MRT anecdote
A funny thing happened on my way to work. Maybe not funny, exactly.
Commuting is often a very silent affair, there's not a lot of talking done save maybe if your with friends. Striking a conversation with a perfect stranger would result in an awkward monologue with said person and silence, wherein they would try to ignore you as much as possible. It's not that they're trying to be rude, it's just that they're not very comfortable talking to a complete stranger while commuting.
One thing about us Filipinos is that we're a very quiet people, its one of the reasons why we were under a colonial rule for so long, it's not a very good trait but there you go.
So, there we were, relaxing in the silence when out of the blue a woman says: "Would you please stop moving?!"
I glance back and see the woman packing her phone and glaring at the man beside her. The man was apologizing, when the woman began attacking him.
She shouted "Shut-up!" a couple of times in an increasingly loud voice. Her voice echoed from one end of the car to the other.
For my part I was morbidly amused with the fight, so did my fellow commuters from their bemused and incredulous expressions, it's not everyday this sort of thing happened.
The man, obviously exasparated retorted that he was only apologizing. The woman just repeated her words and for good measure added, "Fix your English!" Which was odd since the guy only had a slight pronounciation problems but otherwise he spoke good English.
Offended, he retaliated: "We're not in America! I'm not an American!"
The girl said something unintelligable and judging from the reactions of their other seatmates, very rude. The girl picked the wrong guy to fight with, he might not have the accent as she does but he certainly knew how to argue.
The argument went back and forth, with the guy scoring more points without being rude and needing to raise his voice. The girl just, well, kept on shouting as if her lung power, American accent and status (she looked like a colegiala) could over power him. It was not to be.
The guy finally ended the debate by citing that even the President (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) didn't act high and mighty.
The girl seemed taken aback and promptly shut-up.
The other people in the train were raising their eyebrows and murmuring that the guy was right, not even the president acted like a brat. The train was silent again, just then the train pulled up at my stop, I glanced at the man and the woman, the man had moved away from the girl and was pointedly ignoring her. I grinned then exited, stage left.
