Boat Race = Face, well according to Cockney rhyming slang it does anyway. Once upon a time I was an undergraduate student, and in my fourth year I lived with three, let’s say…unique characters: Alex, Giovanni (AKA, Mrs. Goo), and Roberto. We were all very different, but somehow we functioned as a unit. I’m not saying it was a particularly sturdy unit, but it was a unit nonetheless 
It became “our thing” to use the phrase: “proper mad boat”. We heard English actor Danny Dyer say it one time on TV and it caught on like a rat up a drain pipe. I think somebody even created a FB page for it too, because of course, that was a lot more productive than writing our dissertations…But nothing was shocking in the world of Face Book, in fact we even took the time to create a profile for the leather cat that sat upon our mantle piece, as you do. ..If you fancy befriending him, feel free to check out his profile right here: https://www.facebook.com/thirtytwoeuro.leathercat it’s been a while since I checked up on his status, but apparently, by all accounts, he is in an open relationship.
Anyway, the term proper mad boat was used to describe any individual sporting an extremely outlandish face/facial expression. There were some diamonds let me tell you, and these days in Korea I am encountering a whole new dimension of mad boats. Jiwon, if put into a natural environment, has this ability to put on the most ludicrous of faces. A picture paints a thousand words, so I will just show you. (Warning: these photos are rated B, for bloody hilarious.)
I saw some hilarious faces on the subway tonight too. There were many that caught my attention, but my personal favourite I like to coin: “Ajumma chewing a wasp”. Unfortunately I do not have the evidence, but use your imagination. On a serious note however, I am often shocked to witness a distinct lack of happiness on the Seoul underground. To be frank, I have more chance of winning the lottery than I do of spotting more than 5 smiles on any given commute. You very rarely see an elderly person smile these days, and the reason for this is because they most probably possess a different belief set about what smiling constitutes. Whilst we attribute it to happiness, I think that they see it rather differently, and more along the lines of representing a lack of manners, modesty and seriousness. Whatever the reason, it does not change the fact that a man stared at me today with a face that looked like Mr. Potato head on crack, for about 5 minutes, and without battering an eye-lid. Fair play to you sir…
These days Koreans do not stare that much, unless you are one of those expats that look like a caricature of a human being, and Jesus, there are many in Seoul these days. The younger generation are well educated and worldlier, but sometimes the old people look at me like I just let out the filthiest of sharts. I slinked into the subway tonight and stood up by a woman due to lack of seating. She was sleeping and when she came alive again, the first thing she saw was me. I have not seen someone so disturbed in years; it must have been like stepping out of a dream into a nightmare for her Jiwon’s way of dealing with them is to stare back with a screwed up clown face, and from experience, it seems to do the trick.
I came out of work today and had a cigarette in my usual spot. A man rode up the hill beside me on a tatty old bike. He was in a hurry, but unfortunately the hill was too steep and he rolled all the way back to the bottom. The most harrowing thing of all is that this event was the highlight of my day. Says a lot about my life these days I suppose!
Everyone is in a rush in Korea though, and with my somewhat laid back attitude, I hate the hustle and bustle of big city life. Taxis behave like lunatics, jumping red lights in spontaneously aggressive fits that really do make you feel uneasy. In Korea, the idea seems to be to get things done as quickly as humanly possible, and sod the quality because that just does not matter. Quantity over quality is also the philosophy in my current place of work. I am leaving tomorrow however, so good luck to the boss with that one, he will most certainly need it…
The way Koreans live life in the fast lane is all too familiar, and it is a reflection of a nation that developed at break-neck speed during the rapid period of industrialization and economic miracle. Whilst this was successful in some respects, I suggest that people in this country take a little bit of advice from my friend Ferris Bueller, indeed:
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”