Cultural lessons

When people ask me the rather simple question: Where are you from?
This is what goes on in my mind: You mean, where was I born? Where did I grow up? Which country is my citizenship from? Or where do I currently live? This last answer also varies depending on when the question is posed...

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in different countries and experience the uniqueness of their cultures. It does make life interesting since there's always something new to learn. Just today at work, for example, I learned that if you're a Philadelphian, you add "jimmies" (not sprinkles) to your ice cream, you eat "hoagies" (not subs) and you can't say that you're "going to the beach" on the weekend, you "go down the shore". Once you're down by the shore, you can go to the beach, but not before. Philly also has a "special" breakfast meat called "scrapple" which is made of "pig scrap parts." It was described to me as: they put in all the pig leftovers that don't even make it into the hotdogs (just don't read the ingredients!), it looks like a grey meatloaf, but you fry it and it's very good with either ketchup or syrup. It's on my to do list :)

Having a conglomeration of cultures within you also allows for some interesting anecdotes. This past weekend, I was nicknamed Mulan by some friends. My reaction was "WHAT? Why? Are you guys saying that I could pass on as a guy and fool an entire army of people? I know I'm not very girlie, but I'm not THAT bad" Apparently, they had meant it as a compliment, saying that when Asians think of Mulan, they think of someone who has strong traditional family values, who is willing to step out and sacrifice herself for what she believes. Oops... Needless to say, they were rather amused by my "westernized" view of what Mulan meant.

That's the downside of being a cultural mutt. You end up not being able to fully identify with any one group of people and often miss the subtleties that are practically common sense to those who fully grew up within a given culture. I often misinterpret and misunderstand what's going on. My most unforgettable experience involving cultural misunderstanding happened in Honduras while working with Dr. Garcia. He is 100% Honduran, and calls himself "macho catracho", which roughly translates to Honduran macho man. When we were working on a proposal for a preventive health program, he told me that instead of asking patients if they've had relatives who died of complications from arthrosclerosis, heart attack or other heart conditions, we should ask if they've "died like the chicken". I understood his point that the proposal was technically impressive but will be ineffective unless modified to fit the needs and understanding of our target group, but I thought the "chicken part" was a joke. So I laughed. When he saw that I didn't believe him, he took me to the waiting room and actually asked a patient there if any of her relatives died like the chicken. Surprisingly, she took the question seriously, thought about it for a bit, and answered no. Dr. Garcia then asked her what she understood by "death like a chicken." Her reply was "sudden death", which is exactly how people who suffer from the heart conditions in question die. It was a very eye-opening and humbling experience.

My blogs will not be complete without pictures. Although completely unrelated to the topic, here are some of my babes. Actually, I can make them relevant to the subject matter... here they are:




Bryce Kamal Davis, the American babe.

Allie Hastings, the multicultural babe: half chinese, half Philadelphian.

Evelyn Sarah Wells, the Canadian babe.