Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Little Culture Shocks

Been in our new area for over 6 months now and it is good.

The town we live in has a decent racial mix.  And, we are definitely in the minority.  Some minor culture shocks we've experienced....

* School valentine cards and recent party invitations have required my kids to write names that have several letters and syllables and ones that I usually don't have a clue on how to pronounce.  Imagine trying to squeeze a name,with sixteen letters in it,on a tiny little package of Laffy Taffy!

* (Being 1/4 Chinese allows me to make the following comment):  purposefully moving to an area where the public school district is decent, largely made possible by a stong asian influence on education.  This also means we have a lot of asian drivers around.  You think that's bad?  I never before thought of the effect of having these same drivers behind double-wide shopping carts at Costco.  It's scary.  I feel like donning my glo-green running vest and blowing a whistle to direct traffic, when I go shopping.

* Seeing signs and papers with 3, sometimes 4, different language translations and it bugs me, that English is not always listed first.  C'mon--let's honor the official language of the USA!

* Bringing birthday treats and hosting parties for kids and friends means having to be considerate of many different food palettes--many families won't eat certain foods for religious reasons.  And, then there's the usual food allergies to have to be mindful of.  Um, let's have some water and rice cakes!  (Just kidding--haven't had to go to that extreme).

* Having 1 of only about 10 blondes in the entire junior high.  Yeah, she gets noticed.  Wait til I send my redhead up there in a few years.

All in all, we are enjoying our surroundings a lot.  Some minor adjustments, but nothing too weird.  It's a good experience for us, overall.  Makes me feel like I have to set a good example of us and our culture....