I’m beginning to think that China annoys me more than it should – actually, am sure of it; I suppose there just seems to be a bit of annoyance I’ve acquired in my mind that’s simply used to being triggered these past few years – and this morning was another example of it…at least I think.

For some reason, I woke up around 9am and could see outlines through my window of people walking on my terrace around my (in)famous table. By the time I got outside, there were no chairs (6 in total) left. I walked out and around the little area I live in to find that the office next door were using them for a big meeting. Now, had it been Scott or someone else who I know, then no worries – but I haven’t even met these people yet and it pissed me off to no end that they didn’t knock on my door and ask.

Granted, I’m from the South and pretty easy-going about loaning out my car, apartment, whatever – but the simple lack of consideration is what gets me about life here. You can see it in everything – the way people drive, eat, drink, use the toilet, line-up…at what point does the Cultural Revolution (good luck trying to access that link if you’re here, ha ha) stop being an excuse for behavior? Of course there was a time when if you didn’t push your way onto the bus, you wouldn’t get home, and I have considerable more tolerance, if not understanding for the older generation, but for this mindset to still resonate in people my age is simply annoying – to a point of madness. When I hold doors open for people, they blankly stare at me, needless to say, it’s never done for me – is that something that is attained with Western influence? Time? Education?

On a recent travel with a friend, he told me that people in Indonesia often refer to China as ‘The Angry Country’, (granted, any country who idolizes a man who managed to wipe out 30 million of their own kind, on every piece of currency, you can sort of understand), but when does years of oppression wear off? When does the mindset go from simply waiting to be ordered to do something to taking the initiative to do it oneself?

I was raised with a constant reminder of patience – ‘There, but the grace of God, go I’, which I work hard to remember, but at 9am, when all I want do to is sit down with a coffee on my table and there’s no way to go about it, I often lose sight.