YAY RAQ BACK IN THE US!

It's not just immigrant parents - the home-grown variety can be just as crazy.

Oh, yeah, most definitely -- it's just amusing (in a @@ or possibly tragic way) that every single immigrant culture seems to use the exact same script: "All those [not-Indian/Greek/Italian/Jewish/Irish/Japanese/Filipino/etc.etc.etc.] people are completely different and threatening, for our culture is so incredibly unique in its love and reverence for Family, and they are totally incapable of understanding you the way we do."

The first time I read The Joy Luck Club, I was blown away by how identical it was to my aunt's experience as the US-born daughter of immigrants. You could've gone through the entire book, yanked the words "China" and "Chinese" and popped in "Greece" and "Greek" (and maybe a few descriptions of traditional food and clothing) without changing anything else, and it would've been her adolescence and young adulthood word for word. (And, sadly, the older she gets the more she unthinkingly pulls the exact same shit on the next generation.)

Oh, speaking of? I saw Amy Tan speak last month at my school, and she was amazing. Seriously the best speaker I think I've ever seen.

(Could I use the word "speak" any more? I think not.)

You might point them out as a horrible example - as in, you want to wait and find just the right person so you don't end up like them.

Hm, I never thought of that. She always uses that against me as a caution against dating some white Caucasian she-devil and tarnishing our reputation further. I think I've stopped bothering coming up with arguments, because they never work. Might as well surrender to destiny.

Might as well surrender to destiny.

And date Caroline Dhavernas?

I went to my job interview and the chick isn't in today. WTF?

What? Madness!

Hooray, job for Raq! And I am tempted by the silverplate. Tempted, but ignorant. How is silverplate different from silver?

sadly, the older she gets the more she unthinkingly pulls the exact same shit on the next generation.

Oh, that's too bad. I've always put my folks complete refusal to pull that crap down to their experiences getting it from their respective families. I guess that's not foolproof.

You may already know this, but American = white folk. Who just aren't good enough to have as friends, why don't I have Indian friends? Do I hate Indians or something? Huh? Do I think I'm better than everyone?

I really admire a person who doesn't sweat the contradictions.

t /sarcasm WAIK;TNC

ION, too much -ma to give, to little time. March, back the HELL off!!!

Yay, Raq! ::circles May 1 on the calendar::

Yay SA! Yay Raq!

I'm extremely close to my family, and I don't just mean my dh and kids. Because I was an only child, my parents took extra care to make sure I was close to my cousins, growing up. We're very close to Scott's family, too.

We are close to both of our families. We live our lives differently, but we respect each others choices. We are fortunate to have only fun crazy family. Now we would have picked different people for our siblings to marry in a couple cases, but hey, thier lives.