Pictures

Everywhere I go, people point and take pictures. It's pretty ridiculous. It's like they've never seen white people before. Now I know how Paris Hilton feels. Now if I see "Paparazzi" taking pictures of me, I pose for them, sometimes doing the ridiculous two-fingered peace sign that seems so popular in Asian culture. Me and GI Joe were walking down the street and a car drove by, this little girl said to her parents, "Baba Mama, kankan! waiguoren!" which translates to "Hey Mom and Dad, look! White people!"

Since the weekend at Putuoshan was sponsored by the Chinese government, there were reporters everywhere and people were filming and snapping shots of everything. The strange thing is that they were surprisingly taking LOTS of pictures of me and GI Joe. It's funny, you're a Chinese tourist at a Buddhist Island and the most interesting thing you can think to snap a shot of is an American. Not a Monk, not all the amazing landscape or architecture, but an American. Howie said he got used to them after a while and said this is how people in reality TV must feel. Anyway, now there's lots of footage of me circulating so if you see a picture of me on a magazine cover or see footage of me on the news or something, let me know.

Here's a funny story: After I was meditating with the monks, I took my camera out to take a candid picture of one of them. As soon as he saw what I was trying to do, he said in Chinese, "No No No, Don't take a picture of me." When I realized what he was saying, I said in Chinese, "ok ok no problem. I won't take a picture of you." What i really should have said was "Oh yea? That's funny cuz I didn't say anything when I opened my eyes during meditation and caught you taking a picture of me!"