Soju

Lol, what a title for a blog post, hah?
No, I am not a heavy drinker, and this is not an AA advice post.

The closer to my arrival to Asia, the more I think about stories, people, places.

If I think now about especially nice sutuations, these were always when I was asked" 어디서 오셨어요?" "where are you from?" by a bartender or waitress or the owner of some small restaurant business somewhere, I replied: "처 는 펄 란드 사람 임니다" "I am Polish" or "I come from Poland" more formal.

Apart from learning immediately that Korean people love Chopin, Pope and Lech Walesa I usually got free siders and Soju.

So what's that Soju?
That's in it's pure form a rice vodka. It can have from 20 to 45% and better be carefull with it. Tastes like a sweet warming almost neutral spirit and really gets into you, especially when you are an "economic drinker" lol.

For polish people, especially guys it's not much of a problem, but sometimes we can find ourselves in non-comforting business situations when we drink. And drink, And drink. And even more drink. Until everyone is under the table- that's Korean way of drinking even in official formal situations.

What then? Well, my chemist academic teacher used to say that alcohol is basically a poison after 150-200g but somehow Polish and Russians are resistant. So compared to Korean person, Polish should survive this heavy drinking and steadily walk home really well.

What if someone is, like me, an economic drinker. Well, then it's better to quickly pretend a state of total knock-off.

In our European heads (don't know many American, sorry) , as we are in our essence non-honest and false people, that raises a question. What comes next? What if someone uses the things we said or stuff we have done against us later especially in  business talks or negotiations?

No fear over here. No need to be afraid that we will be later blackmailed or manipulated. In Korea there is a one magic rule - an amnesia after drinking.

During alcohol parties surpressed emotions come out. People sometimes forget about confucian "non-burden keep-quiet about yourself and your needs" attitude. So our Korean counterparts won't use this against us as they have their dark side as well.

Back to work.