Attack of the Cutesy Mittens
On Monday I finally dragged myself to a local market to get myself boots, mittens, and earmuffs, because it's been below zero rather consistently and so I figured it was about time. That, and I think my toes were getting frostbite from running around in my sneakers. I'm sort of attached to my toes, so to the store I went.
I don't /love/ the boots I ended up with, but I encountered a rather persistent saleslady who was basically like "LISTEN ALL THE BOOTS IN THIS PLACE ARE THE SAME BUT YOU'RE GOING TO BUY MINE, OKAY?" And I don't do well with that kind of pressure. At one point she was like "what's up with you?" and I was all "Well.... everyone in here is yelling at me to buy their shoes. I'm a little confused." And then SHE goes "Oh, don't listen to them." As if her repeated "NO, REALLY, I'LL GIVE YOU A DISCOUNT" was somehow not forceful. But whatevs.
After the boots, my next mission was gloves/mittens. I ended up with some super adorable mittens that have black, white, blue, pink, and yellow strips with little white pompoms tied near the top. If you think they sound sickeningly cute, you wouldn't be wrong. But these, my friends, pale in comparison to the mittens adorned by the vast majority of Chinese girls.
Most Chinese girls are wearing mittens that, on the back of the hand, contain the head of a stuffed creature. Bunnies, bears, penguins, you name it. Completely with beady little eyes. And I don't mean that the head of a creature is embroidered or painted or anything reasonable like that. I mean, it's like someone cut the head off a small teddy bear and attached it to the top of a mitten. And EVERYONE IS WEARING THEM. Well, girls anyway. When I was buying the pom-pom mittens, the saleslady was really trying to push ones with rabbits. She kept being all "But they're CUTER!" and I was like "Uh... thanks, but these ones are cute enough, really."
Getting back to campus finally dressed appropriately for winter, I noticed people staring at me a lot more than usual. I can't really figure out what the reason behind this may be. My earmuffs are bright pink, and my boots don't *exactly* match my jacket.... but everything I'm wearing is basically the same as what Chinese girls are wearing. I think. So, there are one of two things probably going through everyone's mind:
That waiguoren* is dressed like she's Chinese, what up?
or
THAT WAIGUOREN IS A HOT MESS, SOMEONE HELP HER.
*waiguoren （外国人）- foreigner - the phrase I overhear almost every day as I walk by people who stop, stare, and giggle.
I don't /love/ the boots I ended up with, but I encountered a rather persistent saleslady who was basically like "LISTEN ALL THE BOOTS IN THIS PLACE ARE THE SAME BUT YOU'RE GOING TO BUY MINE, OKAY?" And I don't do well with that kind of pressure. At one point she was like "what's up with you?" and I was all "Well.... everyone in here is yelling at me to buy their shoes. I'm a little confused." And then SHE goes "Oh, don't listen to them." As if her repeated "NO, REALLY, I'LL GIVE YOU A DISCOUNT" was somehow not forceful. But whatevs.
After the boots, my next mission was gloves/mittens. I ended up with some super adorable mittens that have black, white, blue, pink, and yellow strips with little white pompoms tied near the top. If you think they sound sickeningly cute, you wouldn't be wrong. But these, my friends, pale in comparison to the mittens adorned by the vast majority of Chinese girls.
Most Chinese girls are wearing mittens that, on the back of the hand, contain the head of a stuffed creature. Bunnies, bears, penguins, you name it. Completely with beady little eyes. And I don't mean that the head of a creature is embroidered or painted or anything reasonable like that. I mean, it's like someone cut the head off a small teddy bear and attached it to the top of a mitten. And EVERYONE IS WEARING THEM. Well, girls anyway. When I was buying the pom-pom mittens, the saleslady was really trying to push ones with rabbits. She kept being all "But they're CUTER!" and I was like "Uh... thanks, but these ones are cute enough, really."
Getting back to campus finally dressed appropriately for winter, I noticed people staring at me a lot more than usual. I can't really figure out what the reason behind this may be. My earmuffs are bright pink, and my boots don't *exactly* match my jacket.... but everything I'm wearing is basically the same as what Chinese girls are wearing. I think. So, there are one of two things probably going through everyone's mind:
That waiguoren* is dressed like she's Chinese, what up?
or
THAT WAIGUOREN IS A HOT MESS, SOMEONE HELP HER.
*waiguoren （外国人）- foreigner - the phrase I overhear almost every day as I walk by people who stop, stare, and giggle.