Healthy and Beautiful

My friend Steph and I went running around Lake Merritt today, and afterwards we stopped into the café at Whole Foods to get something to eat.  It was chilly today, for sure - maybe around 45 in the shade down by the lake, but in the 50's in the sunshine where there was no wind.

We're sitting eating by the window in our shorts and short sleeved shirts (she even had a tank top on), and this lady comes up behind us and taps up on the shoulder.  I think she was Chinese, probably in her 30's, and she had this little old lady with her, staring at us in a disoriented sort of way.  The younger lady starts gesturing with her iPhone, saying in not-very-good English, "Can I take your picture?  With my mother..." Steph and I exchange very weirded-out glances and are like, "Uhhhh ummmmmm sure..." and this little old lady comes and stands between us while we smile strangely and her daughter takes our picture.  Then they're standing there staring at us, and the younger lady keeps saying, "You are... so beautiful... and healthy..."  And her mom keeps opening her coat at us and gesturing at the inside of her coat.  "So... healthy..."  Open coat at us.  Smile in an impressed sort of way.  "Thank you.  Thank you."

We're like, "Okay, uh, you're welcome, uh, bye..."  They finally left and we realized the older lady was probably visiting from China or something, and was apparently impressed at the "healthy" American girls wearing so little clothing while she had a coat on, so she wanted a picture of herself all bundled up next to the tall, healthy American girls in the running shorts and short sleeved shirts.

Then it was a little less weird, but it was still pretty weird.  If you were in a foreign country and you saw someone that looked funny to you for some reason, would you go up to them and ask to have your picture taken with them?  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't.  But I guess I'm glad we made it into the Chinese lady's scrapbook about her trip to America.