Celebrities

It's funny being the white people in China... kinda like being the white people in our old neighborhood. Sometimes it's like being a celebrity. We actually were nicknamed "the white people" in our old neighborhood. Not because were anything out of the ordinary... just not Afro American, which was apparently hilarious to ALL of our neighbors. Here is pretty similar, except the language barrier seems to be a point of interest for old people in particular. They find it hilarious that we don't understand anything they say! However, they're all very sweet and helpful! Okay, so that part of it really isn't much like being a celebrity. The stares, the (not so) subtle picture taking, and (my favorite) people waiting until after you pass them to yell out 'HELLO!" at the top of their lungs. That's the part that sort of makes you feel like you're somebody important.... or something.

Since being here, Drew has become an instant celebrity, and not because he's white either. Drew met a group of skaters the first week we were here, and by our second week, it was brought to his attention (and to the attention of any skateboarder that he ran into) that he was better than every professional skateboarder in China, which led to him being sponsored by the local skate shop. This has provided Drew with a plethora of unique and/or exciting (sometimes just unique...) opportunities involving skateboarding:

Week 2: Professional Skateboarder Kenny Reed came to town and looked for the local skate shop to find someone to show him around. Of course the first person they called after the team manager was Drew. Needless to say, Drew jumped at the opportunity to show around the guy who was his favorite skater when he was 14.

Week 3: KTV was filming a commercial and needed some skateboarders to gape at a Beijing Opera Singer. They called the local skate shop, who of course knew a great red-headed-skate-boarding-gaper (they asked some other skateboarders too).

Week 4: A local arts college was celebrating their 50th anniversary and decided that in the midst of the classical piano and organ pieces and the ballet dancing, it would be a great idea to have some skateboarders do a demonstration. They called the skate shop, and the skate shop decided that Drew (and his friend Bofly) would be perfect syncronized skaters.


Week 5: So far, so good. No ballet dancing opera singers have asked Drew to catapult over them yet. Too bad. Maybe next week...