Friday, December 21, 2007

Where the Beer is Piss and Israel is Just Something I Came Up With

The first time the owner of the hostel showed up was a couple of days ago, and acouple of days ago he invited us all to an all you can drink night-out. When I say night I mean 19:00 PM… Korea is pretty similar to England in their standards of drinking – its ok straight after work, no matter when.
Well, apparently, the owner is quite nice. Not only I really enjoy staying at this hostel, price and all, but the owner takes us to dinner for free? I love the sound of that, and I especially love the gurgling sound of some sort of ale flowing down my throat.
Now I know that some of you recall that maybe I’m not the ultimate drinking champion of Israel, but here in Korea, I reign supreme. Neither the Chinese, nor Koreans and not even the Japanese are in any way capable of handling their alcohol. Part of it is because their alcohol is piss. One of the famous alcohol drinks in Korea is called `Soju`, which can be smelled all over the subway after working hours. I tried it and I’m glad it’s over… it tastes like cheap vodka combined with radiator fluids.
But to my surprise, we had beer that night. I guess you could find here and there some decent European beers such as Heineken and Carlsberg, but its pretty damn expansive, so you reason with the beer called `Hite`, designed with the exact same fonts of `Sprite`. But hey, who am I to back away from free beer, even though it tasted like a very watery Maccabi beer.
And so, following the flowing of the beer, a decent conversation took off. Now, there was I, with 4 other Chinese and an indian, trying to get to know each-other. The owner politely asked where I am from, since he knew everybody else, and I answered that I come from Israel. Now most of you would have known the next question following the answer - `huh?!`
But to my surprise, the owner actually knew about Israel, unlike the other Chinese, who had found it difficult to pronounce the country name, or even guess what it is. Now, although I’m getting really used to people not knowing where in gods name is Israel, I really considered telling everyone that I come from Alabama and end once and for all this Sisyphean cycle of doom I’ve been going through. But, lo!, I was relieved of my explanation duty by the owner who took the matter into his own hands, and as I sipped my cold tasteless beer, I’ve heard him struggling but successfully describing Israel as the lonely Christian country surrounded by Muslims, somewhere in the Middle-east.
...well, at least he got it half right…
.....Luckily I was drinking beer, so I shook it off rather quickly and moved on to the main event, which was… well, drinking.
After 4 pints we all called it a night. Well, I drank 4 pints, while the others kept refilling my mug with their beer. Due to the quality of the beer, I barely felt woozy, while the others dropped like flies upon arrival to the hostel. Soon, the wooziness wore off, and I was left alone in the sleepy hostel… And I never forgot, that from now on, I come from that Christian lonesome country, called Israel.

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