Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Shiny happy people

Back home, I smiled when I was happy. And if not happy, at least marginally glad about something. This was not an anomaly, you understand. I was safely within the bounds of normal. Here though, I have to smile all the time. Every single person you pass by will grin maniacally at you and inquire after your health and well being. Strangely though, they are not particularly interested in your response. This is a good thing, because minutes tick by as I attempt to force my expression into submission and then threaten my throat with a licking it will never forget if it does not formulate an inane response in the next thirty seconds. By this time the grinner is usually fifty yards away and getting smaller by the second. Its exhausting, pretending to be a beam of sunshine the livelong day, especially if you don't have a naturally sunshiny disposition.
If I smile one more time today I swear my smile is going to turn on me and attempt to bite.

3 comments:

Sun said...

And did it? Smiling a lot does wonders like a facial. You wont need to bother with a face-lift much much later!

En Chiang said...

you noticed too!

En Chiang said...

The shiny happy people have exported their shininess to all their offices in the world, and it truly is a cheesing experience everyday. arghhh!