Kara-not-oke

I’ve never seen so much communal teeth brushing (and I’m a big fan of communal brushing) as I do in the university toilets. All times of day, more often than not at least someone is giving their chops a scrub. The other day, and I kid you not, it was so crowded that someone was brushing at a urinal. I’m not quite sure where the obsession with constantly keeping their teeth clean has come from, but I can hazard a guess it’s from the same source as a load of other TAT that I have heard over the past few weeks. For instance: if I don’t have an umbrella, the acidity in the rain will make my hair fall out; if I drink water with a meal it will dilute my stomach acid, making digestion less efficient and making me fat; if I sleep at night with a fan on and the doors closed I WILL DIE.  Koreans may work and study ridiculously hard, but there appears to be a national inability to question utter BS.

Went to a 노래방/noraebang (essentially karaoke) with some Taiwanese course mates. Wow. I had not realised that karaoke etiquette is not a universal concept prior to this event. I sang the first song (September by Earth Wind & Fire, routine) whilst they proceeded to queue literally about 25 songs. The next song I had queued (Livin’ la vida loca, homage to the German Market) had not reached its turn in the queue within AN HOUR. My incredulity at this extreme discourtesy led me to leaving, meeting a friend (who received a rant on social politeness) and then playing some bus roulette.

Ah Bus roulette, quickly becoming a personal favourite of mine. Seoul rules are (just made that up) get on the first bus you see, pick a person at random (usually someone with an odd sense of fashion) and then get off when they do. Ended up in this dodgy neighbourhood where there seemed to be a lot of police cars, so promptly got on another bus and ended up in Gangnam (yes, the Gangnam of Gangnam style). I can confirm that the ‘Gangnam style’ is genuinely song title worthy as there are indeed many ‘hey, sexy lady’ [sic] .