NOTE: Sorry I haven’t written any new blogs lately. Due to various reasons I had to wait till I got home. So I’m going to post blogs that I’ve had written for awhile but wasn’t able to post until now. Enjoy!
…When it comes to staring. When I first landed in Nairobi Kenya back in July everyone was staring at me. It was hard to adjust to after blending in so well in Europe (many people thought I was my teams translator in most places we went to in those 3 months). Well then I got used to it and stopped noticing.
…Then I went to China… Hong Kong wasn’t so bad but then again I was doing all the touristy things. I did notice a few people staring as I walked by but I was used to it at that point. Thanks Africa! 🙂
Then we left Hong Kong to Mainland China…on a 34 or < hour train ride. 6 of us from two teams grabbed our seats (7 were in the hard sleepers) and was just relaxing and chatting. We look over and the people across the way from us are taking our pictures. So we start posing for them and throwing up the peace sign that most if not all Asians seem to do when taking pictures. Little did we know that it was just the beginning.
Later that night we were trying to sleep on the hard seats (Let’s just say that the night at Training Camp where we slept on the bus was more comfortable than this night). Sometimes when I woke up I noticed that they were watching us. They seemed interested to see how we were getting comfortable and amused, disgusted, and questioned why some decided to sleep on the floor (not the cleanest place to sleep for sure).
Later on in the afternoon / evening the guys decided to order food off one of the passing carts. At this point not only were the people across the way watching us but a dozen or more other people stood up and turned around to watch us try and order food, figure out what the price was, and what currency to use. At one point Jordan pulled out a Hong Kong bill and everyone started laughing because it was the wrong one. Little do they know we have many, many different currencies.
After the adventure of ordering food we decided to play a card game. Again everyone around us was watching. Some were even standing on seats to see over people. No exaggeration, not in the slightest. The funny part to me was that it was a slow moving card game and the second it was over everyone was back in their seats. Why we are so entertaining I have yet to figure out.
Then came the Chinese lesion. This happened throughout the train ride. People would teach us a word or two and we would try and mimic what they said. This always seemed to make them laugh – maybe because we always got it wrong? We’re not sure if we did or not. We would practice our newly discovered Chinese on the people who walked by with the food carts and we would cheer when they knew what we were saying (or trying to say). This brought more laughter from the train.
Thankfully the staring in Asia is more entertaining than annoying. Also our contact told us that we will get stared at a lot so we can stare back, smile, make faces, or ignore it. He also told us of a family he knows that lives in China who make people pay to get pictures with them. Asia will be fun!
