CULTURESHOCK CULTURESHOCK CULTURESHOCK!!

I've been suffering from re-entry since returning from Japan 2 weeks ago. Been managing to bear with rude, inconsiderate behaviour, bad service and lack of graces. But TODAY! *blood boiling*... TODAY takes the cake for the awfulness of re-entry from a gracious society to an ungracious one.

I was already tripped up from a day of being bumped, pushed and almost-ran-into by members of the public who weren't very conscious of their environment (ie. laughing and joking with companions, stepping on my white shoes, etc), and mildly irritated with being back here. But when I went to withdraw money at Bras Brasah, the culture shock level hit "Cardiac Arrest"..... You know there're 2 ATMs at Bras Brasah, and I was waiting in between them, trying to get money to pay for my books from the second-hand bookstore which was closing already. When the first ATM was available, this middle-aged uncle comes from nowhere and steps into my path, ignoring me! I thought, maybe he didn't see me, and stepped up to tell him I was queuing up. The nerve of the man.... without looking at me, and without the grace to apologise or ask nicely, he says his motorbike is waiting at the road. Now, if he had graciously acknowledged my presence, or asked if he could go first, I would have let him.... but how rude!

I UNGRACIOUSLY muttered under my breath, "You are so rude...." Unbelievable.

I'm having trouble adapting from a gracious society to this. Especially since I try so hard to have a gracious spirit nowadays - to be nice, polite, go out of my way, give way, give up rights, etc. But it bugs me that our people have societal norms that eschew COMMON SENSE. It's common sense that when someone is holding her ATM card, standing beside the ATM, she's waiting to use the ATM. And common sense tells you that you should at least ask if she's gonna use it before entitling yourself to it just because she wasn't positioned directly behind the queue.

Maybe I have too high expectations, or possibly I have to learn to be gracious to the ungracious - like loving the unlovable, turning the other cheek, and giving up even more rights. Gaaaahhhh.