Being a foreigner can sometimes be difficult. With my blond hair I stick out just about everywhere. And the locals are never shy about talking about us as they are standing right next to us. The most uncomfortable is when people come and stare at us while we are eating. (We call it ‘feeding time at the zoo’ as that’s how we feel.)
We went shopping the other day in downtown Lin’an and we were pleasantly surprised that people were hardly noticing us. We even went into a little dark maze of shops and no one harassed us to look at their stall or shouted ‘Heellooooo’. It was nice.
Then we went into one shop that sold clothes. We were approached by an employee (I think) who asked if she could take a picture of us. But she didn’t just take one, she took a bunch, and she even tried to pose us with our arms around each other. I have no idea what she was going for but before she knew it Ryan whipped out the camera and took a picture of her.
Sorry lady, but it’s only fair!
I never use e-mail abbreviations, so I’ll just have to type this out, but I laughed out loud at this entry.
feeding time at the zoo. lol
I always wondered why Chinese are so curious about foreigners. I understand now, they just want to be friendly, though they often do it in the wrong way; besides, most of the Chinese know a little bit English (thanks to universal English education and Beijing Olympic Games), they are eager to show it off in front of native speakers.
At least the looks aren’t hostile and you can tell they are just curious, but it does get annoying after awhile! 🙂