglected from throughout the years. These treasures include material objects and meat...pounds and pounds (or kilos and kilos) of meat.

Minor culture difference

In my dealings with other expats (foreigners) we typically talk about the Korean idiosyncrasies that stand out to us. One that inevitably gets brought up is the fact that Koreans do not distinguish between toilet paper, tissues and napkins. I argue that there really is little difference. They are all just light weight paper that we use to help us clean ourselves. In the USA I used toilet paper to clean my nose and in emergency situations I will use tissues or sometimes napkins to wipe my bum (I really hope no one reading this thinks they would be cleaver saying TMI, because thats a pretty terrible expression. Almost as bad as saying Party foul, but I digress.) Anyway I bring this up because this seems to be one of the more innocuous culture differences but one that seems to incessantly be brought up. I fail to see why it is brought up, other then someone trying to be cute or just looking for a reason to poo-poo the culture. Thus far the only complaints I have about their culture are the same basic complaints I have with my culture and that is vanity and overindulgence. Though, I am probably more likable over here because I shut the hell up about my sanctimonious critiques.

Get Your Filthy Hands off Our Women

I came to Korea largely on the recommendation from my friend/neighbor Jeff. Jeff is low key, agreeable, thoughtful, and friendly guy. I mention these characteristics because I have gone out with him and his girl friend, Hae-mi, three times and 2/3 of the nights ended with Jeff leaving enraged. This is a result of Korean men being highly provocative towards him, for what at first, seemed to be no apparent reason. However, after further less intoxicated review and with the help of a translator it becomes fairly obvious what the reason was. As the title of this blog post has spoiled it is as a result of him dating a Korean girl. Though I would further hypothesize that it is because this Korean girl is attractive. I base this hypothesis on the fact the previous weekend I met randomly with two British guys who were with plumper and less appealing women. Their displays of affection were not met with glares so much as they were met with Koreans averting their eyes.

The first time he got enraged was when we were at a "western bar" called NPub. There two 20 something Koreans who looked quite nerdy joined our table. We then shared a 13 dollar pint of beer that Jeff purchased. They proceeded to offer me endless compliments in a transparent fashion, that made me think they were doing it for reasons other then the fact that they really did think that I had "kind eyes". After we finished we played some pool and they continued to compliment me on my below average pool playing ability. I then tried to befriend this little Korean guy who reminded me of the nerdy Japanese guy from Heroes. Hae-mi then asked if I was enjoying my date with this little Korean guy, (while I understood the implication, the observation was factually incorrect because you can't really go on a date with someone right after you meet them, so who's really the gay one). I then tried to explain it was because he was sitting at a table full of desirable women and she responded that I should just talk to the women and then I had no response. So I am talking to this quirky little Korean guy, who is totally not introducing me to the women and then out of know where Jeff says something to the effect of "this asshole is calling me a babo (a harsher form of stupid,) and he's trying to hit on you, so "fuck him". At this point, I went to pee and while peeing I questioned if those guys were honest about my eyes looking kind. When I get done they were gone and raced down the stairs outside and saw them grabbing a taxi with a lot of yelling and bad words getting bandied about. There is no fight, which is perhaps a disappointing conclusion, but I am blogging and have to maintain the integrity of the truth.

The second time a Korean guy started a fight was last night. I think it was because Jeff and Hae-mi were holding hands. I was super drunk and only remember leaving NPub and then hearing Jeff yell. This was followed by a Korean guy repeatedly yelling "I fuck you mom". Then Jeff kept loudly explaining to Hae-mi that this guy says he wanted to "fuck my mom". I tried to explain to Jeff that if you really parsed the words, he was actually saying that he wanted to fuck his own mom. Though in my drunken state I probably didn't exactly use the word parsed or really anything understandable, actually if I am being totally truthful then I think I just giggled and said nothing.

this blog

Immediately after pressing the submit on the blog title I started regretting not adding the extra "in" and not having it read "Musings in Incheon". First, the city I am living in is Incheon and its not that well known a city to my potential audience, to the point where I can and should be making a play on words. Second, as I typed it I thought that it was quite cleaver, but on closer inspection, I am starting to think it actually might be quite lame. Third, using the word "musings" perhaps might highlight a perception that I am pretentious.

This blog is about my observations from my time in Incheon. I am going to state from the beginning that I only intend for friends and family to read it, so when it does blow up I can act like it was a total shock that this blog just gained in audience out of know where. I think by writing the previous sentence, I just jinxed any chance of that happening.

PS: add or possibly subtract 7 hours from whenever it says I am making a post (I have no idea why it is 7 hours, because the time difference is 14 hours from East coast time zone)