Noise

Noise. You hear it everywhere. It makes you grateful for those few moments of absolute silence every day. Silence was something I definitely took for granted at home in Canada. I'm not saying I don't love Korea, but where is the line when it comes to noise?

It's 12:58am right now. Less than five minutes ago the rooster, yes that's right...the ROOSTER that lives somewhere behind me was cock-a-doodle-doing... AT ONE AM. Just to let you all know, I live in a city with close to 800,00 people and am nowhere near the countryside. Granted, it was only a brief moment of noise. I'm sure the rooster was just talking in his sleep. Let me tell you, I've been threatening to have this rooster for dinner every day for the past few months. Every single morning it's out there screaming "cock-a-doodle-dooooooooooo," over and over and over. I've never lived on a farm but apparently roosters do not shut up once the sun has actually risen.

I was awake at 5:45 am today to head to the DMZ and I prayed I was awake before this rooster. It's still dark out. The rooster won't be up yet was literally the second thought I had this morning. The first being if I could squeeze any more time to sleep. Well, I was wrong. My arch nemesis, Mr. Rooster, was fully awake and screaming for the sun.

Mr. Rooster is in addition to the nightly cat fights. Every single night there are cats fighting on my street. Then there are the crying babies. Then there are all the drunks...and yes, I've been louder than appropriate on a few occasions myself, I'm not denying that.

You think I would be finished with the noise? But no! How could I forget the throat singer?!?! Oh yes, that's right. There's a throat singer who lives on my street. Whether he's intoxicated or not while he walks up and down the street practicing his surprisingly impressing throat singing is up for debate. He does like to do this after 11:00pm.

Let's also not forget the delivery motorcycles and their pimped out flashing lights and music. At least you can hear when to go down to the door and get your food.

There was also the night where a woman screamed bloody murder from 4-9am. I never did figure out what was going on with that.

After that, there are the trucks that sell anything from strawberries to televisions that drive around every day with their megaphones playing their pre-recorded advertisements; "banana oh cheon-on, kamja, kamja, kamja sam cheon-on, talgae yuk cheon-on" over and over every single day. I understand these people need to make a living but once again it is an "only in Korea" situation. In many parts of the world, there are these magical things called by-laws.

By-laws are indeed magical. They stop my neighbours from having a rooster. I've lived peacefully with the fruit trucks, the cat fights, the drunk people and the delivery bikes for months...but the rooster is sounding tastier and tastier each and every morning I can't go back to sleep. The only two problems about eating Mr. Rooster are 1-I don't know which yard he actually lives in and 2-I am and forever will be too busy to kill and pluck a rooster (or any bird for that matter) for the rest of my life. Chickens aren't birds, they are just things called boneless, skinless breasts at the supermarket and just like ham and bacon, they come from a magical animal that I don't picture ever having lived.

Anyways, that is my rant on the need for these magical things called by-laws. I believe I'll see a unicorn first... I bet they are all held hostage in North Korea.