When in China

Chinese cities are crowded and city residents aren't shy about shoving their way through a crowd. I had been dealing with the pushing pretty well by reminding myself that ruthlessly elbowing past a fellow pedestrian isn't in poor manners here. I lost my cool when a woman actually tried to shove me down a flight of stairs. Now I'm pushing back. I don't seem to be insulting anyone by doing it and now that I'm willing to throw a few elbow blocks I can get through a crowd without getting trampled. This would be fine if I weren't worried that I'm developing the pedestrian version of road rage.

I caught bad driving manners while living in L.A. Two years later I'm still not fully cured and I often feel like a real jerk amongst relatively mellow Bay Area drivers. I hope that two weeks of shoving won't cause as much damage as four years of nasty traffic. The last thing I need is to return to the States and begin a new job with the habit of pushing people out of my way.