As promised, I continue the list of quirks that my roommate had.
Ms. Northkorea was the kind of a person who didn't seem to be skilled at socializing. She would stay in the apartment most of the Friday nights, watching whatever she watches and laughing. Very loudly. In the beginning when I was more concerned about her before she completely lost her respect from me and before I was used to her living style, I was worried whenever she laughed. It always sounded like she was choking on something and she was struggling for breath. This was very possible since she was often eating something while watching Korean shows, and I worried that I would have to do the abdominal thrusts (a.k.a. Heimlich maneuver) on her someday.
source: http://www.getfrank.co.nz/how-to-perform-the-heimlich-maneuver/
As a girl who grew up in Korean culture, I was taught and seen people to keep their shoes near the front door. This is how all Korean homes are designed, so I thought she would be used to this concept of keeping her shoes somewhere near the front door. Or at least keeping them in one corner so no one else, namely me, can trip over them. She just seemed to not understand why I asked her several times to keep her shoes at one place please, even though she has watched me trip over them pretty badly a few times. I am the type of person who can trip over just about anything. I sometimes trip and look back wondering what I tripped over, and there's nothing, just flat concrete floor. So if there are big shoes on random places in the living room and in the bedroom, it can only be assumed that the results are not pretty.
I believe that how dirty the rest of the place is, the kitchen is the one place that should be kept relatively clean. Unfortunately, Ms. Northkorea didn't share this idea with me. She ate in a lot, both by cooking and ordering food. Whenever she cooks, I can later come in and tell exactly what she cooked, what ingredients and utensils she used, where she ate it, and approximately how long ago she cooked and ate. For takeouts, she usually doesn't finish her food, and just leaves the left overs out in the open for a few days until she finally decides that they are allowed in the trash. It's the same deal when she cooks, except worse. She would leave the leftovers in the plates for days, and when she finally throws the food away, the plates remain uncleaned for at least another week until they are washed. Also, I always had to question her understanding of the electric grinder. She enjoys eating shellfish such as mussels, and always specifically left the shells in the sink. I half believed that she was smart enough to understand that they belong in the trashcan, but the other half of me was afraid that she would try to grind them, which made me throw them away in the trash for her.
source: http://www.theprofessionalassistant.net/2008/02/co-workers-not-cleaning-up-after.html
Wasn't quite here (don't think we had enough plates and silverware to be this bad) but almost.
Also, one of the most interesting/weirdest/annoying habit she had was that she would throw away silverware after eating takeouts. For the first semester, we lived on only my source of silverware which consisted of two pairs of chopsticks, two spoons and a fork. Since she was the one who ate in all the time, she used them much more than I did. I had no problem with that, but I noticed one day that a pair of chopsticks was missing. I don't know what stimulated me to do it, perhaps the belief that Ms. Northkorea is actually that ignorant, I started looking in the trash for it...and there it was. My precious, one out of two pair of chopticks sitting in one of the takeout containers, tangled up in leftover noodles. I also soon noticed that my fork was missing, and assumed that it had suffered the unfortunate death.
I hope I am not so blind about my own weirdness as she was, and I have less quirks. I vow to my future roommates that I would fix whatever quirks they discover about me because, as I have learned this year, quirks could come in various shapes and sizes and you never know how they could effect the people around you.
