kneejerk

This happened last week, but much business has kept me from blogging.

I was at the bus stop and ran into two social work classmates. Let's call one Square and the other one Circle. In an attempt to make conversation, I asked Square what class she just had, which happened to be Bahasa. I said I knew quite a few people who were doing Bahasa too, and added in a deadpan manner, "maybe because they want to work with Indonesian maids next time".

Square's eyes widened in shock and horror and said, "Stereotype!" rather triumphantly. (Yes she has featured once in one of the previous entries, in case you got a sense of deja vu).

I was wondering if she was joking, or if she didn't get that I wasn't serious. So I asked Square politely what the stereotype was and she said, "Stereotype!" again. By which time I was already regretting opening my mouth and so I laughed a rather lame, hollow laugh. Then Circle said, "You can only laugh silently huh", and this time I really laughed. I wasn't laughing at her; it was just that the whole situation was so ridiculous I didn't know if they were for real.

I hope I'm not sounding snobbily elitist or whatever, but it's tiring frustrating and freaking irritating to have these kind of encounters almost everyday. I think I shall just retreat into my anti-social(work) self again.