Stay outta trouble, learn running, figure out various tricks - kick cars so alarms go off, maybe carry mace and some shrieking device, look crazy when threatened, I don't know, hiss real loud, that'll freak people out, they don't know maybe you're mentally retarded and basically a bigger chimpanzee. They'd never mess with a smaller brained ape your size, an ape half your size can totally mess people up - an ape will bite off fingers, gouge out eyes, rip off ears... without any martial arts. Don't look like you're clever enough to figure out that if you fight back you're more likely to die. Looking clever is stupid anyway.

My parents made a mistake of being in Russian part of Soviet Union when Soviet Union broke down - can't really blame them for not wanting to be in a hostile-ish-to-russians region near border when a military superpower goes down, though. The crime rate was like you wouldn't believe.