I was at the bar on Wednesday night with some of the other foreign teachers (because somehow Wednesday night just worked out best for everyone) and we met a couple of guys. Since they looked Chinese and there happen to be a lot of Chinese people around Harbin I thought I might try practicing my Chinese with them Chinese*. But as it turns out they were members of a Russian minority who tend to get really pissed off whenever they're confused with Chinese people. About five minutes into the conversation, still not having figured this out yet, I was told that these guys wanted to fight me.
Harbin has a lot of Russian people, and from everything people have told me they're kind of shitty to be around. To be fair this is probably because most of the Russian people who hang around Harbin are all just there to fuck around, but still as with any people who hang around in groups to beat up people at random they should probably be avoided.
* Extra "Chinese" added to make that sentence more repetitive
Dude, I frequently get into fights with tourists, I don't know what it is about me that just says to strangers 'fight with me about American culture', but I must.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite fight I ever got into was with a Polish girl, who yelled me (or at our whole family, depending on how you think about it) for changing our name to 'Small', and then was really mad (I mean REALLY mad) that I didn't speak Polish. I tried to make jokes about it- the old 'my grandparents only spoke polish in front of their children to fight, so my dad is almost fluent ba-da-ching', but she had none of it. Then she said Americans had no culture, so I, being drunk and growing angry myself, shouted off a litany of cultural stuff at her (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, CASABLANCA, GERSHWIN, RAISIN IN THE SUN!) If I'd had a microphone, I'd have held it out in front of myself and dropped it. The thing that stung was that there was a group of Canadians who I swear to God have the same type of immigrant cultural thing that Americans do that totally didn't have my back.
Tourists man, the worst.
Seems to me smalls its just like back in EL where you get I to a scrap or two. Except now you are sans the cannon to escalate things. Glad to hear you are doing well in China. Keep adding cool rants like fights w Russians and I will keep on reading buddy.
ReplyDeleteKiernicki
Yeah, I know. Seriously though, what's with the Polish girl though? She sounds like the most insufferable person ever.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I don't even want to think about what it'd be like if the cannon came to China. On the one hand I could see him loving it, but on the other hand it could end terribly.
OH GOD! THE CANNON!
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't know what was up with the Polish girl, but my friends and I here theorize about her sometimes