Guilty Pleasure

I have started having this sort of guilty pleasure since I went to Korea. Korea is a very very busy place, and has made me realize how much more of a leisure kind of lifestyle we have in Canada. For those with similar cultural background as I, working can be summed up like this:

- lucky people get 9-5, Monday through Friday; part-timers usually have 5-9 Thu-Fri and one or both weekend shifts of 9-5

- part of our salary is deducted as "vacation pay" as we cumulate hours we can take off and still get paid. Full-timers get longer vacations in the long run, but it usually starts with a full week off. People can also tell their boss in advance that they plan on having a full-month trip somewhere (people here usually go to resorts in hot places during our cold winter) that will not be paid, but still.

In Korea, company workers get, when they are lucky, 5 days vacation (and that usually includes the weekend) when they are new somewhere. And that's about it. There is no notion of deciding to take some vacation time, unless you're willing to quit your job and start over somewhere new when you get back from vacation.

Koreans are, by choice or not, work-a-holics who will work their brains out until little hours of the morning, or somethings until it's the next day (personally I think there is a big problem of efficiency in this system, as I am persuaded that people that overwork themselves and tire themselves out will not be as efficient as people who rest properly, work less hours but more efficiently because they're brain is not all mushy... but let's not go there now).

I do admire the humongous amount of work and dedication they put into work. They strive for new, for greatness. They adapt stuff from everywhere and make it their own (let's not talk about the lack of respect of copyright.....), which goes to say that they don't believe they are the only ones who can come up with great stuff: they know when to borrow stuff from other cultures and use it to better themselves.

The crazy pace of life in Korea however, leaves little, if any time for people to breathe, to be tired, to have that little 2 minutes to stop before the next move. They are soooo busy that they don't even yawn (I am not including students here, because for students, yawning is a must) in public.

They do, however, in their cars.

Here is my guilty pleasure. I love stopping at traffic lights when I am on foot, and look into Koreans' cars. The only moment they believe themselves alone enough to let out a big deep yawn, swallowing the entire planet into their unguarded mouths.

Every single car I've looked long enough has, at some point, had its user let a yawn out.

So yes, I am probably some sort of a yawning watcher closet pervert.

There.

#guiltypleasure #yawning #SouthKorea