I'm not quite sure what is going on around here. Either I am more comfortable than I used to be with people staring and gawking at me or people are less frightened of dealing with foreigners.

I was at the school tuck shop a couple of days ago and I believe the workers to be new as they started screaming in Chinese "Foreigner!" at the top of their lungs. I thought this to be a bit odd because the school has had foreign teachers for 2 and a half years, one year of which I was one of them. Anyway, I spoke my poor Chinese and asked where certain items were and chose the things I wanted.

Oddly when I went to the counter to pay the old man in the shop tried to demand that I buy cigarettes for my husband. Not sure whether or not Trev is in cahoots with him, but had a small counter attack with him that he didn't need any. Had to laugh when he countered back that he mightn't need any but wanted some.

As all this was going on the woman serving me jumped to her feet and started stroking my arm. Initially I thought she was trying to have a look at my wedding ring so I extended my fingers, but no she was really checking out my fair hair on my arms. She couldn't figure out my blonde arm hairs and brown head hair. But wait it gets worse. I'm freckly and she started poking my freckles. Not just pointing but poking.

Trev and I have had a laugh about this and wonder if she was thinking 'is this laowei brown with white dots or white with brown dots'