A few weeks ago we decided to be the tourists that everyone assumes we are. It was kind of nice to walk around, without being expected to speak Chinese. I was more than happy to pretend to not understand... until we got bombarded by the paprazzi. Most people native to this city are used to seeing foreigners so they don't usually gawk too much. That's not the case when you visit tourist sites where most of the people are out-of-towners and are not used to seeing ridiculously cute foreign kids. Add to that the fact that at tourist sites everyone has a camera, so we literally got asked about 20 times if they could take our kids' picture. (I'm thankful for the people that at least ask and don't just take our picture like we're animals at the zoo or something.) I picked up a trick from another foreign friend and started telling people to ask Katie if she wanted her picture taken (the answer, of course, being a resounding NO!) I also explained to people that it was because too many people want to take her picture, in hopes of educating at least some folks that we are not a freak show! I try to be kind to people (even though it does get annoying) and have tried to encourage Katie that we are like ambassadors, maybe the only representatives of our home country that they will ever meet! I did lose my cool though when a guy came up and grabbed Katie to dance with her. He was a young college-aged kid and was just playing around, but I let him know in no uncertain, mama-bear terms that it was NOT okay for him to do that. What do people not understand about screaming children? If they start crying, that means they do not like you and want you to stop! It doesn't usually mean that they are having a good time. Tears seem to me to be a pretty universal sign of distress....That was just 5 seconds of our whole morning, and we had a fun time together as a fam, enjoying the warm weather and seeing in person the amazing job China did in hosting the '08 Olympics.
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| Why are photos cooler when the person is jumping? |
3 comments:
I can imagine the mama bear Mary voice. I love your commentary in this post.
We do the same thing with Elijah - when people want to take his picture we have them ask him directly. We've given him permission to tell them it will cost them 1 kuai. They are usually willing to pay and he ends up feeling like he has some control over the situation istead of feeling like a freak. Most folks get a good laugh and it's great language practice for Elijah, too.
:)
When I was in B, I turned it around.. and started asking nationals if I could take a picture with them. I have an entire roll of film of me standing next to unsuspecting (and sometimes bewildered) tourists.
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