January 30, 2005

• …respect…

  I’ve been a bit irritated as of late, so I thought I might dedicate this one entry to just addressing those irritations…

  Tennis: so the coach has been making me play this one guy on our college team that isn’t quite that good, and I’m being nice here, over and over again. First off, let me just say that I’m no Pete Sampras or Andy Roddick, but I have been playing for quite some time and there is a reason why I was on my varsity squad for all 4 years in high school. That said, I’m frustrated because the guy doesn’t hit, he dinks. He plays moonball all of the time, meaning all he does is lob the ball back, and is essentially just a wall. Ok, I had to deal with this when I was in high school; I didn’t like it then, and I sure as hell don’t like it now. If I wanted to hit against a wall, I’d do so. What he’s doing is not playing tennis, it’s a poor excuse for it. Yes, I’m being a little harsh, but fuck it, I have better things to do with my time than waste it on the court playing a guy who isn’t even on the same level as me; it’s a freakin’ insult. I don’t mind playing guys who are on a lower skill level than myself, but not EVERY FREAKIN’ TIME! How am I supposed to learn from playing the same person over and over again, especially if he sucks?! On top of that, the coach has the audacity to criticize me as well after one of my matches with this guy. He was like, “what did you do wrong?” Um, I gave him 2 games?! Sorry, I don’t like my coach very much. After having an awesome coach in past years, this guy’s a joke. So my college team has practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8, then the University team practice is from 8-10. He expects me to be able to play at full energy at both practices, and then criticizes me at the University practice saying that I’m being lazy. WTF?! I’d like to see him bust his ass at 110% for 4 hours! UGH! Ridiculous!

  Americans: I’ve noticed that the longer I’m here, the more I dislike Americans. It’s funny, when I was in Germany studying abroad 4 years ago, it was the complete opposite. I became incredibly defensive about America, but being here now, having learned what I’ve learned, and being aware of my ethnic/racial identity, I can’t help but feel ashamed to be from the US. Yesterday was my boiling point. We were on a tour to see the different facets of Hong Kong culture, and our tour guide was this totally cool Hong Kong woman who I thought spoke English rather well. Anyhow, we went to visit three places: a temple, an old resting site for students who were traveling to China to take their placement exams, and a cake factory. The temple was cool, except everyone was being a tourist again and taking pictures of the altars and shrines. If I wasn’t clear about this in one of my previous entries, let me make it perfectly clear now. YOU DO NOT TAKE PICTURES INSIDE A TEMPLE! IT IS RUDE, DISRESPECTFUL, AND INCREDIBLY INCONSIDERATE OF THE PEOPLE WHO WORSHIP THERE! :!@#$: It was worse this time though because one of the mainland students was offering some incense and prayers when everyone started snapping pictures of her just so they could take it back home and say to people, “look, this is how you pray in Asia.” Fucked up shit! I was so irritated with it all, I just went back to the bus; that was the first irritation of the day. The next one came when we were on our way to the cake factory. The tour guide lady was giving us some background information on what to do when we get to the cake factory, and one of the white American exchange students decided he’d be funny and tell the lady to save it for when we get to the cake factory because “we’re tired and we just want to sleep.” That sort of bugged me because he was basically telling her to shut up, but we were almost there, so I just brushed it off, but it only served to bolster his confidence because he wound up doing it again later. When we were done at the cake factory, the tour guide lady started to tell us about how the educational system works in Hong Kong, and again, the stupid American starts up, amidst some minor jibes of “what relevance does this have to us,” and tells the lady, “We’re really tired back here, we just want to sleep, can you just let us sleep?” WTF?! First of all, if you wanted to sleep, you shouldn’t have come you freakin’ rude, ignorant, and selfish bastard! Some of us came on this tour because we wanted to learn more about the culture and she’s providing us the insight into that culture–that’s why it’s relevant to us! Secondly, who the fuck is “we,” you sure as hell weren’t speaking for the whole bus! Maybe if you’d stop drinking once in a while you’d realize that some of us didn’t come here just so we can drown ourselves in alcoholic stupidity, but rather to immerse ourselves in a culture. You need to realize that you’re a freakin’ guest in this country, and just because you’re a white American doesn’t mean you can impose your cultural practices, your rude, inexcusable, arrogant, disrespectful, and immature behavior, and expect it to be accepted. People like you make me ashamed to say that I’m from the US. No wonder everyone in the world hates us. You’re from the US, the dollar’s good here, go try to buy yourself a clue! Better yet, use that money to buy yourself a new brain because the one you have now is useless and should just be donated to science, but I’m sure they’re not in short supply given how many stupid Americans there are out there…

  Mosquitoes: I HATE MOSQUITOES! I’ve already been bit multiple times, NOT FUN! Note to self: must buy STRONG bug repellent!

  • 2:53 am
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