Unnatural Phenomenon

Pheomenon: an exceptional, unusual, or abnormal person, thing, or occurrence. It's a word that people like to use here, although we don't actually use it much in english. But now I finally have a reason to use it.

Yesterday I went out to the bus stop on my way to teach. Before the bus stop was even in view, I saw a line of people. Anyone who's been here or has taken the time to talk to someone who's been here knows how "abnormal" that is...it never happens.

I've heard rumors of the "education" that's going on for the general public. There used to be entire walls covered in posters outlining "The Ten Do's and Don't's." Those posters have recently disappeared, the walls painted a nice, polite, white. There have been classes to teach people appropriate, acceptable ways to cheer for their own team and for other teams, when the appropriate time to cheer is, etc. I recently heard that there was some sort of "education" to teach others how to stand in line. I thought "there's no way..." but now I know, it must have happened. Besides, I see the signs encouraging us to be good citizens by standing in line (benefit of knowing the language).

When I first moved here, I thought people couldn't stay in line if their lives depended on it. Even on the roads, the cars float in and out of lanes. In the stores, people just walk up to the register and throw their stuff down, then drop a wad of crumpled up money on the counter and wait for the cashier to drop change on the counter for them. To get on or off the bus, you'd think that there was an emergency the way people mad rush the door from the inside and the outside all at the same time.

There's no etiquette (as we know it in the west) for this- doesn't matter if you're a woman, step aside because rarely does a man even consider letting you go first. You're almost always pushed out of the way. The times that a man does pause to let me go first, I'm usually so in shock by it that it takes me about 15 seconds to recover enough to move. I'm not old-fashioned, but in the west, many guys tend to be generally more considerate of women... and esp. BCOM guys. Charlie, P. Tim, my other Chicago friends- don't worry, I haven't forgotten what you've tried to teach me... but this may be why I'm such a slow learner. ;) And to top it all off, there's no "personal space" here, so you're always crammed like a sardine against about five other people.

So, you can imagine what it was like to see a nice, neat single file line formed at the bus stop. Not just one, but one line for every bus that would stop there. The line was easily longer than the length of two buses. When the bus stopped, people waited patiently in the line and filed onto the bus in a very organized fashion. And each person was spaced about one foot apart...no sardine body cramming...until everyone was on board the bus, that is.

It was so strange to me that I couldn't bring myself to stand in line. I stood off to the side, in shock. Actually, I laughed out loud. Seriously. But standing in the line just didn't feel right. Like there was some invisible force causing the people to all act in unusual ways. I decided I just couldn't do it. I rebelled against the phenomenon.

Too bad I forgot my camera yesterday, but I won't forget next time. I will document this phenomenon.