Mars

People gawk like crazy here.  The three of us, Tim, Javier and myself are the only non chinese people in the town.  The ONLY, maybe with the exception of the rare white movie star that might be shooting something at the studio.  But if there are any foreigners at the studios, they stay there and never go into town.  So basically we are the only ones.  And we are the first foreign teachers at the college so I wonder if most of the townspeople have EVER seen a white person besides on TV.  People literally stop what they are doing and stare at us.  They tap their friends on the shoulder and point us out so their friend stops and stares as well.  People riding their bikes nearly run into cars as they turn around to watch us.  In Shanghai and Hangzhou it was mostly kids, the parents have seen the occasional tourist before.  In Hengdian we are something really strange, I feel like an alien.  They will downright watch us for several minutes like we are some sort of strange specimen.  Or they want to take pictures of us, or with us.  They especially want to take pictures when we are at the shooting grounds.  They probably think we are actors or something.  Tim's students have told him he looks like Edward from Twilight, or Harry Potter.  I had a good laugh, especially with the Eward comment.  It's a funny life here.