Friday night was a night of hell, two hours of hell to be exact. Let me start at the beginning. I had to go to Western Union to send money home. Remus (my friend that is also a foreign teacher) came to meet me and keep me company. He told me that Dean (our awesome Chinese friend) had invited us to dinner with a family friend. Dean wasn't excited to spend time with this family friend. Dean felt that the family friend was a "disaster and a bastard. Unfortunately, Dean had to have dinner with him because if he can't get a job in the US or somewhere else then this family friend could be his boss. The family friend invited Remus and me as well. Dean let us know that he really didn't want to eat with him alone. I personally didn't want to go. I haven't been feeling too well emotionally since I came back to China. It's my school once again. I am also having a hard time adjusting to not seeing or talking to my boyfriend as much as I did during Spring Festival. I really didn't want to deal with an asshole, no matter how much I love Dean. We'll call him D.I.C. (dumb, inconsiderate, and close-minded). We tell Dean we can't have dinner because we were going to Pizza Hut; the service there is super slow, so we wouldn't have been done by the time they were supposed to have dinner. We tell him to come by later with D.I.C.
Remus and I were setting up my new VPN when Dean knocks on the window around 7:30....that's when the two hours of hell begin.
We say hello to D.I.C. Dean is super excited about my new VPN. While Dean and I are talking about it, I see D.I.C. go over to Remus. He kneels down by Remus (all up in his personal space) and stares at Remus' leg. Dean and I immediately know what's happening and we are pissed! Remus has a mild form of Cerebral Palsy, and it affected his left side. Remus at first doesn’t realize what’s going on. He told me later thought maybe he cut his leg or something. D.I.C. points and says, “What.....your.......leg.....?” To which Remus responds, “What?”. He really had no clue what was happening. Dean fusses at D.I.C. in Chinese while I stare at him angrily.
We say hello to D.I.C. Dean is super excited about my new VPN. While Dean and I are talking about it, I see D.I.C. go over to Remus. He kneels down by Remus (all up in his personal space) and stares at Remus' leg. Dean and I immediately know what's happening and we are pissed! Remus has a mild form of Cerebral Palsy, and it affected his left side. Remus at first doesn’t realize what’s going on. He told me later thought maybe he cut his leg or something. D.I.C. points and says, “What.....your.......leg.....?” To which Remus responds, “What?”. He really had no clue what was happening. Dean fusses at D.I.C. in Chinese while I stare at him angrily.
Remus and I go back to setting up the VPN. I talk about how I can’t wait to watch Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, and other stuff. D.I.C. interrupts and says, “You can’t watch Youtube. It is forbidden in China.” I tell him that I can and go back to setting it up. He then says that Youtube and Facebook are bad; we ignore him. We successfully set it up (it was rather easy), and I pull up Youtube and Facebook just to prove my point. This whole time D.I.C. has been reading over our backs and leaning into our personal spaces. He was leaning against the back of my chair with his face right behind my neck or standing literally two centimeters away from my side. This is extremely rare; Chinese people have different ideas of personal space in public, but not in people’s homes. He is also going through Remus’ apartment and touching his things.
He asks us if we know anyone who works with oil machinery and if we know any businessmen. I think he was trying to network. We tell him no; we aren’t cool enough to have those contacts. He switches his focus to Remus at this point. You can read Remus' account of D.I.C.'s attack on here.
Also if you read Remus’ I pretty much agree with everything he stated about the whole British English and American English comment.
After that horrid conversation with Remus, D.I.C. switches his attention back to me (aren’t I lucky!). He sees my background and asks, “Who’s that guy?”. I tell him that it’s my boyfriend, and he remarks that he is handsome. He asked if Boba (my boyfriend) was Chinese (as in born and raised in China). I tell him no and explain that he is Mexican American. Most of my Chinese friends here thought he was Chinese, too. Boba is usually mistaken for Chinese or Japanese. I’m not surprised because this also happens to Boba in the U.S. as well. Dean also explained in Mandarin, but D.I.C. still insisted my boyfriend was Chinese. He kept saying over and over. Every time a picture of Boba came up he would say, “Who’s that Chinese guy?” or “Is he in China?”.
I go back to enjoying my uncensored internet. D.I.C. asks me do I have Skype; I tell him that I do, but I only use it for Boba. He asks for it anyway; I’m about to tell him no, but Remus and Dean intervene before I had to. He still tries to ask a few more times, but I ignore him. Then he goes back to ruin Remus’ day (see his post).
So, this next part is super creepy and imagine everything being said in a creepy tone by D.I.C. Why? Well, because it was! He randomly turns back to me and says how he always wanted to have an American girlfriend that was beautiful like me. He talked about how he chased after girls and they all said no to him because he wasn’t good enough or ugly. I don’t comment in hopes that the subject will magically change. Obviously, this doesn’t work. He ask me if I knew any American girls that I could introduce him to. I reply quickly with no, but he continues to be persistent saying things like, “All you have to do is introduce us, and I will do the rest.” I explain that my female friend in Dongying has a boyfriend, too and that all my other friends are in the U.S. He keeps saying creepy things that I block out.
During this whole time Dean is speaking in German to Remus and Japanese to me. D.I.C. doesn’t know either language. We were discussing what his family friend was saying. Dean kept apologizing to us, but we assured him all was fine.
D.I.C. is still talking, but I have long since stopped listening. He leans all into my computer which makes me tune back in. Then he proceeds to say that he prefers yellow hair. I said I tend to just like men in general. He says that he prefers white people. Well, is that so! I pull up all the interracial couple blogs I follow including a Youtube channel by one of my favorite couples. The couple happens to be comprised of a Black female and an Asian male. How can you call me beautiful and say you prefer white people in the same sentence AND in a creepy voice. That is very ignorant and racist. I used the wonderful, uncensored internet to show that couples come in all different types.
I go to my Facebook. I am looking through some of my pictures to show Remus and Dean some photos since Remus and Dean hadn’t seen younger me, but I had seen younger them. He is making sounds behind me and saying things like, "So sexy." I’m shocked, really! This again. Even though Remus and Dean had seen some photos I kept looking through them. Now, I am pretty much doing this to be like, "Yes, I'm attractive and who cares what you think." He’s already breathing down my neck (literally) and staring at my computer screen anyway, so why not? I go back to looking at Youtube videos.
While I was looking at a video of the couple exchanging promise rings on Youtube, he looked at my finger, and said, “Did your boyfriend give you a ring?" I was like what and then he said. “Boyfriend, ring”. I tell him no (this conversation consists of lots of nos, doesn’t it) to which D.I.C. responds, “If he's a good boyfriend, he should you give you a ring.” I don’t even waste my time responding. He goes back to haunt Remus.
Then, he comes back for me. D.I.C. asks me do I know the NBA. I respond curtly yes. He asks do I know Kobe Bryant. I once again respond shortly yes. Then he says that he likes how the players look. That they are strong; then he says the black people. I say who? He repeats it again. Then I just stop talking to him.
Then they finally leave! Dean has been trying to get him to leave for the past hour or so, but D.I.C. was not picking up on the clues. Remus and I kept talking about how we were sleepy, but to no avail. Dean apologizes in German/Japanese, and me and Remus are like it's no problem.
It was such a never-ending pile of ignorance that I couldn't even get emotional over it. I don't even have the time to become emotional. I ignored him/stood up for myself, so I have no regrets. Of course I know he was saying very problematic things, but at the end of the day I don't know him and we aren't friends and he was checked. And besides we were forewarned. Remus and I literally just laughed for like ten minutes after D.I.C. left. We vowed to help Dean have less D.I.C. in his life. We are going to get him a great job besides Dean is super smart, and he deserves it. He shouldn't have to deal with D.I.C., no one should.
No comments:
Post a Comment