The majority of the culture shock is over, although I still get annoyed at being stared at – ALL THE BLOODY TIME – every single time I go out in public and by everyone. And annoyed at the little boys – 10 or 12 or 15 or 18 or 25 or whatever – who are constantly trying to chat me up, flirt, and all the rest of that nonsense. Sigh. I went to the Colombo Museum – without dh – and it was packed with flirtatious little boys. Who also kept trying to read what I was writing. And it’s now official that "I’m turning Japanese". No, I’m serious – I was, yet again, mistaken for a Japanese. BTW, I’m so pasty white I could disappear in a pile of snow. No one in North America would ever mistake me for a Japanese – I’m so obviously NOT! Welcome to my freak show . . .
There was a school program at the museum the day I went, and with it, several hundred school children.And here’s where the first warning comes in.If you are obviously not of Sri Lankan heritage, be prepared to be stared at.All the bloody time.If you’re a female of obviously not Sri Lankan heritage, be prepared to have boys of all ages, even at ten years of age or younger, try to chat you up. Constantly. And be prepared to have absolutely everything you do scrutinized to the smallest detail.I had a notebook with me to record observations and the like, and no less than half a dozen boys tried grabbing at my notebook to see what I’d written down. No subtlety at all.
