NEET

Been a good boy lately, did some exercise, inspired a few people, seeded most of my torrents most of the times, but still don't feel like I'm making any difference.

I learned the words "chigeopi eopseoyo" something like "I'm unemployed" in korean, to answer people's questions. And i remember when I was in Japan and learned the acronym NEET (neeto) which stands for "Not in Employment, Education or Training" so I could accurately explain what my status in the society is.


And I got many laughs, because japanese and korean always see foreigners as wealthy and successful, or at least brave enough to leave their countries and make a living abroad. So when they hear some foreigner is unemployed and living abroad they think it's funny! And most times they say "cool, same as me" and we can laugh together about it or just blame the economy.



I found out it works something like this: when you are in your home country, or where you grew up you have all this pressure, from family, friends, society, government to make a living, be successful or at least do something, when you're abroad is the opposite. You are expected to be relaxed, because you dont really know what's going on, you don't understand the news or the politics and usually can barely manage to get around.

You can do whatever you want and it's cool, because you're "traveling" and no one really cares much about what you do or don't do.



Unemployed in your home country = loser
Unemployed abroad = funny!



and yes, sure, you don't feel like you contribute much to the society, you don't pay taxes to support all the corrupt politicians, their armies and weapons of mass destruction.
You don't contribute much to the waste of resources for the production of useless goods we don't need and the destruction of our planet.
You don't get stressed and give away your life, your time and your health, so that other people above you can get even richer than they are.


But it's still cool, you get to hang out with other unemployed people, usually at odd times of the day in odd places, you get to read lots of fanfics and you get to write stuff like this so that in 10 years from now you can read it and say: "bruno, what a waste of talent, what were you thinking? you were so smart, you should have been inventing a time machine or something!!!"

ajumas and the bibimbap

Some months ago I stumbled upon the works of Dr. Bass, and the natural hygiene diet, and I found it quite interesting, specially on the part about sequential eating: http://drbass.com/sequential.html

So I read it, it made sense, I tested it, It worked, and have been trying to practice it, basically it says that different food are digested different, the order in the one we eat is important,  and it's better to eat the more watery food first, that are digested faster to conserve energy.

So when I go get bibimbap (which is one of the few vegetarian dishes at local restaurants) instead of mixing it, which is you are supposed to eat it according to ancient korean traditions, I'll eat first the veggies and then the rice.

But this practice seems to often upset the local old ladies (who, I suspect, haven't had the chance to read the works of Dr. Bass) and they always mix it for me, when they see i eat it separately.

Explaining in korean can be challenging, and even my english speaking friends would have problems understanding how the stomach or digestive system works. So I found some ways to trick them. Either sitting somewhere they can't see my plate, or pretending I mix things up and when actually just mixing the rice.

Sometimes I have to play with the lights and mirrors to make the illusion of mixing, which has made eating out a bit more challenging that it already was.

Anyway,  I love the 2900 won bibimbap across the street from my place and the ajumas who just want to teach me and make it more tasty for me.

And it's open 24 hours, so it gives me the chance to find out who goes for bibimbap on a tuesday at 4 am.

If you're ever around Sincheon I'll show it to you!

4 AM

Randy: hey bro, how's it going?

Bruno: not bad, yourself?

Randy: not bad either, what are you up to so late? it's like 4 am

Bruno: not much, catching up with some online stuff




















Bruno: what about you, what keeps you up?


Randy: same, just checking out some websites





















Bruno: cool, so no work tomorrow?

Randy: not much in the morning, gotta meet up some customers in the afternoon though, wanna come?

 


Bruno: not sure, got a couple of things to take care of







Randy: well catch you during the week then


Bruno: yeah