I Am A Star... In China Anyway

Happy Sunday to you all!  So I wrote a post today and was going to wait to share it until Monday, but I am impatient and felt like going wild on a Sunday!  Hold me back, I am just out of control!  
Last week at work I was called in to do some recon work for a group of students visiting America for summer school.  Actually, I don't think I did any recon work.  I don't even know what that means.  I just wanted you to think I was really important. I think I have mentioned that I work at a school that has a HUGE number of international students from Asia.  Just look through my posts about work and you will be hard pressed to find white people in my photos.  

There are two of us in this photo!

Leap Day festivities 2011

Photo bombing beach photos.

I love that I get to teach these kids and that I get to learn a ton from them about a part of the world I am usually rather removed from.  I have learned why Asian drivers scare the holy heavens out of me, I have learned that the Korean boys in my class HAVE to serve in the military for two years, and I have learned never to expect kids to show up on a day in January or February when they celebrate New Year.  Happy Year of the Snake by the way! One of my favorite things about teaching here is that I know my face is being seen by roughly 1 BILLION people in China and Korea.   How do I know this?  Well first I am kind of a big deal.  I mean look at how well I stand out in all the photos these kids take.  They are facinated by my "whiteness."  I have had kids get creepy close to my face and stare at my eyelashes and ask if they are real.  I have had kids try and stand next to me and measure themselves to see if there is anyway they could be as tall as me one day (it appears 5'10 is taaaaalllll).  I have had kids beg to feel my hair and even buy it from me.  I am telling you I am freaking awesome here.

Another reason I know my face is all over Asian is that the kids post pictures that I am in on their Chinese facebooks (it is called people people. China blocks facebook).  I know that they send my image via qq, Chinese texting. And I know that videos I have appeared in are on Chinese youtube.  
All of that may not seem too impressive to you yet, I promise my last reason is the best.  The reason I KNOW I am a celebrity in other countries is due to the number of visitors we have that record my every movement. Our school also welcomes many administrator and officials from China and other countries (THE KING OF UGANDA WAS HERE LAST YEAR!) and gives tour and information about our international programs.  They often visit my classroom to observe this master teach (I am totally full of myself).  Then it gets weird.  They video tap me teaching, move around my classroom to get good angles, and then take pictures with their ipads the whole time. Usually they come for the worst possible lessons.  The word sex will come up, a question about gay people, the horrors of children killing children.  I mean it is pretty fantastic material.

The ladies in the back stand up and video tape me teaching all the time while the kids keep working.

I am fairly convinced that I am now a huge star in China and maybe Korea.  It pretty much is along the lines of  Karen Walker in Will and Grace and her energy drink commercial or Joey from Friends with his lip stick for men commercial.   I understand that both of these examples happen in Japan, but it is really similar man! 

 If you ever go to Asia and see my face on billboards, tv shows, or any type of advertising please snap a pic and send it to me.  They you can say, "Hey I read that girl's blog!  China loves her!"   I feel I should say that I do not have narcissistic personality disorder.  I simply choose to think of things this way because it makes being filmed and photographed by people who do not speak any English feel a little less awkward.  Come on and follow this celebrity over at bloglovin' you know you wanna!