window shopping...

shop 3, mirpur road, dhaka, feb 2012

foreigness in dhaka. it is weared for me. unsusual. lets say that.

people shout at you on the stree'how areyou', 'wherea re you from?" is a common first question, before how are you. people are super friendly, sometimes a bit too curious what you are.

i guess very common experience a lot of other countries share.

shop 1, mirpur road, dhaka, feb 2012

there are a few foreigners in dhaka, not too many, but there are if you look around. the perception of foreigners is, when i talk too people, mostly negative. experience such as exploitation, intervening, partronizing behaviour, richness are the most common associations.

so i don't understand why people are still interested.

if i don't know something it is exotic, new. curioustity, something which was always just an ideea is real now. so real. i guess it is the same when i see a tiger. a tiger is dangerous, but still so exotic that in that moment i forget that but just wanna stare and see if this thing i always had in my head is real. or like the queen. i always asked myself how the queen, queen of england is in real life. cause she must eat, drink tea, certainly, but how.

i do not intend to compare myself with the queen, but maybe it is like that. i am just a stereotype, an idea of a foreigner, and because it is not implied within their everyday life they buildup a picture based on stereotypes and as much as people are curious they also have a picture.

i am sometimes not the nicest person. above all when i am walking. i am rude, angree by times, just because i have to be quick, and most people around em not. so they stand in my way. or when they try to stop me because of another ' how are you' , 'where are you from' question. sometimes i do not have time.

do i have to be nice just to prove that white people are nice?

shop 2, mirpur road, dhaka, feb 2012