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The Good the Bad and the UGLY! |
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The Good, The Bad and the UGLY
Little things make me like this place and little things make me hate it. For instance, yesterday I woke up with a very swollen eye. I walked across the street to my doctor, pointed at my eye to the receptionist and she crossed her two hands (the asian symbol for no). I was dumbstruck and said, Doctor? and pointed at his office. She replied, Yes. then I pointed once again to my eye. Again - crossed hands. At this point I was more than a little frustrated. Why couldnt the doctor help me? So, I went down to the street, contemplating my predicament.
After a few minutes of emotional regrouping, I had resigned myself to once again crossing the street and go to Reading Town where I could ask our secretary to help me. As I made my first step, it occurred to me that the pharmacist speaks English so I wandered into her shop. There I ran into a retarded korean man, who told me in well-pronounced-English that my hair was very smart. I gave him a smile and my thanks and chalked it up to yet another interesting asian complement (along with your face is so small, and your skin is so white and what nice yellow hair).
After this encounter, I asked the pharmacist what I should do. She gave me directions to and eye clinic down the road. Thank god. I guess I am so used to HMOs that make you go to your primary care doctor, that it never occurred to me to go directly to a specialist. The eye clinic was easy to find and apart from the usual joy of receptionists that are too shy to speak to me with out giggling themselves to death. And I am not talking about them speaking English either. All I really ask is that they act things out so that I can understand, but this concept is so completely beyond them (in the same way that it would be beyond a small-town midwesterner that has never seen a foreigner before). I understand it, but that doesnt make it any less annoying.
The doctor spoke excellent English. He examined me, told me a had some sort of general eye infection; gave me some drops and instructions; asked if I had insurance; chatted with me about the places he had been to in America and sent me out to reception. When the girls at the front got my chart I went for my wallet to pay and they told me that the doctor said it was free since I dont have insurance!!!! I was blown away! How nice! These are the sort of things that happen a lot, just because we are foreigners. It really is bizarre. People give us free things and services. It makes me love it here.
On the other side of the fence, being a foreigner, especially a very conspicuous one, make me feel like an animal in the zoo. So many middle and high school students think of me as a moving personal practice animal for their English. This means that I hear Hello, how are you? Nice to meet You. All in one breath from a giggling young adult at least every few feet as I walk around. It gets very, very old very quickly. People stare at me everywhere. I tower over the majority of the adults. There arent any women's shoes that would even come close to fitting me. I would LOVE a day of anonymity. I thought this was difficult in Mexico, but that doesnt even begin to compare to how it feels here. At least in Mexico, it was only in the small towns where I felt so alien a creature. But here it is EVERYWHERE. The only time I can get away from it is in my own home.
I think that the most difficult part is that because they see so few foreigners, i am like a representative for my fellow countrymen. On days when I just cant stand it an feel like making faces at them or telling them to leave me alone, I cant because then they will think that all Americans are mean. And with a president like Bush at large, people have enough to make them think that. I really want to do my part to dispel any such thoughts.
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