Minority

I know being a minority in Taiwan is not quite the same thing as being a minority in the U.S. But at the same time, I cannot help, but empathize with many of the minorities in the U.S. who have been treated different over the years purely based on what is on the outside. I am not discriminated against for jobs, education or anything of the sort. But I feel different, look different and am constantly reminded that I am different. There are days when I would like to keep my head down and focus on the tasks I should get done, rather than having the fact that I am a foreigner pointed out, again. If I pause at a restaurant, people are friendly enough to ask if I need help, but sometimes I enjoy hacking my way through a menu and ordering something because I knew two of the characters for the dish. I find a premium in being independent and not necessarily getting exactly what I wanted, because I learn best that way.

When I was in Europe two years ago, Mr. W. Bush was our president and people loved reminding me of that fact. But more than often people thought I was Russian or possibly from another Eastern European country (I have no idea why). The Italians were a bit nicer than others, because more than once I heard the phrase we have our own *insert explicit word*, Mr. Berlusconi is what they were referring to. But at the same time, when I wanted to keep my head down, I could. Here it is a bit different, and hard to verbalize my frustrations and small daily lessons, but I am slowly learning.

I have learned that I crave diversity in cultures, food, people, language, education and just about anything a person could get diverse about. Also, I know I like to be an insider in a place and that "looking through the glass" is not satisfying enough. I hope that I can incorporate this information when I travel and stay connected to the places I visit and people I meet. You'll hear more about this later.