Post 5

In this week's reading of River Town, I noticed stark similarities between experiences I have had and Hessler's description of feeling like an outsider.  My ethnographic research site is in China town at an authentic Chinese dim sum restaurant.  Upon reading this passage and making observations at my site, I felt as if I could relate to how Hessler is feeling.  Of course it can't come close to comparable as far as magnitude, but I felt very similar feelings to what is being described by Hessler.  From my understanding, dim sum restaurants are typically heaping with customers (tourists and non-natives) on weekends, but I went to my site on a Friday morning.  I was the only person in the restaurant that wasn't of oriental descent, which was already a little strange for me.  I could feel all the eyes and indecipherable whispers directed towards me, and this is exactly what I could see on page 193 in River Town.  I didn't know how to order correctly, I was alone, which put more of my attention on the other patrons, I felt extremely subconscious of my chopstick prowess, and I could just feel a judgmental shroud coming over me.  Nonetheless, I still very much enjoyed myself, and learned some things about myself and another culture, but it helped me see things from Hessler's point of view much more clearly.