Story Time

The last post was the overview.. here are the stories. There are only 2 that I really want you to read.

Today, when I got back from Hangzhou, I was in McD's getting some lunch before catching my last bus. McD's is a place that you commonly see other foreigners. I didn't think much of it when a middle aged man walked in. I just continued my burger eating and drinking of fountain coke. Since I was eating alone, my eyes tend to linger around at the other people in the restaurant. I like to see what everyone else is eating and how they are interacting with their lunch dates. I also like to analyze the wardrobe choices of most people. You can tell a lot by a person's clothes. Well, I was lingering.. and my eyes caught the eye of the foreigner. He smiled and nodded. A common guesture between foreigners in China. Shows the bond of being a foreigner in a country so drastically different than your own. Well, when you've been in China for a while you start to get this attitude of "I don't want to meet every foreigner in China." I don't have this attitude, but when you've been on a train for 8 hours and busses for accumulation of about 4.. you don't really want to make polite small talk. So I looked down at my burger.

This is the point where it gets more interesting. The foreign man proceeds to sit at a table near me.. close enough to talk while we eat. I smile and speed up the consumption of my double cheeseburger so that he isn't tempted to make small talk. He does though. He asks where I'm from. I answer with a polite, but tight smile.. "America." His smile changes and he looks down. Intrigued, I ask his nationality. He replies, "I am an Iraqi.. I am sorry I spoke to you." My heart broke into a million pieces. I smiled more kindly and held the tears back.. "It's Ok. I don't mind. Are you here on business?" He looked up a little more hopeful, and responded with a polite "Yes."

At this point I am deciding just how much time I have till I crash over. I am exhausted and dirty. I decide a small conversation won't hurt. I move over to his table and visit with him. He tells me he had to leave his country because it is too dangerous to live there. His family could not get visas, so they are all still there fighting to stay alive everyday. He asked about my whereabouts in America and my life in China. We talked about how young of a teacher I am and compared Ningbo to Hangzhou. I didn't win him over to believe that Hangzhou is the best, but we agreed to disagree. He is here with a company and is the only foreigner. He doesn't have any friends or know anyone really. I told him he could come to dinner with us when we came downtown sometime. "Really? I could do that?" My heart broke again. I explained that all of my friends are not American, and in fact the reason I was outside America was because I loved other cultures and languages so much. I wanted to study them and share my "knowledge" with the people in other countries. We became friends in that short lunch.

I have never, in my life, had anyone respond to me in that way. Afraid he could not talk to me because I am from America. I have never, in my life, been ashamed to be from America. I know I have not always enjoyed America, but I was ashamed of the reputation I had just because of my nationality. I was ashamed of the reputation he felt he had just because of his. The reason his family can not get a visa is because of their nationality. It's because the World is afraid of them. His smile, when I said my goodbyes, made me hopeful that I had started to change one person's opinions of Americans. At least I planted that seed of not stereotyping.

Second story happend just after I left McD's.
Preface: I have been telling Americans that are paranoid about pickpocketers not to worry so much. I have never been pickpocketed in my time here. It's not everywhere.. be more trusting. All of those things have exited my mouth in the last 2 days.
Now:
I was on the bus headed out to school. I was sitting with my bag in my lap and the flap closed on it. This man is standing really close to my seat. I tend to choose the single seats along the side of the bus, so that no one has to sit by the "foreigner." So many people will move or not sit by foreigners.. so I save my feelings from being hurt by sitting in the singles. Well.. this man was standing so close to me, that his bottom was sitting on my shoulder basically. I was getting frustrated, but kept moving closer to the window. Finally, I felt something move under my arm. My automatic reaction was, "Give me my wallet back." Very soft spoken, but loud enough for the man to hear. He looked at me.. I pushed him a little and repeated my words at a normal voice volume. "Give me back my wallet." I am glaring. He moves and points to his "partner" and the partner opens his coat and hands me my wallet. I didn't get up out of my seat. I didn't yell.. I just kindly, but sternly told them to give me my wallet back. The girls that were standing by them start checking their pockets. Nothing is missing. Seems the foreigner was the only target.

The men proceed to run off of the bus at the next stop. I was shaking and trying not to cry. The adrenaline coursing through my viens. It took every ounce of self-control for me to not stand up and punch them both out. I don't know what would happen to me if I ever did beat up a Chinese man, but I didn't really want to find out. All I wanted to do was go to bed. I was so exhausted. There was a man that saw everything and he gave me a thumbs up. I gained face today on the bus. I stopped pick pocketers from stealing my wallet. The only important thing they would have gotten was my passport. That would have been upsetting, but other than that the only things in my wallet are a bunch of discount cards for stores around the school, and 5 yuan. That's it. They would have been sorely disappointed. In fact.. if they had looked in the wallet on the bus, they probably would have just handed it back to me.

This was my first experience in this situation. I thought I handled it well.. I should have drawn more attention to them, but I just couldn't. If I had started yelling or anything the self control would have been gone, and they would have been beat up. It's not hard to beat up a chinese man. I wasn't scared or anything. I don't "hate" China.. or anything. It happens more in America than here. It's everywhere. It's not a China thing. It's a life thing.. and I had my first life experience with this. I am still not going to be paranoid.. I am not going to walk around scared. I am thankful that I was raised with a sense of things around me.. and that I was smart enough to just know what had happened when I felt my arm drop a little. That intuition was a blessing today. I am constantly being taken care of. I am thankful for that.