People are People

Sometimes being in China can be so unfamiliar that you kinda feel like an alien who crashlanded or like you're living in an alternate dimension. This most often occurs to me when I get really lost or try to read something. This can be a bit isolating, and also fun pretending to be an alien.

It's also strange to look and speak differently than the general population and to be treated accordingly. Even though Beijing is exploding at the seams,and foreigners are flooding in, I still get stared at on the subway, have kids point at me, get asked to take pictures, and get heckled by vendors and ignored by taxi drivers. This either makes me feel like a movie star or a loser, depending on my mood.

But other times, there are moments that make me fall in love with people here and the general human family all over again. Here are two:

1. When I got food poisoning two weeks ago, I was DONE. All I did was drink gatorade, watch Modern Family, and sleep. The worst part was my daily venture out to get food, cause I never knew when nausea or dizziness was gonna hit. I would stumble out the door to Subway(a pretty safe bet here), clutching my stomach and scoping out possible places to vomit.
Anyways, on one of these field trips, I was waiting for my sandwich and dizziness hit hard. I went to Subway's seating area and collapsed on one of the tables. I didn't really care what anyone thought, so I just put my head on the table and waited for it to pass. Lots of people were staring at me, cause I already look different and on top of that I was acting like a goonie.It might be on youku (chinese youtube), I saw one guy point a cellphone at me :(
As you can probably surmise, this was not a happy moment for me. Feeling pretty dejected, I looked over at the next table and saw a man with his family. He looked really concerned, not in a "what's-this-freak-going-to-do-to-my-children" kind of way, but just genuinely pitying me, and when he saw me look up he smiled, not in a "wow-you-hit-rock-bottom" kind of way, but in a "it'll-get-better-hang-in-there" kind of way. That smile got me through the day, and I hope I can give it to someone else someday. Human empathy rules!

2. I also had a great conversation with a student's father today. First of all, he was hilarious and explained his inside joke with his friends where he asks them if they want to do something and follows it with "Are you Morgan?". For example, "Yo! I'm going to play poker, are you Morgan?". And they say either yes or no based on whether or not their wives will let them, cause it's Morgan FREEMAN, like "sure I can play poker, I'm a FREEMAN." GENIUS!
Furthermore, he said some great things about the world, that sound a little cliche writing them down, but they really struck a chord with me, especially since we were both being very sincere in our talk. Both he and I had spent time in each other's countries, not enough to get a handle on anything really, but enough to get the lay of the land. I mentioned that I thought China and the US were very similar, despite their vast geographical distances and different history and politics. And he just spoke for awhile about "yes, you know people are people, no matter where in the world, we all have the same hearts." DANG. I loved it.


Okay, more updates soon, I gotta get back to work. Wish me luck with these crazy five year olds, no matter where in the world you are, kids still like sticking crayons up their noses :)