I was in a bad mood about Turkey yesterday. It's a cultural thing, but when I'm tired, when I feel "dry" and without my well filled with energy, I react to the fact that there's such a sense of entitlement here. If I'm walking one one down the sidewalk and I encounter three Turks walking abreast from the opposite direction, not one of them will move to give me room. I get knocked into the gutter.
There's no chivalry with the men, and I'm told to be flattered that I'm bumped into the street because if the men move for you, it means you are really, really old. Certainly the young people don't move no matter what your age. In Turkey, the young people are revered and allowed to do whatever they want, little darlings that they are.
Here, you'd better damned well know the expectations of how to navigate a line--no points for being a foreigner. If I'm in line in the airport and show one ounce of hesitation because i'm not sure where to go next, I'll get elbowed and left in the dust by another number of entitled people.
It's the same at the supermarket. People will go right past you if you don't remain vigilant and hold your place.
The more I travel and live in the world outside the U.S., the more prejudiced I become. It's a terrible thing to realize. I see it in my cartoons...I just finished one about the Navajo and how much they dislike the whites. When I was in Kuwait, I had real reason to be upset because the lack of human rights there were appalling. And now in Turkey, despite the kindness and pleasantness that has been shown to me, I focus on the negative.
