I type red when I'm angry.  

Ok, let me put this into perspective for you:  I derive very little pleasure out of the mundane, idiotic things that most people enjoy doing here (and everywhere in the world) on a daily basis like drinking, smoking, and being pointlessly loud in the middle of the night.  I like girls (ogling and not ever bringing up the courage to talk to) , surfing, and martial arts.  Since the the first two in that long litany of hobbies has about the same chances of occurring as me developing superpowers and bringing world peace through killing the Powderpuff Girls, I figured since I'm in ASIA, the birthplace of martial arts, you know, where it was invented, I could take up some sort of training...since I have done martial arts for about 11 years-on-and off.

Nearly no one does martial arts here:  this is the first vexation.  Secondly, I was promised by a handful of people that they would find me a teacher of some sort nearly 3 months ago, and I've found out the reason why this hasn't happened, through secondary and also many tertiary sources, is because they are afraid of something happening to me: As if I haven't taken a shot or two to the head and face through my on-and-off 11 years of training.  Although, this isn't totally conclusive because nothing is ever directly told to me; I have to hunt for the answers to questions that I didn't even ask.  Besides the fact that they are worried about my safety, the only activity, besides sitting at home and watching television, that they seem to approve of me doing is going out to eat random animal parts while asking me to drink enough booze that could easily inebriate an elephant.  

This seems like a safe and healthy alternative to martial arts, doesn't it?  Many people also like to offer me cigarettes to smoke, and even after explaining through about three or four different interpreters on hand that cigarette smoke makes me sick (allergy) and smoking a cigarette would undoubtedly kill me, they still try to get me to smoke.  And, they "get offended" if you refuse to do these things.  Let me think for a moment:  smoke a cigarette and perhaps die, or offend someone that doesn't seem to care about my health either way:  I think I'll go for door number two, Roddy.  

Safety...safety.  They were concerned about my safety in walking the streets at night could be an unsafe activity.  Many times, at 11 o'clock at night, the only people on the streets are students finishing their last class for the day (not kidding, they are in school for nearly 13 hours a day).  They are willing to let 9 and 10 year-old girls walk home alone in the unlit streets at 11:00 at night, but they are afraid for my safety.  "Bad men could come and try to take your money," it was explained to me.  Also, "Those girls are Chinese and you're not," was the other brilliant sentence I took from a diatribe on my safety I received from someone here.  Guns here are illegal, and most knives are of such poor quality that you couldn't cut paper with them...do you honestly think a 4'10, 100 pound, probably drunk and reeking of cigarette smoke that will probably try to attack downwind, "bad man" with no martial art skill will be able to take me down?  Perhaps if they were equipped with a stun gun or a spiked baseball bat or if there were 20 of them, maybe.  Personally, I'd be more concerned for the 3'8, 50 pound, 10 year-old Chinese girl.

Anyway, It's pointless to argue, they are right and I'm wrong, and they aren't afraid to overpower me and let me know in conversation with a loud voice like what's done to a naughty child.  I am outside of my home culture which apparently, to them, bears a similarity to what I would imagine life on Mars being like.  So, I sit at home typing this becoming a disgusting blob of inactivity.

Lets see what else?  Oh yes, then there's the fallacy that "all foreigners are rich," that I am bombarded with every single conscious  moment of the day by everyone.  All it requires is a little logical thinking to realize that if I was so fucking rich, wouldn't I be traveling the world and not working in a middle-of-nowhere town like Langzhong in Sichuan, China?  Do you obviously think I have nothing better to do with my time and sit around here all day long while people offer me cigarettes that could kill me while ironically worrying about my safety?  If you haven't figured that out that I'm not here for the money, you need to become reacquainted with that little bit of consciousness called reality.  I could work less hours in the USA and make twice the money I am here.  I enjoy helping people, that's why I'm here.  Yes, yes, I know I do get paid twice what some teachers make here that have been working as a teacher for many years.  It's odd that nobody listens when I say it took me spending the equivalent of what would be a years salary for them to just get to China.  I think it's ok if I get paid a little more...

Regardless, people just don't think; logic is a beautiful commodity that I have taken for granted.