Where is Roberg?

So, I get this e-mail from one of my biggest blog fans (I won’t tell you that it was my mom), and she suggests that I put a few more quirky stories in my next blog entry. Like you, I’m sure, she likes to hear some of the awkward situations I’ve gotten myself into, or the unique cultural fau paus I’ve run into, or the most recent shed I’ve slept in!

The reality is, though, that traveling isn’t always the glamorous set of mistakes and mishaps that I make it out to be. Many times, things run smoothly and I have a few relatively normal days in a row. Though it makes for a more boring blog entry, it’s nice for me sometimes you know!

For those of you who check in to see what awkward situation I’ve gotten myself into next, this blog’s for you. There are a few interesting things that have happened to me in the past few weeks. I’ll count down a few here:

2. I’ve been quite the celebrity here, just like I was in China. There are times when I’m walking down the street that I feel the stares. There are other times when the people get up the courage to come up and ask for my picture. At least 3 times in the past few days people have come up to me and asked if they could get their picture taken with me, most often on their cell phone. I know I don’t look like any celebrities, so it must be that I’m the first Westerner they’ve seen. Most of the time, the person is a teenager or is obviously a Chinese tourist from an area that never has Western visitors.

After smiling for the camera and saying goodbye, I always wonder what they are going to do with the picture. Do they show their friends and family the picture of themselves with the big bald American? Do they post it on a website to brag that they’ve seen a Westerner? Or do they think that standing next to me makes them look a lot better in comparison? I know I’m not the most handsome, but come on!! (Actually, I’ll come back to the “handsome” thing later)

I experienced the same phenomenon in Japan when I was in college. I still occasionally wonder if the people in Japan have a picture of themselves with me back when I grew my hair long. If so, I’ll have to track them down to get a copy so that I can prove to you all that I can grow hair… it may not look good, but I can grow it…

1. The young people are usually the people who have the English language ability and the desire to initiate a conversation with me. Just today I talked with a group of older Chinese teenagers ranging in age from 16 - 20. They were very interested in my purpose for being in China. When I told them that I was a teacher traveling around China because I teach Chinese history, they were very impressed. They were very proud proclaim my travels “very cool”. When I asked them how old they were, I mentioned that I was 33 years old, at which point one of them said I looked young and was “very handsome”.

So for all you kids that think that bald is bad…bald is beautiful!!!