Things I Hate

Whenever I say "Things I Hate" I am of course alluding to Anastasia Krupnik and her fantastic lists in the intermediate reader Lois Lowry books.

I absolutely detest spit, seeing other people spit, hearing other people spit, etc. When I watch baseball I will avert my eyes if they have a close-up on someone whose jaws are moving. In all of the movie Flatliners the one scene that makes me cringe and shudder is when the boy drools on Kiefer Sutherland. I mean, I really, really hate it, and many of you already know this quirk about me.

Well, I've certainly picked the wrong country to live in on that account! Within days of arriving I noticed that people here spit. A lot. On the sidewalk, just in a walk to work, there are several major encounters. It's so bad I've started in the last few weeks voicing my feelings, such as, "OH please don't please don't" as they're hacking, hocking, and preparing, and then "That is really disgusting" after the deed is done, or sometimes I throw in a few more angry and vulgar comments. Who cares, no one understands me anyway. They probably think I'm congratulating them on an especially nice one. It is foul. Bogue. Nasty. And it is everywhere. Sometimes even in the subway and such.

I also roundly dislike the after-smell of kimchi that lingers on people. I thought it was body odor for a while, but I finally caught on.

Other things I dislike I just avoid, like: the street vendors where everyone double dips, triple dips, quadruple dips, and so on in one communal sauce, which I think is a fantastic way to spread Hepatitis; the meat in every tofu dish and general lack of vegetarian food in restaurants; the motor-scooters that drive on the sidewalk...but the spit and the lovely aromas just hit me with no warning on a daily basis. Good times.