DO I REALLY LOOK CHINESE?

Tuesday is a school day so the alarm went off at 8, but I didn't get up till 9. As usual, I was dreaming and it was cut midway. My routine on school days is rather simple: Get up, turn the water heater on, prepare my cocoa drink and leave it in the microwave while am making my bed up. This morning, however, felt like a "breakfast morning" so I whipped up an 'egg and bacon" sandwich. That would actually last until later this afternoon. I figured I needed some extra energy to burn since I was heading straight to the gym right after class.

"Turn the water heater on", you asked? Well, in Greece, they don't leave their water heaters continuously turned on because they said you could get electrocuted if you jumped in the shower while it's turned on. They said someone had actually got electrocuted and died. Why would I take the risk? and why would I bother arguing that it isn't so? So long as I have my hot water for my morning showers, am a happy camper!

I took the bus from Afantou to Rhodes City, which is roughly a 20 minute long ride. Then walked for a good 20 minutes from the bus stop to the school. There are buses around the city but I had an hour extra before the class started and I needed the walk. On my way to the school, I happened to pass by a group of Albanian immigrant workers digging some holes. We exchanged the usual "nods", meaning hi and hello here, and smiled, then one of the guys said, with his fist closed raised straight up: VIVA KINA, VIVA MAO! What the fuck?? Do i really look like a Chinaman? I actually grinned as I passed them by and then I realized "that motherfucker just called me a Communist!" If I was back in the US, I would've made a sudden U-turn and chastised the motherfucking heckler, but for some strange reason, I just continued walking trying to rationalize the whole thing. Besides, the guy was holding a shovel, and I didn't want to be shoveled and mugged by a group of Albanian immigrant workers.

The class went well, and my work out was very good.

WORTHLESS RAMBLING FOR THE DAY: I went out for dinner with friends and I told them that I was earlier called a Chinese communist. One of my friends say that Greeks are racist. Really? Well, he is Greek so he should know what he was talking about but I wasn't sure if he was really speaking for all the Greeks. Then I told him that it was an Albanian immigrant worker who said it. Then he opined that Albanians are just stupids. Well again, he is Greek and in Greece, the Albanians are not very well-liked by the locals. The Albanians are like the Mexican illegal immigrant workers in the US. They also stand and wait on corners looking for jobs. They are blamed for anything and everything. Strangely, most Greeks feel that crimes happen in Greece because of them, and that Greeks don't commit crimes. Yeah, right!
On his remarks that Greeks are racist was somewhat worth discussing. I personally think that it's not a matter of racism but Greeks are just not used to seeing other races roaming about and around their country. Now, who is stupid? Greece is still a predominantly homogeneous society, and I think most Balkan countries are, while the more industrial European countries like U.K, France, Germany and Italy have their decent share of immigrants that their societies have become somewhat like the U.S. So, in Greece, the category they fit you under is limited. It's either you're African if you're Black, European if you're white, and you're Chinese if you're neither black nor white.
I, personally, and a lot of people too, can easily distinguished and identify people's races because of my exposure to different races in the U.S. I can tell a Japanese from Chinese, from Korean, and Filipinos from Thai, from Indonesian, from Vietnamese. A Mexican from Salvadorean, from Peruvian and Puerto Rican, so on and so forth.
So, for now, I'm just going to enjoy the category the current society I am in put me under: a KINEZOS (that's the Greek for Chinese), because I get special discounts when I go to the local farmers' market, and the locals still think I know Martial Arts so they don't mess with me.