Here's a Question....

So I had an interesting conversation with my fellow coworker about this and would like another opinion about this.....

I was complaining about my ride to work on the subway. The area where I live is getting so congested and the train is so unbelievably packed every morning where you have stinky armpits in your face. The train is also very ethnically diverse as well. The stop after my stop is largely Indian. Indian men to be exact. They come in the train and just don't care about who is around them. They push people around and out of their way as though they own the train. I have made this comment before to a friend that lives in the area and she totally agreed with me. I could be standing right in front of the door to exit the train and get shoved to the side so the dude next to me can get out first. Now there may be that "culture" thing that people love to defend rudeness with, but I know that when i go to another country, I try to blend in and not be "American". Hell, half the time i get people coming up to me asking for directions and speaking their language (and no my Russian was not good enough to have a clue what they were saying).

I have become very aware of this since i came back from vacation. I am not sure why, but for some reason i have become almost intolerant of it. Yes, you may finally hear of someone on the new losing it in the subways and going mental. That will be me and this is my reason why. In Panama, I rode these crazy buses everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. We were the only white people on the bus. People that we did talk to kept trying to steer us away from these buses, but hell, they were 25 cents! And all sorts of pimped out. And yes, they were crowded as well. People were three to a seat that we would normally only put 2 and two to a seat that only one person would normally sit in. Woman made their kids sit on their laps to make room for others. The people standing in the aisles were close, but it didn't feel the same as the subways. And remember, this is 90 degree humidity and no air conditioning. And it was still more pleasant than the over abundance of curry wafting to me at 8 am. We rode around those speaking our very very very elementary spanish. We had one driver go out of his way to show us around and tell us stories. Granted we didn't understand much of what he was saying, but got the general gist of it.

I was telling my coworker how the next trip we would like to take would be India. But since i have come back to hating the subways lately and the rudeness of these Indians, I am having my doubts. Then i posted the question of the difference between the people that live in the country being different the people that move out. I gave the example of Puerto Ricans and New Yoricans. My brother lived in PR for over 13 years and had said how there is quite a difference between the two. I was pondering this as being the idea of the people who leave a country are different that people who stay. My coworker then said, yeah there is a difference. But he then said something that made me totally disagree and defend New Yorkers. He said that people in NYC are scared and are more hostile cause they don't know who is sitting next to them on the trains or buses. They could be rapists, murderers or terrorists. People in other countries are more relaxed, like the Panama example that i gave, and that is part of their culture. I totally disagreed with that. I don't think New Yorkers are like that at all. I don't think to myself- that person is a terrorist. I think that it is the tourists that come here that give that feeling. If you ever read a tour book for NYC they tell you all the things you should be aware of. I just laugh at them. When i go away on vacation and read all the warnings of books, i giggle and say remember what they all say about NYC and we LIVE here.

What do you all think? I am curious. i may be too close to the situation that I am biased.