since most of you people don't know me at all, i thought i'd maybe say a few words about myself that didn't fit in my profile. i wish some more of you friends would do this so we can all have our own version of social d's "story of my life"....
this could take a while so i'll do it in sections, not in any particular chronological order, tom robbins style, all over the fucking place:
i was born in toronto, ontario, canada, on september 3, 1974. that means i was concieved on new year's eve after my mom drank two fuzzy navels and got hammered. my dad had just finished his divinity studies at the university, and had signed on to go to taiwan for a three year stint with the presbyterian church...not for evangelical missions, but the basics: how to sterilize bottles, keep kids measle free, read/write/speak english, and make people aware of their basic human rights. in taiwan in 1974 the government had two main concerns: 1) keep taiwanese independence to a bare minimum, and 2) heavy handed governmental tactics. so if you were working with my mom and dad and you were not foreigners you were pretty much guaranteed a stint in a local solitary confinement cell. all of our mail was either opened and partially destroyed, or never made it to us. even christmas cards and such. such paranoia.
i had a chinese nanny named chen who took care of me during the day while my mom and dad worked at the college. she also spoke the local taiwanese dialect, and we hung around lots of outdoor restaurant stalls and in the beautiful green parks where i played with local kids. my first words i ever spoke were in mandarin chinese, not mama, papa, but something else (it's written in my baby book somewhere). one day i came home from a day with chen and asked to use the toilette, but i did it in this native dialect and my parents couldn't understand me (they both still speak mandarin). there are natives in taiwan in much the same scene as here in canada. taiwan was colonized by the chinese and the native people were marginalized socially, economically, and politically. my parents' preparation for meeting and working with these people involved learning mandarin (a language most of them didn't even speak) and being forewarned that there were still headhunting tribes that existed in the mountains. yay xenophobia! but my parents really believed that they needed to be there, and they helped many young people especially, while working at the college, and this is a profound part of my upbringing.
even though we left when i was three, i spent the formative years of my life in the company and care of chen and her family. to this day when i am in china town here in toronto, and i experience the sights, smells, and sounds of the multi-ethnic asian community, i feel a familiar calm. my best friend growing up was chinese canadian, and i was as much a part of her family as she was part of mine. i think everyone in the world needs to live somewhere else for at least one year...pick anywhere, open your eyes, live with the locals, learn a language, eat things you never even knew could be consumed, and change your world view.
this could take a while so i'll do it in sections, not in any particular chronological order, tom robbins style, all over the fucking place:
i was born in toronto, ontario, canada, on september 3, 1974. that means i was concieved on new year's eve after my mom drank two fuzzy navels and got hammered. my dad had just finished his divinity studies at the university, and had signed on to go to taiwan for a three year stint with the presbyterian church...not for evangelical missions, but the basics: how to sterilize bottles, keep kids measle free, read/write/speak english, and make people aware of their basic human rights. in taiwan in 1974 the government had two main concerns: 1) keep taiwanese independence to a bare minimum, and 2) heavy handed governmental tactics. so if you were working with my mom and dad and you were not foreigners you were pretty much guaranteed a stint in a local solitary confinement cell. all of our mail was either opened and partially destroyed, or never made it to us. even christmas cards and such. such paranoia.
i had a chinese nanny named chen who took care of me during the day while my mom and dad worked at the college. she also spoke the local taiwanese dialect, and we hung around lots of outdoor restaurant stalls and in the beautiful green parks where i played with local kids. my first words i ever spoke were in mandarin chinese, not mama, papa, but something else (it's written in my baby book somewhere). one day i came home from a day with chen and asked to use the toilette, but i did it in this native dialect and my parents couldn't understand me (they both still speak mandarin). there are natives in taiwan in much the same scene as here in canada. taiwan was colonized by the chinese and the native people were marginalized socially, economically, and politically. my parents' preparation for meeting and working with these people involved learning mandarin (a language most of them didn't even speak) and being forewarned that there were still headhunting tribes that existed in the mountains. yay xenophobia! but my parents really believed that they needed to be there, and they helped many young people especially, while working at the college, and this is a profound part of my upbringing.
even though we left when i was three, i spent the formative years of my life in the company and care of chen and her family. to this day when i am in china town here in toronto, and i experience the sights, smells, and sounds of the multi-ethnic asian community, i feel a familiar calm. my best friend growing up was chinese canadian, and i was as much a part of her family as she was part of mine. i think everyone in the world needs to live somewhere else for at least one year...pick anywhere, open your eyes, live with the locals, learn a language, eat things you never even knew could be consumed, and change your world view.
VIEW 25 of 25 COMMENTS
throatneedle:
I almost kicked that fucking Chink's ass when he told me I had no class...but it was Christmas, and I had to be good in case Santa was watching
stendec:
That's awsome! I agree with the living abroad thing. I did a 6 month stint in Israel and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I miss travelling.