Inspiration in a strange place.

"Not so," he answered." Well I know that, did I move and speak in your London, none there are who would not know me for a stranger. That is not enough for me. Here I am noble, I am boyar; the common people know me and I am master. But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one; men know him not - and to know not is to care not for. I am content if I am like the rest, so that no man stops if he sees me, or pause in his speaking if he hear my words, to say "Ha, Ha! A stranger!" I have been so long master that I would be master still - or at least that none other should be master of me.

--Bram Stoker, "Dracula" 1897.

I was reading this passage and it stuck me as particularly similiar to the feeling I sometimes get when I go places or try to do things here. Everyone that sees me knows me as a stranger, and I am only a stranger their world, not to be cared for deeply, only used for his abilities and regarded as an asset, rarely a person outside of his teaching duties.

I would be content if I could blend in and be able to speak well enough that people would not stop and say "Ha, Ha! A stranger!" like Count Dracula mentions. On a general level would help me feel more at accepted here, instead of feeling like I am simply an English dispensing widget to be used for advancement.

At the same time, I wouldn't be happy if I was simply another framiliar person in a framiliar place. I like the attention I receive here that I would never get in America as just another face. People will stop you on the street here just to speak English with you, knowing nothing else about you. In America, you go out of your way to avoid random conversation with a stranger on the street because it could be dangerous.

I am viewed as being an excellent teacher, simply because I talk with the accent I grew up with, nothing more. People trust me to educate their children and can barely understand what I am telling their offspring. Why? Simply because I am a stranger that can speak American style English well.

This is a strange land indeed.