As I sit in this Panera Bread student infested corner, I write to you about my experience of conversation with a CIES student. I had the pleasure to meet with one of my conversation partners on Sunday to talk about how the holiday went. He is from South Korea, therefore, he did not celebrate Thanksgiving personally. Although, he did mention to me that on Thursday he hung out with his friends and ate a lot of good food... sounds like a good Thanksgiving to me!
He did mention that in Seoul, the Koreans celebrate a comparable holiday. Instead of a celebration of emerging colonists and Native Americans, it is a celebration of the new harvest year. We discussed about how many countries have eerily similar holidays. The topic of interest turned from holiday discussion to what is being consumed on the holidays. I have recently learned that South Korea likes to drink. Apparently it is custom to drink heavily on most days that end in Y; with no exception of holidays.
One thing that I found quite interesting, my conversation partner told me that Korean cabs often have Karaoke machines in the back of the cabs for the main purpose of "keeping the peace". I also learned that Koreans like to fight. Especially when inebriated and usually for no reason other than to swing at another person. Therefore, if everyone in the cab (which is usually the size of a short bus, therefore, there are roughly 10-20 people when occupied) is singing, there are less fights! How do you swing at someone who is belting out the chorus of Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies"? Ingenious Idea.
Our session ended there and we planned to meet later on this week. Until next time,
Matthew
See? Now I really want to go to Korea just to ride a taxi. I read this to my flatmate, she told me that there is a karaoke taxi in Key West, for the same purposes. Drunk people that are singing won´t fight or throw up all over the place!
ReplyDelete