Identity

So here it is. My first real rant of being abroad. I got asked the usual question again tonight - this time by a Sainsbury’s grocer - “Where are you from?” he asked. I said, “America”, and instantly I knew I answered the wrong question. He replied, “Oh, I would have thought Vietnam. Since *gestures to my face*…you know.”

I’ve dealt with this a million times before. Ever since I started uni and had to introduce myself to new people, the question has kept popping up. I’ve been reasked the “right question” a thousand times - sometimes they are direct (No, where are you really from?) and other times it’s subtler when I see in their eyes that they think I’ve answered the wrong question. Usually, I laugh it off. Usually, it’s something funny. But for some reason, tonight made me infuriated, and I didn’t understand what broke the camel’s back. I had dealt with this for so long. Why now?

Then it hit me- it’s because I’m abroad. Despite the fact that I still find the question ignorant and rude when I’m asked in America, it’s a little more understandable because maybe, giving the asker the benefit of the doubt, they assumed that everybody’s family came from somewhere. Either that or the “San Diego” response is sufficient, along with my Californian accent, that they don’t feel the need to tell me I’m actually from a different country.

Yet, while I’m abroad - whether I’m in London or Brussels or Paris or wherever, saying “I’m from America” is not a sufficient answer to them. I realized that it’s not the question that bugs me, it’s the fact that they refuse to accept my answer. I tell them I’m from America, and they correct me - because surely, someone who looks like me can’t be American, at least not a real American. And that’s what pisses me off. Yes, I’m Chinese, I completely recognize that and while I had difficulty with that fact when I was younger, I’ve come to be happy with my heritage. But I still can’t deny the fact that I’m more American than I am Chinese. I’ve been to China maybe 3 times in my life and only remember two visits - one 5 years ago, and the other 10 years ago. I grew up with American music, American food, American TV shows. I recognize American brands, know American celebrities, and went through the American schooling system. I only know 2 years worth of Chinese and even struggle with that. It infuriates me that despite all this, I’m not “American.” Who are they to tell me that I’m wrong? That when I identify with America as my home, I’m actually incorrect? That it doesn’t matter that I was born and raised the past 20 years in America, because I look different.

It makes me frustrated because there are so many better ways to ask the question. They could ask: What’s your heritage? What’s your ethnicity? Where did your family originate? All of those are acceptable questions. Because I am Chinese and my family did originated from China. But to correct me, and tell me that I’m not from America, is wrong. I am from America.

For a while, I was worried that I had no right to feel this way. That maybe this was remnants of my rejecting my culture at a younger age - I’m not going to lie, it’s hard to grow up looking “different.” But then I realized that it would be no different if I were of Jamaican heritage and grew up in Belize, or if 4 generations ago my family moved from Mexico to Ireland, or if I were German but moved to China when I was 2. I think I’m quite justified in my anger because it’s not unreasonable to become mad when someone corrects your answer as if you don’t know yourself.

I know myself, and I identify with what I consider my personal home.

On Oxford, Harry Potter, and a childhood friend

“So this is where Mad Eye Moody changed Draco Malfoy into a ferret…”

Ah yes, Oxford. Known across the world as one of the most prestigious universities - filled with tradition and knowledge…and Harry Potter filming scenes. Thanks to Matt’s raving of how beautiful Oxford was (and how fun it was to sneak into the colleges pretending to be a student), I decided to go up and visit one of my lifelong friends, Margaret! Margaret and I used to car pool together on our way to 1st grade. We both have specific memories - Margaret remembers how my dad would always comb his hair in the mirror at a specific stop light, and I remembered my old yellow/pink/green cassette player that would make any hipster nowadays weak at the knees. Lucky for me, Margaret who is usually a Stanford student, is studying abroad in Oxford. I found some cheap train tickets to go up on Friday (round trip only £9!) and headed up straight after class.

Her house dean was taking them on a tour of all the Harry Potter film locations and was nice enough to let me join in! They gave me the Oxford Student ID of another Asian girl so I could get into the colleges without paying (yes, isn’t that strange? You have to pay to visit most of the 38 colleges!)

We first headed to the Cloisters where a few scenes/confrontations were filmed. The minute I stepped in, I knew I recognized it-

The courtyard in the middle also happened to be where Mad Eye Moody changes Draco Malfoy into a ferret. Margaret and I decided that a demonstration was needed hahah:

We then went into the Chapel (not in the movies, but beautiful nonetheless). There was an El Greco painting and a very different styled stained glass where the glass is painted rather than formed with small different colored pieces of glass - it obviously creates a very different effect.

As we walked to our next destination, we walked past the house of the man we discovered Haley’s comet (Edmund Haley) lived. See that white box at the top right hand corner? That’s where his telescope is!

At the Divinity School, we found the place where the Hogwarts Hospital was, and also where Professor McGonagal teaches Ron to dance for the ball!

Finally we snuck into Christ Church, one of the more famous colleges (and also one of the most beautiful)!
Honestly, how is it possible to go to a school this beautiful?

My favorite part of the whole trip was seeing the Great Hall!!! I couldn’t believe that the staff were setting up dinner for students - imagine how awesome that would be, to actually eat in the same Hogwarts hall…ok, so I admit it, I love Harry Potter. Have you figured that out yet?

We also got to see the staircase where the first year students are welcomed to Hogwarts!

We then went to yet another chapel (I swear there are a million beautiful churches in Europe - I have a feeling I’m going to be seeing a lot more as I keep traveling) that was playing some of the creepiest organ music possible. It was incredibly beautiful though, and much worth the visit.
After the tour finished, Margaret and I decided to climb St. Mary’s Tower. They actually had a sign warning “anyone with severe asthma, claustrophobia, or a cardiac condition” to not go up - we thought it was pretty funny at first until we started going up these tiny tiny steps too small for my already small feet. It was definitely a good thing I’m not claustrophobic or scared of heights - the stairwell was the most narrow thing I had been in! We finally did make it to the top, and the view was worth it

We then ended our incredibly long trek down the tower (which was actually much more difficult than going up - I was constantly convinced I’d fall down 8 flight of stairs) and had afternoon tea. Ohhh man, it was beyond delicious. We got scones with butter & jam, and each got some amazing vanilla tea. I can’t believe I’ve been in the UK for over a month now, and not had an official English Afternoon Tea!

The process was somehow so relaxing. I loved how everything had an intended use- each teacup with a strainer, and a smaller silver cup to put the strainer when you were done. Delicate cubes of brown and white sugar. It was too perfect.

Finally, we headed back to Margaret’s house, but decided to take a look at the Magdalen College across the street that- get this- has a deer park in the middle. Oh you know, just some casual deer to gaze at as we study…

It’s a little difficult to actually see the deer in this picture, but I promise they are there - right under the trees! Maybe squint a little bit :)

We spent the rest of the night relaxing, getting dinner, and catching up. I still find it amazing that Margaret’s and my life keep coming back together even after all these years! Who would have thought that two little girls carpooling together to school would one day be studying abroad in England? Life is so interesting sometimes, but I couldn’t be happier with how things are now!

This next weekend: Cardiff, Wales!

How to Cook a Traditional English Roast

Wednesday night, my beyond wonderful flat decided to make a traditional English roast! It was so nice having a home cooked meal that wasn’t pasta (pretty much the only thing I cook) and hanging out together. I learned so much!

How to Cook a Traditional English Roast

The Menu

Main Dish: Roasted Chicken
Side Dishes: Baked Vegetables, Roasted Potatoes, Stuffing
Dessert: Steamed Pears with Creme & Chocolate

Main Dish: Roasted Chicken
I actually didn’t help with this dish (I was late thanks to the wonders of Primark shopping - more on that later), but Louise & Nik handled it like total pros! Here’s the final result:

Nik carving the chicken hahah:

Side Dish 1: Baked Vegetables

1. Cut parsnip and carrots into “baton” slivers. Turns out I’ve mistakenly thought parsnip was an herb for about 20 years of my life. Turns out that’s parsley….
2. Separate garlic into its little cloves. You can leave it in it’s thin shell.
3. Cut onions
4. Mix all the vegetables in oil and sprinkle with rosemary. Drizzle honey on top. Francesca, Ena, and Olivia after mixing everything together:
5. Put it in the oven to bake!
   

Side Dish 2: Roasted Potatoes

1. Peel potatoes (Ena handled this like a pro!)
2. Wash potatoes
3. Steam potatoes
4. Put the potatoes in the oven with some oil

   Louise serving the yummy potatoes - she was the real mastermind behind the whole roast!
   

Side Dish 3: Stuffing - the easiest one of all!

1. Buy a packet of stuffing hahah
2. Mix with water
3. Form the stuffing into balls
4. Bake in the oven!
5. Enjoy the yummy crispyness
   
6. 

Dessert: Steamed Pears with Creme & Chocolate

1. Peel the pears
2. Cut the pears in half
3. Steam them (supposedly you can microwave them too!)
   
4. Whip up cream until it is relatively thick and fluffy
5. Crush Maltesers into small chunks - not too fine
   
6. Mix the Malteser chunks into the creme
   
7. Melt some dark chocolate
8. Put a dollop of the creme on top of the pear and drizzle with dark chocolate
   

Somehow, Beccy and Olivia decided that they would dress up in a pirate outfit and scrubs, respectively, so of course the rest of us followed suit with whatever ridiculousness we could find in our closets. Getting in the spirit of Halloween early I suppose!

Me & Olivia: so serious it hurts

Beccy as a pirate:

Flat 61!

Overall, the meal was absolutely delicious, and so much fun. We’ve decided we need to do more family dinners in our flat! It’s so nice to have a home away from home :) Love them all!

Brouhaha in Brussels!!

Two weeks ago, I realized that I had one free weekend without any trips planned! Not wanting to waste any opportunity to get around and travel, I called up one of my awesome friends, Sarah, and we planned a trip to Brussels in 24 hours! Somehow, we ended up finding some awesome Eurostar deals and a hotel room with an ensuite bathroom that was the same price as all the hostels!

So Saturday morning before the sun had even risen, we were dashing off to St. Pancras station for our brouhaha in brussels! After 2 quick hours on the high speed train (it goes through the Chunnel! The Channel Tunnel!) we immediately got lost and realized that we had made the huge rookie mistake of not looking up directions before we got to Brussels. I know, completely idiotic. Strangely enough, we had actually made an entire itinerary based off of which locations where close to each other…yet we didn’t write down how to get to any of these places. We solved the problem by finding a Mickey D’s and leeching off of their free Wi-Fi to use our iPhones to look up how to get to the Grand Place. Eventually, we made it, and wow was it a glorious sight:

Thanks to my wonderful big, Lauren, who studied abroad in Leuven last year, we already had a bunch of suggestions of places to go. She had told us that each of the offstreets shooting off from the Grand Place had different ethnic foods such as Greek, Italian, etc. We found food, food, and more food.

We also found the Mannekin Pis! - it’s a famous statue of a little boy peeing and he’s on pretty much every souveneir you can find in Brussels. They dress him up in a different outfit every day it’s pretty funny.

Later, we walked to the Cantillon Brewery which is the only brewery left in Brussels that uses old-fashioned brewing. It was cool seeing such an old facility that was still used - they wanted to keep true to the “real” way of brewing beer rather than speeding up the process to make more money like other companies have done. We got to tour around the entire factory and got two beers with admission!

Hahah here is Sarah drinking all our beers - I let her drink mine since I have the tolerance of a five year old child. If you notice in this picture, the beers are actually a deep red. One is raspberry and the other is cherry (Kriek beer).

After the brewery, we tried to find our hotel, but walked past it and actually walked straight into Occupy Belgium - a protest in relation to Occupy Wall Street that is going on back home.

After the best nap of our lives, we finally went to seek out the glorious Belgium Waffle that Lauren had told us we had to get. She had mentioned a very specific store off of Grand Place and insisted we get Speculoos ice cream on time. Speculoos is a Belgium cookie that they are all completely obsessed with - they have Speculoos McFlurries, Speculoos Chocolate, Speculoos Paste, and what not (oddly enough, we never found any actual Speculoos cookies).

 

The Belgium waffle is somehow so different…it’s almost carmelized in sugar and has this layer of deliciousness coating it. The warmth of the freshly made waffle combined with the cold of the ice cream was such bliss. There we were, sitting on the curb of the Grand Place, watching the sun set around us, just eating a belgium waffle and people-watching, and I suddenly realized: This is why I came abroad. This moment right now. I don’t know how to explain it without being overly cheesy, but it was this surreal moment where I was perfectly content with my life and not worrying about work or getting lost or any troubles. It was wonderful.

Saturday morning, we embarked on another long adventure to the EU Parliamentarium! The EU Visitor Centre was one of the coolest multi-media things I had seen. They gave us iPods that were set for your specific language. You would hold the iPod up to a little Key image on each display, and start hearing the explanation in English through your headset or have an explanation to read on your personal screen. I made Sarah demonstrate:

We then again stumbled upon another cathedral, the St. Michael and St. Gudala Cathedral which was gorgeous! What a wonderful thing to accidentally come across. 

After buying some more chocolates for ourselves and as souveneirs, we took a nice break in the Royal Gardens and then found the Royal Palace along with another stumbled-upon Lottery car caravan!

We then found the beautiful Notre Dame du Sablon which is beyond gorgeous and allows free entrance inside!

After walking around Sablon, a really nice area with antiques and fancy chocolate shops, we finally ended our 2-day trip around Brussels and were back in London by 11pm! When we were going through customs, the officer asked me why I was entering London. I told her I was returning from a trip and was studying abroad at King’s. She responded “So returning home? Okay” and stamped me through. When she said that, I realized how right that statement sounds. It’s been a month which is long or short depending on how you look at things, but right now, London feels like home. When I come back to Stamford Street after a long day out, it feels good to be back. I suppose when you are traveling non-stop (even when I’m not abroad!), you have to find somewhere temporary to call “home” otherwise you’ll go insane!

Overall, I couldn’t be happier that we (almost) spontaneously decided to go to Brussels! Thanks to our rookie move, we got lost more times than I can count, and got to see nearly every part of the city - not just the touristy ones. It was such a wonderful way to kick off my trips, and I can’t wait to explore more in the next months!

Up next, a visit this Friday to Oxford to see Margaret!