Directions

I have often been of the opinion that my sense of fashion (or lack thereof) is distinctly different from the crazy splashes of color, patterns and mix-matched articles of clothing that mainland Chinese so love to adorn themselves with.  However, apparently not, because I have completely and utterly blended into and among the local Chinese.  One perfect example of this is that I am always asked for directions. 

Everyone knows that I honestly should be the last person to ask directions from, as I am directionally challenged.  I have no sense of direction and connect/disconnect roads that shouldn't be, so probably a bad idea to ask me; however, I have found that randomly people seem inclined to ask me of all people for directions.  When standing at a bus stop full of people, somehow, I am always picked out of the crowd by a total stranger and asked where to go.  Just this week, I was asked twice!

Now, I have a theory about all of this.  While a truly smart person would walk up and ask the old people, as they honestly know every road and little street you can think of (which in my case would be wise, were it not for the dialect issues), but people tend to always ask the slightly younger female.  I think it's because it's less intimidating and women are seen as more "helpful," though most oft I have found that they don't really know where things are.  It's a matter of image I think, and the fact that women seem more approachable.  Since I fit into those brackets and am full Chinese, I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that people will continue to come up to me and ask me for directions, even though I am a complete foreigner to the city despite living in it for a good 7 months.