KOREA AND QUITTING SMOKING

So. I've been very lazy, not really posting anything of substance for quite some time. However, these things happen, and at my defence I was working like a mule trying to save and get ready etc etc etc for my next point which is I'm in K-town aka South Korea where the kimchi is hot and I'm supposedly a "Russian prostitute".

Now, I've never really had the nous for many subtleties however one can't help but notice in a city of dark haired strangers that your snow white complexion doesn't exactly just blend in with the snow like you had hoped, especially when you're powering down the street alone smoking a cigarette. According to my French friend, who is king of cultural sensitivity, I am the white she-devil and the Ah-jo-shi's (old men/uncles) are going to burn me alive in the city square.

It is things like this that without the guidance of well informed expats I would have been blissfully unaware of. Another thing for instance, never has a Korean mentioned to me the similarities I share with that of the "Russian prostitute" however, it is approximately 80% of expats I meet here that bring the damn thing up - simply because I'm a blonde haired white woman. God bless them.

Apparently in the 90's during the downfall of the Soviet Union while Korea's economy was booming tons of Russian Prostitutes flooded into Korea selling themselves to the willing Ah-jo-shi's and tarnishing the name for my fair creatures indefinitely. And even though its not so bad now as it once was, apparently my quiet stroll up the street enjoying a smoke in the bitter cold is in fact my being crudely bold and obvious of my willingness to partake in all manor of sexual exploit. Great.

This brings me to my third point; quitting smoking. On the way through to Korea from Australia I had to transfer in Malaysia. Excellent I have time, I'm quite desperate at this point, I'll partake in the purchasing of a carton of super cheap cigarettes to take into Korea. However, low and behold, as I'm practically tearing the card with my teeth in the smoking lounge of the airport, packets tumble out with grotesque visual anti-smoking propaganda. That's cool, I can handle it, regardless if its 100 times worse than in Australia.. I'm a big girl, I'm aware of these outcomes.

Roll on new years eve and the subsequent celebrations that carried on for three days as crew here took the party to an other city, hotel rooms and a beach side condo, drinking, having fun, smoking etc. etc. There is one thing in particular that I'm quite fond of here and that is their drinking culture. It's huge. However, its done quite differently to Australia, with most drinking done while enjoying a meal. This is all good and well, where it not for Soju, a liquor of unmitigated horror, where you can party for three days in another city and not remember a thing, and unfortunately it often goes hand in hand with smoking ridiculous amounts of cigarettes, should you be a smoker. Come Monday when I wake up back in my room feeling a little worse for wear, I swallow to discover my tonsils and sore and swollen, sitting at my desk I turn to see a life sized blistering cancer consumed mouth my friend had torn from the side of the carton when I arrived to point out its repugnancy.


I intend to quit smoking.








Australia vs. Malaysia












....and this guy because I thought it was cute.