the sixth-month sickness

In case you didn't know, Korea uses Mario time which is much faster than real time.
The first 6 months have flown by! And that means I'm officially allowed to complain.

List of things I'm sick of:

Drunk men
When I first got to Korea it seemed that every man would hock a loogy as I walked by. I felt like they were showing me their disapproval. Then I realized I live a 'red light district' so I thought they were probably trying to get the pubes out of their throats... or perhaps they are mucus machines after sitting in a smokey bar all day.. or their lungs are purging years of industrial pollution.
Either way, it is annoying and makes me cringe every time I hear it.

Angsty Ajjumas* (not to be confused with Ajuma Nasenyana, she could push me around)
I'm sick of old ladies pushing me on the subway. Luckily the subways aren't that crowded, so it doesn't happen often. But its a really shitty thing to do. I'm thinking they have a lot of pent up aggression and they like to take it out on the "youth". Someone should develop a video game called Angry Ajjumas. They are a different species. I'll draw you a diagram sometime.

Kids.
They are horrid creatures. "Respect for teachers" my ass... That's all I'll say for now.

Being a minority.
I knew what I was in for before I came here but I was somehow able to block it all out for the first 6 months. I remained consciously unaware of people staring, pointing, talking about the "waygook" over there. Maybe I was so absorbed in my own thoughts and new surroundings that I was too busy to take notice.
OR...
I've been thinking about it lately and I think its easy to not feel self-conscious when you are happy. I think at the 6 month mark I suffered a mild depression leaving me more self-conscious than before. So when people look at me I feel like I am being judged negatively, whereas before my morale was high so that self-conscious thoughts didn't occupy me.
I wish I had an invisibility cloak so that I could walk around without being overtly observed. I feel like I am in a zoo sometimes.. sometimes the spectacle, sometimes the spectator.

It must suck to be a midget.

"Are you Russian?"
This falls mostly in the Drunk Men category. I've been asked this by several eager men.
They ask with a lusty expression.
You see... much of the sex worker industry is made up of Russians, so I am told.
Some teenaged girls shouted "How much?" as I passed them on the street. Ugh...

A friend and I got massages by some Chinese people in another red-light hot spot. They thought we were Russian. I'm sure my muscular legs and calloused hands didn't help, nor my giant 1980's hair. We swore we were English teachers.
It was pretty cool communicating with Chinese people in Korean.
"Lussia salam?"
"Anniyo! Mi gook salam imnida, yong a sunsangnim, chincha!"

Be sure to look out for the next list: "Things that are brilliant"