The only thing I know how to make sense of what just happened me at the library is this: A Chinese man thought I was his cousin? As I walked up the sidewalk, he kept staring back at me, and while this is rude, it is not unheard of. I even have "one of those faces" and figured that was it. Finally as we walk into the library and I remove my sunglasses, he takes a final glance, at me, and turns around smiling.
"You see, I though you were my aldskjfalskdjf," he says
"Your what?"
"My crasdfin." It sort of sounded like cousin, but I finally had to just nod and smile, because it is rude to not understand someone with an accent after they have repeated their sentence.
"Ahhhh," I said, wanting to return my books, thinking he'd walk away now that he explained why he was staring.
But he just kept talking. It took me probably half a paragraph to even understand any of the words he was saying, so I just kept nodding and smiling, thinking he'd walk away, because he was distractedly looking around the library. But no chance. Finally I understood a sentence.
"You are a student?" He asked.
"Yes, at the university."
"And how you study?"
"I study English."
"Ahhhhhhh." This was a huge joke to him. "You become teacher?"
"Oh maybe. Maybe not."
And this launched a discourse on the fall of America, and how while once the English language prevailed, it won't for very much longer. And he even threw in the Soviet Union at one point. After very little prompt from me (where I'm from, where I work) he went on and on about Starbucks and John Denver, and I tried to keep taking steps back from him, as he was being loud, and we were in a library. And finally, just as quickly as it started, he eventually just walked away from me, saying, "Have fun with English," and I yelled, "Have a nice day," while running away. I lost interest in scoping out new books over the fear of him trapping me for hours in conversation in what is supposed to be a very lonely building.

I feel that strangers who love to talk too much to strangers seek me out. This is just another fault of me smiling too much...