Freak Show

Sometimes I just feel like a freak show. Not often, but sometimes. During my last elementary school visit I had a Q & A time with the students. They asked me the standard questions, one of which being, "How tall are you?" When I told them my height (about 173cm), the class observed a moment of awe. Then they decided to compare me with the tallest student in their class. What started out as one student coming to the front, turned into every student coming to the front. Each new comparison got an even louder round of laughter than the previous one. The game started out pretty fun- I was laughing along with the students. But after about half of them came up, I started to feel like a giant freak! The laughter was relentless, and I was transported back to the days of being laughed at for making a mistake in front of your classmates : ) Of course I knew it was all in good fun, but I still couldn't help but feel like I was on display in front of them. Ah...the life of a foreigner. But sometimes being so different isn't so bad, like when strangers come up to you in the store and say how beautiful you are...