One Time in China, I…was treated like a celebrity (sort of).

Okay, first things first. I know I'm kind of slacking off on this blog. I was supposed to tell you all these fun little stories about living in China, but...I haven't. So, I'm going to try to do this more frequently, because, let's face it, I've been back in the States for over a year and a half, and it's starting to seem silly to talk about my experiences. But, I must. Now, without further ado, here is my next installment.

I’ve heard stories about foreigners in China being spotted on the street and subsequently getting cast in commercials or print ads. I secretly thought that would be cool and wondered if it would ever happen to me. FYI: It didn’t. But, I did get the chance to feel like I was a wanted celebrity, a few times.

The first occurrence was in Hong Kong. My school gave us Christmas Day off and my husband, Vicente, got the day off too, so we turned our little three-day weekend into a Hong Kong Holiday. It was one of the best I’ve had. Not that I didn’t miss my family, and the whole “Christmas Spirit” crap, but it was nice to spend the holidays somewhere other than the wintry Midwest, for once. As we walked along Victoria Harbour one afternoon, admiring the famous skyline, a woman suddenly grabbed my arm. Thinking she was from one of the nearby vendor booths, I tried to shrug her off. By then, I was used to the pushy salespeople of Shanghai’s markets, so her brazenness wasn’t shocking. She started talking to me and, still tightly holding my arm, pointing to her friend with a camera. I quickly realized she was no vendor. She wanted a picture. With me. I knew she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, so I looked at the camera and smiled. It was bizarre to think a stranger would want my picture. Of course, she didn’t want a picture with me, per se, but with any random, Western foreigner. I just happened to be there, and she saw her golden opportunity.

The second time I “got papped” was in the gorgeous city of Guilin. Vicente and I were wandering around the popular tourist site, Elephant Trunk Hill, when we noticed a young woman following us. After a little while, she asked if she could take a picture with me. I agreed. This is just a part of my life now, and I must make the people happy, I forced myself to accept. We continued walking around the natural site, and later, ran into the woman again. She wanted more pictures--this time with both me and Vicente. Some other tourists, who I don’t even think were with her, snapped pictures of the three of us, as well.

But, my favorite instance of being photo-stalked occurred in Xi’an. As we walked around the hangar containing the famous Terracotta Army, a guy coming toward us held up his phone like he was trying to focus the camera, and then quickly turned it to snap a picture of my face as he passed by me. I didn’t even realize what the sneaky sneak had done until he was behind us, and I had a, “Hey, wait a second…” moment. Yep, just call me Angelina.

Don’t feel bad for Vicente, though. He got a little “paparazzi” action of his own. While we were at the World Expo, a visitor at the Central American pavilion wanted a picture with him. Not with me, I must add. I guess he was excited a “real, live Latino” was there and wanted to document his lucky run-in. He didn’t seem to know or care that Vicente isn’t even Central American, but whatevs.

I still wonder what those people did with their pictures of us. Are they framed on mantels? Constantly mocked? Uploaded to Facebook? I guess we’ll never know.