We recently joined a gym.  We'd been wanting to for quite some time, but just now scrounged up enough money to get a membership.  It's just a short bike ride away from our flat.  It's no Downtown Gym, but it's not too bad.  So I was in there two days ago (this day by myself - usually Frank and I go together), and I had just gotten on the elliptical machine (which faces the window, and all the other stuff is behind me), when I heard some yelling, even through the loud music on my headphones.  I turned around for a few seconds and saw nothing that was obviously going on.  So I continue working out, and about 3-4 minutes later, I hear the ruckus again.  I turn around again and see a large man (large even for Western standards) staring me down from about 30-40 feet away on his treadmill.  At first, I wasn't sure if he was actually looking at me.  This was all going through my head very quickly - "Why would he be looking at me?  No, surely he's not looking at me.  Well, who else is he looking at?  Wait, I think he is looking at me!"  All the while, I am still looking at him, trying to figure all this out.  He says, "Ni kan shenme?" ("What are you looking at?") about four or five times, and I'm still not wholly convinced he's after me.  Then I see him start making fists at me.  And then he starts punching them in the air.  I can even see, from where I am, his lower teeth jutting outward in his anger.  Now I'm sure.  By this time he'd straddled the treadmill while the thing was still going.  At this point, I don't know what to do.  I think to myself, "If I turn back around to face the window, I can't see what's going on behind me, and with all this happening, I think I need to be aware of what's happening behind me.  But maybe the wise thing to do would be to just mind my own business...."  Right as I decided to do the prudent thing - face the window - I see the man stepping off the treadmill suddenly and start coming towards me!  Then from the side, the head trainer steps up and grabs the man's arm and tells him (from what little I can hear), "She's a foreigner.  What are you doing?....."  I whipped my head around, put my headphones back in my ears, faced straight ahead and was determined to continue my workout for the remaining 20 minutes on the machine.  Just as I thought things had settled down, I hear him AGAIN.  Boy, my curiosity was getting the best of me.  I really wanted to know what he was up to now.  I justified my turning around AGAIN by saying that it could possibly involve me.  Turns out that he had found another girl to attack, but she was Chinese and she was fighting back.  All I saw when I slyly turned around was his grabbing the TV remote control out of her hand in a rage. 

I didn't know what I was going to do when I got off.  I wasn’t going to leave, but I did almost call Frank in the middle of his class.  So I just did what I normally do (normally, meaning for the past two weeks) – head over to do sit-ups.  To get there from the elliptical machine couldn’t be further.  I knew I’d probably have to pass him.  But I kept my eye on my target and didn’t look left or right on the way there.  On about sit-up no. 13, as I’m pulling up I see him standing there, just glaring me down with stern eyes.  Until about sit-up no. 27, every time I came up, he was there to meet my eyes.  Finally he walked away.  I thought I was rid of him until we had another run in on the leg press, but it was mild in comparison. 

I still have no idea what this guy’s problem was.  I can’t wait to talk to the head trainer and ask him.