Take Me To A Place Where They Know My Name

“I been around the world...feeling out of place really feeling strange. Take me to a place where they know my name, cuz I aint met nobody that looks the same...I need my people, my people. Take me to my people.”

Shortly after arriving in Xinjiang and as we start to explore the city of our visit my friend turns to me and says, “Natasha, here you are not special, I think I am special.” It sounds rude, but in part its true. Xinjiang is a Northwest autonomous region of China with a lot of different minority groups, some being Kazakh, Kyrgyzstan, Uighur and Han. That means when I arrived I saw people with my skin color, or at least my skin tone, sometime even blue eyes, light colored hair and people with a bit of plump and curve to them, like me. Living in this country I'm ued to standing out and even enjoy it. But there was something wonderful about going there and when I was by myself so many people would come up to me and start to speak in their native language (many minority groups and certain parts of China speak their local dialects or language other than mandarin). But at the same time it made me feel uncomfortable. Going there showed me how much I've adapted to Chinese lifestyle, going there was definitely some culture shock, but it was also beautiful.

One of the days we were wondering around the city and I could see some men were selling carpets. They saw me and start to wave me over, I know they want to sell carpets, so I start to make the universal sign for money (rubbing your thumb and index finger together) and tell them “Meiyou qian!” (I have no money!) But no matter how many times I said it, they kept waving me over. So I went over. Once I promptly said I couldn't buy anything cuz I had no money, they asked if I was Kazakh. I said no, American. Then the old man who was obviously in charge said, “Well, if you marry Kazakh, you will be Kazakh!” I agreed with him. So he points out his eligible younger friend. I tell them thank you, but I'm not living in that city, so it might make relationships a bit difficult, maybe if I move there I'll consider it.

One of the things that I loved while I was there is the day we walked through the park. There was dancing and lots of it. We were invited it and it was so much fun. In China, many people dance in the park, usually woman who want to get some exercise. But here we had from young to old, men and ladies, even dancing together! And it was also the local style dance which is a bit different than that of other styles. Either way, all I'm trying to say is. It was fun.