The way the DC Metro (note: Metro, not subway) works is that when the train stops, all the people inside the train get off first and only then will the ones on the outside move in. If you mess up this rule several things happen:
1) All the passengers give you that mean look of “Why, I never..!”
2) The security guy armed to the teeth in guns and what looks like an anti-tank missile will stare give you a much more menacing look.
So, we in DC tend to follow our nice rules and we’re generally polite about it. Go up the metro escalators and stay on the right-hand side if you’re standing and walk up the left. These are rules as old as time itself (or 1976 when the metro actually opened).
This is the life I have gotten accustomed to, and by and large, it’s a good, simple and organized life. Then, of course, I come to China.
It’s sort of strange – and yet appropriate – that within an hour of arriving back here, the consistent thought going through my head would be “Hobbes would be so proud”. Everything here looks like a nice chaotic free-for-all. A metro door opens and everyone inside the metro is immediately pushing their way out, while those on the outside are pushing their way in. Why the sensical “I’ll wait until those on the inside leave” hasn’t caught on yet is really beyond me.