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frozen

so today's wednesday. i know it's usually on mondays that i go get dumplings, but this week i went today. and, in the dreary rain, i looked badness straight in the eye. i've had almost an hour of bad traffic to think about how i'll post this blog, and my mind has changed so much that i'll just give the facts and blather afterwards a bit.

so i was waiting for the bus, about to put my headphones on. it took me a little while to do so, as i had my dumplings and umbrella in one hand, and was trying to put my headphones on with the other. the bus came, so i stuffed the other end of my headphones into my pocket, grabbed my wallet (which has my bus card in it), and headed toward the door.

i'm not sure how many of you have been on a chinese bus, but i'll tell you this. every time i get on a bus, i know i'll get home some time. since traveling on only public transport (or bikes!), i've learned to be patient with it. of course i'm not always patient, but, oh shit. i'm rambling. the point is that everyone else getting on the bus acts like it's live or die. you need to get on this bus. daisy explained to me that it's likely because of thousands of years of chinese people fighting to get their limited resources with an enormous population.

i usually chill out in the back until the short old grumpy women (chinese: 三八) get on, and then i mosey on in.

just ahead of me was a girl, maybe 20, with a purse hanging just below the small of her back. i saw some hands come out from behind me, digging for the insides. at first, being the "all people are good, people make bad choices" kinda guy, i figured the guy was her boyfriend. and then i realized he certainly was not. i started shouting hey hey heeyyy! because my language (both) escaped me.

he pulled his hands back as soon as i started shouting, but i think it wasn't because of me, but instead because he realized her bag was zipped up nice and tight.

i stared him in the eyes for a eternity of about ten seconds. i wanted to destroy this man. i can't explain the anger and sadness in me when i was looking at this guy.

cowardly, though, i didn't do anything. i froze. i was shocked that the fifty people nearby didn't even give him an evil eye. and then i was even more shocked to see that most of them were giving me the evil eye (i assume because they didn't see, and i randomly started shouting).

i still have a bad taste in my mouth from that. i know the guy didn't get anything, and it wasn't my iPhone he was after, but i still feel oddly violated. and still really angry.

i don't get why people need to steal stuff. granted i'm more fortunate than many, but still. i can't imagine a time where i'd need to get by stealing 20 year old girls' purses. how much could there be in there anyway?!

so i'll end with a wise thing i once heard. i was in kunming when i beggar came up to me and my friend gao han. the beggar was a young boy, probably 9, probably with a pimp of a father standing thirty feet away. when he asked us for money, my friend said (according to the best translation my mind can provide), "i need this money too." she said it simply, peacefully. so why steal? that 20 year old girl needs her money too.

October 29, 2008 @ 5:44am . 44 views . 3 comments