Drinking...

is a national pastime.

That little chart means that ONE person drinks about 6 bottles of bastard vodka A MONTH. Let's do a little math, eh? A bottle of soju is about 7 shots. The pictured beer bottle is about 5 glasses, and makgeolli is impossible to measure. With that in mind, that's about 40 shots of soju, 30 glasses of beer and a butt-ton of makgeolli.....Oh, Korea... I love you.


So yeah, people drink a lot. Now, onto the real shocker for me: who they drink with.

Teachers and Professors.
I would never DREAM of drinking with my professors. In fact, as a student, if you see them in a bar, it's quite awkward and you try to ignore them. So, imagine my complete surprise when in the middle of class, a professor suggested that we all go out for happy hour sometime and have drinks together.

WHAT?!?!?!

Yep. Go out for drinks as a class. Lawsuit waiting to happen. (Litigious USA, for the win)
I did grow up in the States, and of course I knew about keg parties and frat parties and all that craziness, but I never really did any of it. There were a few times I'd go out with a group and play with the infamous Solo cups, but it wasn't anything too spectacular or memorable. with that in mind, how would I go out for drinks with a professor? Someone I'm supposed to see in a professional capacity. Because honestly, "let's stop drinking." said no one ever.


Co-workers and higher ups.
Therein lies the mystery of mysteries:"hway-shick" (again, pronunciation, NOT spelling).
What's that? You go out with your company to eat and "play" and "be friendly". In simple terms, get drunk with your co-workers. I was really surprised. My hagwon owner and all of the teachers went to some grubby bar and the proceeded to get absolutely smashed. I would never imagine getting drunk with my co-workers back at home, let alone with my boss.  My BOSS was red faced, screaming, spilling drinks and couldn't stand up. She was that drunk.  That's what we call 'lawsuit' back home.

Not so uncommon. *And there no open container or public intoxication laws, here*

A good Korean friend of mine worked for a very high-status company. For some odd reason, they invited me to join them after work for drinks.  I got there and they were all in their company jackets, drunk as all get out. Really, the one guy was passed out on the table and the youngest one was so drunk he couldn't keep his head up, yet he had to keep going because his superiors  kept pouring him drinks. I just can't wrap my head around it.

Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with alcohol. It's just a completely different mindset, here. As for for me, it wasn't until I came to Korea that alcohol and I became good buddies. Most (if not all) of that was thanks to "teaching". Go out after work and swap horror stories  over a few beers and cheap drinks (much easier because most of us didn't finish work until after 8pm). Plus, soju tastes like cheap vodka without the burn, so it mixes well with beer. Double punch.  Add into that the cultural aspect of drinking in South Korea (you'll regularly see characters drinking and drunk on TV), and you've got a national sport going.

In the end:

It even comes in juice-box form!

God bless cheap alcohol. No, seriously. A 13 oz bottle of 40 proof  is about a dollar. As a broke student, I can appreciate the cheap isht in life.