Day 57: A few things it’s hard to get used to

There’s a few things that no matter how much I try to not let them bother or annoy me they just … Will take a very long time to get used to, if I ever do get used to them!

1. Customer Service. In the USA it’s hard at times to grab a waiter’s attention or find a store clerk when you need one. Here, from the moment you enter a place there’s someone following you around. If you’re at a restaurant it’s not uncommon for the wait staff to stare over your shoulder while you look at the menu. And that statement, “stare over your shoulder”, is not exaggerated at all! Tonight, for example, the waitress was less than a foot away watching me flip through the menu from the moment she set it in front of me until the time I placed my order!
2. Smoking indoors. Enough said. The air outside isn’t always that clean, I’d hope the air inside would be. 
3. Spitting, burping, and sneezing loudly. The last one is a bit harder to control than the first two, so it sort of gets a pass. But the other two? And in public places? The spitting I usually hear while walking around or, if I’m “lucky” from my can driver. It’s the type of spitting that summons phlegm from the netheregions that would make a cat trying to ride itself of a hairball perk up and take notice. Loudly belching is so common it seems ever beverage drank must be infused with bubbles, most especially at work.
4. Not moving out of the way of others. I get it, you’re really engaged playing that game or reading that blog post on your phone while standing and waiting for whatever it is you’re standing or waiting for so you’re completely forgiven! But for the rest of those people, who could easily be courteous since they’re watching you approach, to move maybe six inches out of the way so you don’t have to bump them as you walk past, all I have to say is prepare yourselves as I have a really low center of gravity and am bigger than 85% of the people in this country.

Yes, I do sound like Andy Rooney when he was alive and still doing his weekly spot on 60 Minutes. And no, I don’t care! But yes, I do realize I sound like someone ignorant of other cultures yet I leave you with this thought: While I pointed out those issues, I am not saying they need to change nor am I trying to change them; I’ll just put my headphones on to drown out the gaseous excretions, take my time to painstakingly read through menus, continue giving side-eye (yes, that’s now a word in Merriam-Webster) when you blow smoke in my direction, and flash my pearly whites after saying “对不起” while clearing a path for my extra wide hips to pass on by.