Good news/RR

Well, mostly. Today I bought a toaster oven. I am excited, though I have yet to plug it in, have it flip my breaker, and reset the breaker. 

What excitement I live in! 

I've felt much better today, but that could be because I've had four hours of sleep (mosquitoes are terrible) and thus I am in my happy-tired phase. It could be worse. I could have an angry-tired phase. 

My writing class today was excellent. They were responsive, they didn't challenge everything I said, (One class argued with me that a predicate is the verb of a sentence), and I was silly, so they were silly. In a good way. 

That's really what performing is. The audience will send back what you feed them. 

Today the gal teachers and I went downtown (there are no male teachers) and on the way there were so many Chinese flags. But the breadstore is back in business, the delicious one. I think I will patronize it. I will patronize the hell out of it, because it takes balls to be staring riots in the face and saying, "You know what? This is our business. We are Chinese workers, Chinese people, in a Chinese business, and we have a right to be here." I respect that. (If you look back to the breadstore post, the J bakery is the most delicious, the farthest walk, and was started/is run by a Japanese lady who moved to China). 

There are so many flags. So many. It reminds me of right after September 11th. Flags everywhere, on cars, in restaurants, outside, they make the street red and gold. They're pretty colors. The feelings behind them scare me. They honestly scare the shit out of me. It takes only one misstep by either side and suddenly these feelings are aimed at me. 

So today, while at the store, through either choice or sheer exhaustion I was super friendly. I smiled at everyone, I talked, I answered, I laughed- anything to get as many people as possible to realize I am a real person. I'm acting. I'm playing a caricature: The Friendly Foreigner. But I'd rather people know me as friendly and not as foe. 

I was not prepared for how easily that can turn on a person- a foreigner is a foe, and needs to be removed. They steal from us, they take our jobs, they're greedy and they don't understand our ways. These things are often said. Earlier this year a news anchor stated on the air that Westerners are only here to rape Chinese women. 

With that being said, most Chinese are friendly and curious towards me. They aren't rude. As long as they aren't in a mob, they're people, and I've talked to a couple of people who don't agree with the riots. Rioters are only a small number of the Chinese >1 Billion. (Most of the violent rioters are actually from smaller farms or towns according to my news sources, so they've never even met the people they're actively hating). They aren't the majority. They're just a loud minority. 

I want to make it clear: I'm not taking sides on the whole Islands thing. I don't know the history, I'm terribly fuzzy with politics and to make a stand without any research is rather foolish, I feel. The rioting has me worried because it is forcing out a minority group of China. The same way if DSM started rioting I would be worried (though I know how to drive away from hotbeds while in DSM). The anger and hatred is felt towards the Japanese and not their government (which has done shitty things, and is infamous for having terrible immigrant relations) is worrisome, and the anger is being taken out on either Japanese tourists, business owners, teachers or Chinese people who work for Japanese companies is really alarming. It's the rioting that I'm focusing on. 

I've been to Japan. I've been to China. I hate to see two countries that I have enjoyed so much come to so much impasse. 

I'm trying to remember, that the rioters aren't the majority of the Chinese, that the flags are just support the way the US citizens would support their government, and that this may calm down. I'm still paying attention, though.