Chopsticks

Getting used to the whole chopstick thing was, of course, a little challenging at the beginning. But now, I 'm an old pro. I'm by no means as experienced as my Korean colleagues; able to pick up the smallest grain of just about anything or dissect whole fish to the point only the fine bones remain-- but I'm pretty good. I've mastered eating chicken wings, cutting whole pieces of meat and even eating spaghetti with  just my chopsticks. 

I've put them in my hair when I ran out of elastics and once I even used a single chopstick to act as a screw driver and it actually worked.  I've pretended to be a kick ass drummer while waiting for my food to arrive, but besides that, I never really gave much thought chopsticks being used for anything other than eating or  quirky quick fixes. 

Last week, I was given the opportunity to witness another major use of chopsticks.   Who would have thought that you could pop open a cold one using a pair of chopsticks? I've seen men break a sweat trying to pop one without an opener. I've witnessed broken bottle edges and damaged lighters in heavy attempts to get the beer open. For the first time in my life, I saw a man crack open the bottle in one simple swoop. I was so astonished, that I made him do it again so I could verify what I had just seen.

Apparently, most Korean men are capable of doing just that- some say it's even a rite of passage.  I think it's awesome, and as they handed over the sticks for me to try- I realized its not so simple as it looked. I fumbled for about 5 minutes and finally gave up. I'll be sure to master this little trick before I head home.  Seriously, how cool would I be if  everywhere I went I whipped out my chopsticks and opened men's beers?? Just a thought.