A snob or a fool?

I agreed to a dinner invite today from a couple 'new' friends to meet their friends tonight and it turned out to be quite interesting in a not-very-nice way *sigh*. So, before I begin my little story, I'll give a quick background to my 'new' friends, to whom I'll name my friend, "X" and her hubby "Y" for anonymity's sake. I met "X" 1.5 years ago from my bus rides to work every morning, and she could not utter a word of English and is so overjoyed that I could speak in Chinese... and she soon laid out her life story of how she is married to a pure-bred Westerner. Yes, curious aren't we, of how the two are attracted and got married to each other. To dabble on my suspicion and theories of how they got together would be too catty... and it's best that I don't travel down that direction in telling this little story. Nevertheless, this story is all about tonight's dining experience...

It wasn't fine dining, it was a casual dindin at a pizza place according to X & Y - and they just wanted me to meet a few of their ex-colleagues who's in the truck driving business. As X & Y were driving me to this place that they boasted as 'the best pizza place ever', we were busy yacking of China, Hong Kong... overseas Chinese and cultural differences etc... a conversation which I try intellectualising and found to be a rather one way conversation where I'm providing information rather than absorbing a proper feedback... sigh. At the same time, I was also playing the role of a translator, and had to actively work as a middle person translating Cantonese to English and English to Cantonese for both X and Y. Back and forth it went, and you get the drill. Whilst 'working', I looked left and right as we drove further away from everything familiar to me, and my uneasiness grew... I realised that we have now moved our mid-class or rather, the affluent suburb that I'm accustomed to, to a seedy part of town which I've never ventured to, ever.

Being as diplomatic as I could, I asked X about my whereabouts (silly me, I'd make a perfect kidnap victim for not asking where I'm going and for putting all my trust to go wherever this couple's taking me!). X said, "Maylands", and I said, "Oh", as it dawned on me that it's not a place where I'd like to be caught dead in. X was saying that it's an affluent area, but every part of me is screaming, "No way!"... and she was telling me all about how expensive the houses are etc and I was soon to realise that she is not able to pick up the differences. I can see and also understand that this is the Northeast of Perth, where it's just 5-minutes' drive away from CBD a place of such will eventually be bought over as a city expands. Due to its proximity to the city, it's no surprise that the housing prices that went bananas for years now have made many desperate buyers look into upgrading even the seediest place to make it decent. Yes, due to the mining industry boom in WA, many seedy places are currently going through some form of genteelising. The fact if the matter is that the face of buildings may change and the roads may be widened, but the fabric of the society is still unchanged. The people and the town don't seem to jive.

As my 'friends' continued to drive me through the neighbourhood to the pizzeria, the more uneasy I became as I could feel the seediness of the place growing...I tried brushing it off, thinking that I may be overly suspicious or sensitve. By and by, we reached the eatery, the well-boasted pizzeria where truckies swore to be the best and further assured by X & Y as well. At the front entrance, we were met by several overweight blokes with their wives of South-east Asian descent. The blokes waved at us, and Y waved back heartily and was quick to introduce me as his wife's friend. So, I was greeted with loud, slowly pronounced syllables of 'Hi, I'm abc, nice to meet you", and then shake hands. I thought to myself, "ok, don't judge... don't judge, be good, be kind..."

We sat down, and waitresses in tight Ts accentuanting their upper body assets came forward (kind remind me of a really low grade Hooters joint), and took our orders. Giant sized pizzas, chilli mussels, garden salads etc were soon served. Every 5-10 minutes, half of the burly males at our table kept going out for a nicotine top-up, leaving their SEA wifeys behind. The conversations we all had were basically nonsensical, just for the sake of having a laugh and mucking around. This eventually led to one of the wifey's suggestion of the best male-contraception which comes in different flavours, which was further spiced up with detailed explanation of the originality and wonders of its taste, living up to its brand name, as advertised. I almost choked on my pizza hearing the lewd and unsolicited advise by the wifey to the rest of the blokies at the table. The men sat up and eating their pizzas lustily rather than heartily... the bad taste in my mouth continued to develop and I lost my appetite.

X kept turning to me to ask for translation of what's being said, which got me rather annoyed as I found myself at her disposal, conveniently translating everything for her while she'd just sit there and not work on doing her best to understand what's going on. Blokies at the table, including her hubby would also keep on turning to me to ask, "What did X say"... so, you get the drill on how I was continuously translating things back and forth.

Anyway, it's now all behind me, as it'll be the last time I'm joining them for dindin. Now I'm back home, thinking to myself, whether I'm being a bloody snob, thinking that I'm above them SEA wifeys and X just because I have a better command of Anglais, and could make a conversation with their men ... and I was further thinking that these blokies must have a complex where they needed women, not as trophy wives, but women who would meet their every need without having the command of language to oppose them. Calling a dining place of such the best pizza, chilli mussels and best looking waitresses around ... really confirmed my thinking that these bunch of people really do not know what they are talking about or perhaps do not know any better? As with reference to X and Y, they could not tell the difference from a seedy place to a decent place because they too, do not know better and they are one of these people of the same ilk *sigh*.

*sigh*sigh*sigh*... I'm not only a snob, I'm a fool too. I will distance myself from X & Y from now on, not because I have expectations, but I think I have enough of being used, and wasting all that time getting involved in explaning, translating and helping all the time on things to shop etc. I got home in time to see to my very own hubby, and wanting to tell him about my evening, and he asked me who did I go out with... and I said "X and Y", and he waved his hand in the air and said, "I don't want to know about it, and I don't like X". Even hubby thinks me a fool for being anywhere near these people. So, what does that make me now, "a foolish snob"? So be it, foolish no more, and I am reassured that I'm a snob, and to some extent, so is hubby a snob through and through.