> It's a small place, so after the first few weeks, people started to recognize me. I found this creepy.<p>You don't look like the locals who have lived there forever and know each other. Oh, and in an area with a long history of being invaded. Yeah, they are going to notice and pay attention to people who don't look like them. The author even says they weren't mean about it. What a pampered princess: just be a good neighbor, learn how to interact with other local human beings, and live your amazing life in an even more amazing location.
People dont realize how much ‘casual racism’(i.e. without anger or violence) there is outside of the West. I grew up looking/seen as ‘foreign’ in my home country. I was never allowed to forget it, whereas when spending a year n the US I felt more accepted than ever before.