4 Extroverts Lost In The City

I enjoy the wonderful roller coaster that is my page views. Hello, Lovelies. Now I suppose you are wondering what the problem of 4 extroverted people lost in the city is and what advice you could possible get from this post... Well that's irrelevant, this is my story which could possibly include some advice that's really important for living your life.

Bad Waitress Coffee Shop
One of my favorite big city coffee shops

So you may or may not know that in just a few weeks or so, I will be headed to (insert name of Latin country here) to rebuild houses, pass out food and just in general interact with the people of (insert name of Latin country here) To prep us for going we had to visit a culturally diverse neighborhood, eat at an international market and ride the bus while talking to random strangers about their lives. Now I already come from a very diverse suburban area with a very diverse school so it wasn't exactly an adventure for me. However, the other people on our trip, not so much. They saw a person with dreadlocks and gasped. It was rather annoying traveling with so many people who apparently have never seen a homeless person or never smelled a person who hasn't bathed in a week. Now I can't blame them for growing up in the cushioned environment that they did but what I can blame them for is being so rude. Non of the people we saw stood out to me as odd but even our leaders were saying things like, "Now this looks nothing like our home of (insert name of heavily white populated area here) but remember different does not mean wrong." I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. We haven't even left the country yet and people don't even know what the city is like!
A girl in another group, *Sarah, was waiting for the bus with us. She began conversing with a man about his life. He asked her how old she was and she replied with 16. He started screaming, "GET OUT OF THIS F**CKING BUSINESS AS FAST AS YOU CAN! ONCE YOU'RE IN YOU'LL NEVER GET OUT! YOU'RE SO YOUNG!" The man apparently thought she was a prostitute.
My group consisted of two college students, *Lizzy and *Ron, and two juniors, *Jane and I. We were all very extroverted. We all figured that we were right. I knew I was right but whatever.
The food was wonderful. You can't go wrong with handmade cream cheese wantons and chicken Thai Pad. Well unless your *Lizzy of course. Now with American foods Spicy is not deadly. Spicy in American food is the equivalent of Mild in Thai food. Mild is playing it safe, Medium is getting risky and Spicy is like if you could put Hell inside your mouth. I being the bland German ordered Mild. *Lizzy who has obviously never had Thai food before ordered Spicy. The cook and I exchanged glances and I think I saw him smirk. I was enjoying my food while practicing using chopsticks and *Lizzy... Well she was crying, sweating and wiping snot from her nose! She was turning pink! It took every once in my body not to fall off my chair laughing. I was suppressing my laughter so much I spit on *Ron. He was too preoccupied with *Lizzy's tomato face to notice though. *Jane and I continued to enjoy our food and smile at one another.
Then came the bus ride. The part that most of the people were dreading. We were told before we went out that we had to respect other people's culture or they wouldn't listen to us. (We also learned about the "Squatty Potty." Yay.) The man who was speaking to us used to live on the Gaza Strip in India so naturally we figured he had some good advice for us. However, he was also strongly Lutheran (Unnaturally) so the only thing I remember him saying was, "There were so many Hindu sculptures! Even though I just wanted to kick them over and bash them, I knew in doing so I wouldn't be able to spread the message of Christ." I looked over at the other's and they seemed to find that this was a totally normal statement. I didn't understand! How can you listen to a man who just totally denounced a whole religion!?! We all follow our religions based on faith so how can he claim that Christianity is better? (I'm an Episcopalian, Christian and even I find that statement truly aggravating.)
Anyway enough ranting. Back to my story. So non of us grabbed a map because we all figured someone else did. So we spent like 30 minutes trying to figure that out. We were told to get on bus 6. Now I knew where bus 6 would pick us up because the city is my place and because I'm usually right. Yet no one would listen to me. (I didn't even judge their religion or anything!) We ended up getting on bus 3 because we had to get to *White Water Mall which they thought was the same thing as *White Water Ave. Everyone on the bus had ear buds in so I awkwardly sat their playing with my fingernails and listening to the conversation that *Lizzy was having with and Nigerian Woman behind me. *Lizzy told me she didn't understand anything the woman was saying and thought she mentioned something about racism. She said nothing about racism but I'll give *Lizzy and A for Effort. We got off the bus at *White Water Ave and surprisingly, (not really) it had no relation to *White Water Mall. So *Ron, suggested we board bus 5. I suggested we go back and get on the right bus but apparently being a college student makes you more superior. Again everyone had headphones or ear buds so spent my time just observing. Like noticing the bus driver wore no bra and the woman next to me had two rings on her ring finger. We got off the bus and after walking down multiple streets found *White Water Mall. I knew this place because my DECA state competition was here. We had to find 11th street to catch a train. (I knew where that was.) They walked up and down the streets trying to find 11th street. *Lizzy complained that the streets went 7th to 14th. I almost cried. I was getting really stressed. The others seemed so laid back and relaxed and there I was seconds from tearing my hair out of my head. I tried to laugh at their jokes but as soon as I did they stopped laughing and it was just awkward. So then they figured we should just find our way back. We then proceeded to board bus 7 even though we needed to be looking for bus 21. *Ron pointed out that we were going in the wrong direction abut 15 minutes later so we got off the bus. Now we were about an hour walking distance away from the market and, oh yeah, it started to pour and hail and I, being always right, wore flip flops. "Your feet look like they're in so much pain," Yes, yes they are. Thanks for stating the obvious *Lizzy. So we walked back. They were deeply involved in their conversation about college and I was the 4th person on a 3 person side walk. My clothes became 2 pounds heavier and my pants wouldn't stay up anymore. I was miserable and worried we wouldn't get back in time. They remained calm and didn't even mention the fact that I was right and they were wrong. We arrived in time, just as I was about to start tearing up.
I suppose my advice for this post is to just relax. Worrying does nothing. Also if you've never been to the city and the person you are with has, listen to them no matter how right you think you are.
My wonderful best friend started blogging. He's much more deep and sophisticated than I am. His wonderful witty tales (which are all true) of love and heartbreak will have you eagerly waiting for his next post. Check him out at thenewgaykingalex.blogspot.org. Until next time, my friends.