Public Drunkenness

Drinking in Korea is not a shameful thing, it’s a social thing. It’s encouraged as a social activity and people do it, a lot. Public drunkenness is also in no way scorned..(that’s not to say that Andrea and I didn’t get a few odd stares as we pounded back vodka coolers on the subway the other day… but we’re foreigners, so that’s kind of a given). But seriously, nobody reprimands or bats a disapproving eye when men stumble down the street in a drunken stooper. A few weeks back I was on the subway in the evening (it was about 6pm) and a very drunk man in a business suit was passed out beside me. In fact, he was definitely passed out on me, and using my shoulder and right arm for support. Every so often he’d jerk himself up straight and waver back and forth in every other direction before he returned for my support. At one point his head fell down so far in front of him that it threw off his weight and pulled him off the seat. He toppled forward and landed on all fours on the subway floor. Then he crawled back onto the seat and back onto the safety of my shoulder. I felt like I was the only one who noticed, or cared, and maybe that’s because I was bearing most of his weight…Then last night, stumbling home at 4am, we ran across another sure sight to behold…a soju victim passed out on a chair out front of family mart. It seemed only necessary that we seize the photo opportunity before heading home to pass out ourselves, with only slightly more class.