Sunday, June 28, 2009

Losing my patience ...

Going for grocery shopping in China, or more precisely in where I am right now ,is one of the most unpleasant things that I have to do especially during the weekends. It's just so full of people. Yes, 1.3 billion population here in the mainland is no joke. There are people everywhere. What more to say, when the weekends come and everyone is doing grocery shopping.

They are getting on my nerves, most importantly. There are a couple of things you would notice if you come shopping here. First of, they just don't give a damn about you. So I was pushing my shopping cart through aisles and I came to a point where a couple who was talking to salesgirl is blocking my way. They had their cart with them. So they freaking block the whole aisle! I noticed the guy saw me and I kind of like giving him that "get out of my fucking way" look, and you know what happened? Nothing! Yes, nothing! He turned back his head and continued participating in the conversation. WTF right?!

This actually reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend from the United States. He said, the Chinese, generally older generations behaves like this. They think they are more important all the time, and nobody else matters. They cut queues like nobody's business. They use the car horn so frequently that the government needs to put a signboard telling drivers honking is prohibited in some areas and also constructs a decibel meter in the middle of the city to measure the noisiness. Having said that, does any one of the drivers even care? haha .. One of the jokes on a Chinese buying a car .. what is the first thing they check before buying? Not the suspensions, not the trunk size, neither is the warranty period but the HORN! Okay .. maybe the warranty period of the horn. :)

Alright, back to grocery shopping. One other incident happened. I was looking for a box of packeted milk at the dairy aisle. I could not find it so I asked one of the salesgirls, telling her that I could not find it there, wondering if she can get my a box from the warehouse at the back. Without hesitation, she told me it could not be done. I assured her that this had been done by one of her colleagues back then for me and no problem. Why not now? Well, the answer is simply, it cannot be done! Then she walked away, pretending she was looking on the other aisle. You know back when you were a kid, your mom tell you to read a book while you have no interest of doing, you would just fake the whole act and hoping that your mom would buy it? That is exactly what the salesgirl was doing. Fuck, I am mad, but at the same time, I found it hilarious and shaked my head and left. I figured I could go back some other day to pick the milk up when a different salesgirl is working.

Somehow, I think it does not make sense at all. What happened to the values our parents taught us when we were kids? Aren't they somehow from China, judging from the point that a lot of old Chinese sayings and idioms reveal some of the basic values, some of which do not really available in western education system? I just don't get it and they are getting on my nerves, not all the time, but sometimes.

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