These guys aren't bastards, but we do hang out without our shirts on.It can often be a weird world over here in who you meet. Yesterday a friend of a friend gives a call to me and says "friend, how's it going?" That phrase 100 percent of the time means, "Could you do me a favor?" I always have a hard time saying no to these things, because the people asking for the favor are always so damn insistent. You say "I'm sorry I'm really busy." and their response is "how about tomorrow... no? What about saturday? no? OK hows Monday?" And you never really get to the point where they say, “Oh, i get it... I see how it is(Sniffle)"
So I set up to meet with said businessmen at the front gate of my school last night to help them look at some English webpages they can't understand. I walk to the front gate and see no sign of the good buddy of my buddy. But thats because I am looking for cars, it turns out he and his partner have decided to show up on huge loud motorcycles(turns out their busienss is fixing motorcycles) to pick me up at my work place. Now this wouldn't be that big a deal normally, the problem is that there is only one John Lenhart in Zaozhuang, and rumours spread pretty quick. The huge motorcycles and sketchy appearance of these dudes had them marked out by everyone within a KM radius as huge bastards, no covering it up, and so as I jumped on the motorcycle and took off there was at least a few hundred students watching, laughing, and starting up the rumour mill that is gonna have everyone in a week saying I have started up a pricey prostitution ring in the middle of Zaozhuang (which I will go on the record saying that I have not, no matter what you've heard)
But it was a great time, the guys really were huge bastards, they fit the bill in every category, from their leather outfits (with fake Lacoste or Kappa t-shirts underneath), straight down to the chain smoking. I ended up tossing around a few gan beis with them, to the point that one of them started talking about how since we were such good friends he wanted me to tutor his six year old son, to which his friends laughed and responded "your son can barely speak Chinese, how is he gonna learn English." Apparently, his son is a big idiot.
The one thing that is so interesting about the whole thing is that these guys are the archetype for the bastard, and they are really good guys. Everyone in the University fears these guys, and has no wish to talk to them for fear of having a dagger plunged into their gut or being corrupted by their immoral ways. And these guys did have a few scars that I imagine might have come from fights they have been in. Yet the whole time, though their methods are very different, they were every bit as polite as the most educated "leader" has ever been to me, and in some ways more so. Bastards see you on level ground with them. They are capable of seeing past the cultural bullshit and seeing a person. They don't have that condescending tone, or knowing grin that leaders possess which makes you feel small; the look that shows they are content because they can categorize you based on your appearance. When you're out with a bastard there is no worries about any small guffaws with eating or toasting rituals, and in general everything is more relaxed. The bastards are similar to foreigners in a way, as they are quickly categorized based on their appearance, and left on the outside of the mass of society. But I have the feeling that alot of these bastards wouldn't want it any other way.
Gotta love a good bastard. When your out with a bastard there's nothing between you except for two empty glasses and anywhere from 2 to 37 liters of beer.
So I set up to meet with said businessmen at the front gate of my school last night to help them look at some English webpages they can't understand. I walk to the front gate and see no sign of the good buddy of my buddy. But thats because I am looking for cars, it turns out he and his partner have decided to show up on huge loud motorcycles(turns out their busienss is fixing motorcycles) to pick me up at my work place. Now this wouldn't be that big a deal normally, the problem is that there is only one John Lenhart in Zaozhuang, and rumours spread pretty quick. The huge motorcycles and sketchy appearance of these dudes had them marked out by everyone within a KM radius as huge bastards, no covering it up, and so as I jumped on the motorcycle and took off there was at least a few hundred students watching, laughing, and starting up the rumour mill that is gonna have everyone in a week saying I have started up a pricey prostitution ring in the middle of Zaozhuang (which I will go on the record saying that I have not, no matter what you've heard)
But it was a great time, the guys really were huge bastards, they fit the bill in every category, from their leather outfits (with fake Lacoste or Kappa t-shirts underneath), straight down to the chain smoking. I ended up tossing around a few gan beis with them, to the point that one of them started talking about how since we were such good friends he wanted me to tutor his six year old son, to which his friends laughed and responded "your son can barely speak Chinese, how is he gonna learn English." Apparently, his son is a big idiot.
The one thing that is so interesting about the whole thing is that these guys are the archetype for the bastard, and they are really good guys. Everyone in the University fears these guys, and has no wish to talk to them for fear of having a dagger plunged into their gut or being corrupted by their immoral ways. And these guys did have a few scars that I imagine might have come from fights they have been in. Yet the whole time, though their methods are very different, they were every bit as polite as the most educated "leader" has ever been to me, and in some ways more so. Bastards see you on level ground with them. They are capable of seeing past the cultural bullshit and seeing a person. They don't have that condescending tone, or knowing grin that leaders possess which makes you feel small; the look that shows they are content because they can categorize you based on your appearance. When you're out with a bastard there is no worries about any small guffaws with eating or toasting rituals, and in general everything is more relaxed. The bastards are similar to foreigners in a way, as they are quickly categorized based on their appearance, and left on the outside of the mass of society. But I have the feeling that alot of these bastards wouldn't want it any other way.
Gotta love a good bastard. When your out with a bastard there's nothing between you except for two empty glasses and anywhere from 2 to 37 liters of beer.
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