rude skiers

anyway, the main thing i want to write, how koreans bring their lack of personal space and pushiness onto the slopes.

mostly it's pretty bad on the subway and on the streets and sometimes in stores. they just push and shove and there are no apologies or sorry faces or "excuse me"s.

i've mostly gotten a little more used to it. this translates into, i push and shove back and figure if they wanna be "ugly koreans" then i'm gonna be an "ugly american" with no manners either. i also have taken to talking about them in english out loud instead of just muttering under my breath. they usually don't even notice i'm talking about them, but when they do they definitely understand my tone and the derision in my face.

so anyway, this past weekend when i went skiing, THEY BRING THIS ATTITUDE TO THE SLOPES!!! and to make it worse the resort we went to at least, doesn't really have lines or roped line making areas like in america (land of rhyme and reason). they have a GATE type entryway right at the front of the lift and there's just this MASS MOB THRONG of people behind it ... it's ridiculous. ALSO, this is not like walking down the street in a coat .. this is like THERE ARE METAL POLES BEING STUCK AT ME from all angles and people SLAMMING their snowboards on my toes!!!

but i soon figured out a way to elbow them out. and eventually i just got annoyed and started commenting on this ridiculousness to my hostsibs in english. at one point i was POINTING to the kid right next to me and saying he was rude. i understand this was childish and just as rude if not more of me to behave in this way ... but sometimes ... you just need a release. i promise i will search for healthier ways of taking this in and being more culturally ambassadorial. (that'll be one of my quests in this coming semester).

next observation: there were very young children and college students and adults on the slopes ... but no middle/high school age students. i slowly noticed this. at first i was just like, oh look at all the young children. oh look at all the young adults. ... and finally i was like waaaaaaait ... where are all the adolescents??? studying at home and going to hakwon ... poor korean students ... horrible cyclically torturous education system ... it was so odd .. there's a WHOLE DEMOGRAPHIC missing from the merrymaking and fun in korean culture ... =T