Thursday, February 15, 2007

Staring...Why are you looking at me?

So, if you look different, people are going to stare at you, right? Matt has been stared at throughout Asia as well as some of the other volunteers. I was not expecting to be stared at in Vietnam, I mean, I blend.

Now, so I might not look Vietnamese, although I was mistaken, but I do look a little more native than the white guy I travel around with. Sometimes I like to walk behind Matt to watch the people's expressions/gestures after he walks past. In Vietnam though I started to notice that, sure Matt was getting his fair share of stares, but so was I. I was perhaps getting even more.

This whole staring business is fairly new to me, as I have mostly traveled in Asia, so it was a little weird to me. Why are you looking at me? Do I have something on my face (check face, try to be discrete), do I have something in my hair? (check hair, try to be more discrete), do I have something on my butt? (check butt, try to be uber-discrete). Once I have determined that I don't have anything stuck on me, I still am left with the same question I started out with, "why are you staring at me"?

I have come up with a couple of possible solutions:

1) They think that I am Vietnamese and wonder why I am with a white man.

2) They are trying to figure out where I am from.

3) They think that I am a Vietnamese woman and I married an expat.

4) They think I am a prostitute.

The stares eventually made me feel a little paranoid, "Do they think I'm a whore?" and then made me want to prove my non-whoreness by speaking English very, very loudly. Did that just make them think that I was a multilingual whore? I dunno.

Some seemed curious, and others seemed, well, accusatory. Of what? I don't know.

So, what one of the above do you think was the reason for the staring? Cast your votes now, or write in your idea!

1 comment:

Sarah said...

My answer is the same as Sharon's. They are stunned by your beauty.