Appearances

Kaifeng, Henan.

Maybe I've been drinking too much green tea. Or maybe it's the noodles and the soy sauce eggs. Or the fact that I have given up changin my clothes all the time like a laowai, and have joined the ranks of the locals and can now go for quite a long time with the very same clothing. Or possibly it's the choppy haircut. But it must be something that's happening to me, as in the past few days, on a few occasions I have been taken to be Chinese!! It's never happened to me before, as I think I quite obviously look foreign, but for some reason now I have had people ask me if I'm Chinese or foreign. And today, I heard a girl and a boy talking as i walked back, with the girl remarking that "she really doesn't look like a foreigner". The explanation has been that they have thought that maybe I was from Xinjiang in the west of China, where the people belong to a different ethnic group from the majority of the Han people. But still, I must say, I don't think I even look like a Xingjianer...

In any case, I hope this will make my life a little easier by blending me in with the crowd, maybe reduce the number of 'hello' jokes and even bring down the prices to a local level!

Just remember that the next time I come for a visit, just look for the Chinese girl, that'll be me...