Hello, Kitty! Mobile

On the way back to school from eating Dog Soup (If you’re not a vegetarian nor an animal rights activist defending Western cultural norms, try it!), I had the opportunity to ride in one of my fellow English teacher’s vans. I knew he was a family man, supporting a wife and daughter back in Chuncheon, but I had no idea to what extent he was… well, in America we’d call him whipped (sound effect of cracking whip, accompanied by appropriate hand motion). In Korea, I guess he’s just married, and the car is an extension of the decorative control his wife would have at home. At any rate, every upholstered surface of the car was covered in pink Hello, Kitty paraphernalia. Seat covers, steering wheel cover, dash cover, seatbelt straps, gear-shifter, etc. The works. (I should note that, culturally speaking, pink is quite in fashion for both genders in Korea. I applaud this. I think men should wear pink more often. After all, didn’t Don Johnson (“Miami Vice”) and The Duke himself where it?)

As if this wasn’t exciting enough to blog about, as soon as the turned the ignition key, my ears were bombarded by fully pumped out hip-hop. The dichotomy was so overwhelming, I did not know whether to expect a Barbie movie to appear on his in dash display screen or for the car itself to activate it’s hydraulics system as we “bounced” back to the school.