I was in Washington this weekend I was staying with Kelly M, "Smiley Kelly," from Semester at Sea, and her roommate, Irena. Irena lived in Russia until she was eight years old and is a major in essentially Russian Studies. She's studied in St. Petersburg for a while and speaks fluent Russian, and told me about the street where the Duma used to be which is now a raving cesspool of madness on spring nights around 3AM.
We were talking about my own travelling (through Semester at Sea, of course), and I think we were talking about subways and metros and how Japan has the best system. She said Japan must have been awesome, but I told her that I didn't really like it, because people didn't smile at me very often. She said, "Well you can't really blame them, I mean, who do you think really has an interest in befriending white Americans?"
And I said, "People in Cambodia and Vietnam!" And I talked for a second about how nice and friendly the people there were compared to Japan, who wouldn't even make eye contact with me. And then I was about to say the following:
"Which is really strange, considering what America did to Vietnam in the war. What did we ever do to Japan?"
But before I did, I realized: OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH riiiiiiiiiiiiiight, and then didn't say that, and felt like an idiot.
Peace out.
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