Today, something really embaressing happened to me. I was going to the hospital to get my eye checked, when I walked through the lobby to the lift to get to the foreigners’ clinic a woman bumped in to me. The women bumped on me on my right side and since I don’t see out of that eye, I didn’t see her. I just felt the bump and saw the woman roll across the floor.
She immediately got up and started yelling at me and demanding why I didn’t see her and demanding that I take her to a doctor. I told her I was sorry and that it was an accident but she said that wasn’t good enough. I explained to her that I don’t see out my right eye and there was no way I could have seen her. She told me that wasn’t good enough and that I still should’ve seen with my other eye even though that wasn’t possible as I was looking in the other direction and not even moving.
By this time a crowd had formed around us and they automatically sided with the woman. She had a small bruise under her eye and demanded I take her to a doctor and began pointing to the Chinese wing of the hospital. I said I had an appointment in the foreigners’ clinic and she could come with me and I would pay for the hospital bill. They agreed and that was the end of it. They separated from me as soon as we got to the clinic and I didn’t see them again I just paid the bill when I left.
It’s embaressing enough to have been involved in an accident like that, but it’s even worse to have a crowd form. I am embarassed enough that I can’t see out of my right eye and tend to bump into things a lot, but it’s even harder to try and to describe this to Chinese people is even worse. I’ve found after four years of being here that most people don’t tend to be able to look beyond the obvious when they are in a situation such as an accident. They just get really selfish and only want the best things for themselves. I guess everybody gets like this when they’re in an accident, but I sure don’t like being in the centre of it.
J.
P.S. My eye is fine.
One-Eyed Panda\'s Journal 
As a police officer we see this kind of stuff every day, simple arguments and accidents.
Sometimes it’s best to either stand up for yourself or just leave. In a case like this, you were in no wrong, you wern’t even moving. It sounds like since there was a crowd that you probably didn’t explain your side well enough out of embaressment or fear of the situation which caused it to end like that.
It would have been best to apologise several times, and then say you have an important appointment and walk away, there is no reasoning with some people that cannot understand you either due to selfishness or a language barrier. Most people in a situation like that are understanding as well, I would have been, it’s just a bump caused by her rushing too fast.
If she wanted to follow you and yell that’s fine, just keep walking, if she were crazy enough to get the police involved, well, let’s just say we can filter through the B.S. easily, if your side checked out with your injury, then you would have been fine, even if there were relatives of the woman with her that would take her side, in a simple dispute such as this with no assault, under strictly legal terms all we could do is say, avoid eachother from now on and go your seperate ways.
Learning to stand up for yourself within reason will help lead to a happier life, as your self esteem will go up and people will notice more confidence and won’t walk all over you.
Glad the eye is ok.
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