sworn in

a note about hellos. it is inevitable, as a white person, to be subject of hellos. there are pleasant hellos from children and middle aged people wanting to practice their chinese. there are wimpy hellos where a teenager will wait until they have passed you on the street before they have the courage to shout hello. there are covert hellos, where a teenager hides behind a pillar or a building and shouts hello at you. and there are bad ass hellos. hey guys--want to see me say hello to this foreigner? it's gonna be awesome.

today, as i walked through xi pu, the local city, i experienced the latter. usually i make a point of saying ni hao to every hello i get, but today, the amount of hellos were getting to me. it seemed every 2 minutes there was one group or another was saying hello. at the end of my walk, i was fed up. if it wasn't the nicest of hellos, i ignored it, and walked on. the last hello i received was from a group of boys walking towards me on the other side of the street.

as they approached, there was some nudging and nodding, and finally, one of them worked up the courage to say hello. i gave no response or sign that i even heard him, and walked on, staring straight ahead. i next heard, "what's your name?" that is second most frequent thing you will hear on the streets of china from people who know two phrases of english. i ignored this as well.

the next shout really got my attention, even though i didn't show it. "F*** you!" he shouted. it was clear he was joking around, and there wasn't any viciousness in it. but it wasn't what i expected to hear. i kept on ignoring him, and they walked on.

it seems like the english education is in full swing in china.

another note--i can't imagine being french or spanish in china. being constantly greeted in a language not your own must be incredibly grating.

but hey, at least they sound friendly.