Topsy Turvy

It's like a top... it just keeps on spinning, even in various conditions. The dining room, the kitchen, the sidewalk... just give it a flat surface and the little gadget will impassively spin around and around. It doesn't matter if you spin it and then walk out of the room. It doesn't pause... it just continues until the force of gravity finally brings it to a standstill.

Life is like that... spinning round and round... until its end. It may be short, but it's certainly a persistent little thing. And, like the aforementioned trinket, things do not pause when you leave or rewind when you return.

Perhaps life ought to be more like Tivo. Leave for a bit, and no worries, you can always press rewind when you return. That way my narcissistic desire to be included in everything I find pleasurable can be granted.

It's hard to be everywhere at once... unless you're the internet. Although I can't speak from experience, as I have never tried such a thing. I doubt I could handle the stress.

Either way, I sit here with the top. Wondering... should I continue fussing over my inability to savor all moments... lest the spinning top come to an...

American Social Etiquette

An interesting thing came to my attention the other day.

In America, when people see acquaintances they haven't talked to for a while, it's typical social etiquette to suggest hanging out "Hey! it's been a while, we should hang out!"

However, actual desire to hang out is not implicit in this statement. It's just a part of the social norm to suggest. It doesn't mean you'll actually hang out.

It's similar to the "what's up" question... people don't actually want to know what's up... unless it can be shortened to one or two sentences.

Either of these two scenarios can be especially confusing for foreigners to the US, since they might very well take these things literally!

I tried testing this out with some of my American friends back home. I don't talk to them very often being here in Korea, and one of them recently suggested hanging out soon. The situation deems it unlikely we'll ever hang out, so I tried some social deviance!

I tried to defy social etiquette by following up and acting like I really wanted to make plans to hang out. The result was suprisingly humorous.

American style...

When you visit another country/culture, you really begin to learn about your own! I realize things I've always considered, as an American, to be normal and "universal"

My boss calls this "american style" Add semi-negative tone to that quote. When she refers to "american style" it's usually a negative thing. Almost sounds derogatory coming from her.

There are many things I have taken for granted in American culture, which are in fact NOT universally practiced. This is an interesting experience, to say the least.

Personal space/privacy is a big one. I've visited latino/hispanic cultures (Mexico, and subcultures in the US) so I am familiar with pretty close range physical relationships which are typical in those communities.

It's not just physical space here. It's general privacy. Privacy just doesn't exist.

From people barging into my apartment while i'm sleeping to clean for me, to being told how I ought to manage my life- privacy is just a "foreign" concept here. ;)

If someone has a problem with you, they say it to your face. If they don't like you they tell you. If they want to know something, they ask- there is no fear of prying! Quite humorous at times. American social etiquette has not taught me to be used to in depth private questioning about my specific choices and how I made them and why.