Excuse the whining

This might be an important post. This may be the only time I really complain about being a foreigner here. I've always read that the four-month mark is about where people usually begin to have a change in emotions toward the culture around them and that, mixed with homesickness, leads to negative feelings about anything and everything one might experience in everyday life.

Not surprisingly my feelings came to a boiling point at Home Plus. I made a solo grocery trip tonight knowing the place would be a zoo, but I thought, I'll just put my iPod on and keep to myself. Not possible. It started as soon as I got in the taxi. There are two ways to get to Home Plus - one takes about five minutes longer because there are more traffic lights. All drivers know this and, after four and a half months, so do I. So, instead of taking the exit under the bridge, the driver decided he'd go straight. I wasn't having it. "Awrun-cho (right)", I said. I may be a foreigner but I'm not stupid, and I'm not paying extra to sit at traffic lights.

So I get to the store and have a look around in the home section before heading upstairs to the groceries. The place was a bloody madhouse - at 10 p.m. Which leads me to my next gripe. I understand that the pace of life is different here, and people live on a different sort of schedule, but no matter where you live, I'm pretty sure babies need to sleep. It doesn't matter if it's midnight, parents will be dragging (literally) their babies and toddlers out to the store, movie, market or wherever. It's no surprise then that 90% of babies you see during the day are passed out in slings on their mothers' backs.

Moving on. It's not an over-generalization to say that people do not look where they're walking. And the rule of thumb is that if you bump into someone inadvertently there's no need to acknowledge the incident or apologize - because it was an accident. This makes for a mess in the aisles and basically means anyone can push their cart in any direction without looking or leave their cart in any given spot without considering anyone else's space. So as I was heading down the toiletry aisle, a group of ladies were deciding on some skin products. They parked their cart neatly across the aisle and stood on either side as they debated which products they were going wash their annoying faces with. They saw me waiting but continued their important discussion. My patience was short and I was tired, not that I need to excuse my reaction, but I began repeatedly (lightly) banging my cart into theirs, hoping they might get the idea. Hmmm, nope, not yet. So I used my cart to push their cart back. One of them, clearly annoyed, finally let me pass.

On to the tofu section. There's a ton of tofu to choose from and a huge range of prices so I wanted to browse before I decided. But of course there are three employees giving me three separate spiels about three different kinds of tofu, all at the same time. I cannot tell you how much I was not in the mood for that. I saw a pack I wanted to get and I said "Olma (how much)?". "Eechon palbek aw-seep won (2,850)." I nodded, acknowledging I understood the price and took the tofu. Instead of just letting me walk away, the lady held up the price tag and pointed at it, as if I still didn't understand her (and that me walking away with the tofu didn't mean I was going to buy it), causing a few people behind me to laugh at the idiot foreigner who doesn't understand the language. Wow, this is exactly what I want to be doing right now - standing in a grocery store getting laughed at.

On top of all this, we recently received a pleasant little virus on our computer that essentially destroyed the hard drive, causing me to reformat the thing, meaning we lost most of our software and nearly lost our photos. Can I suggest to everyone to never use MSN Messenger and choose something like Skype or Google Talk instead?

I'm blaming my negativity on the rain, being tired (humidity makes it hard to sleep) and missing a few things from home, namely my friends these days. Although I wouldn't say I'm homesick. I'm sure these feelings will pass soon and I can get back to appreciating the people and the things around me, but right now I'm just not having any of it. I'd rather just stay in our villa, play on the floor with Cate and listen to music.