Enjoy the life

It’s cold today yet I am happy because fall is coming. These pictures were taken last fall and I like this place. Here is a café shop beside the Colorado River. Instead of a regular café shop, the most special things are that you can also park boats here and see the beautiful nature while eating.

When I ate lunch there, I found that I love the way Americans enjoy their life. Not only can they drive the yacht, but they can also have the time with their family. When I was in Taipei, my family and I seldom had leisure time going out. Even for the weekend, we were used to staying at home because of the hard working during the weekday and some of us even had to work. If there was a priority for weekend activities, I think it would be working first, then resting, then family time. (Maybe it’s Asian values. I don’t know.) Therefore, when I saw the scene like this, I envied them and I wish that I will have the same lifestyle in the future.

American eggs and Chinese eggs

I attended a seminar last Thursday, and the topic is about how to do business in China. In the seminar, a speaker said a very interesting story about the culture difference as following. There are two baskets of eggs. One of them are American eggs and the other are Chinese eggs. The first egg hatches out from the American basket will think that “Yeah, I am the first one,” while the one from Chinese basket will go back to the egg shell pretending nothing happened. I totally agree this story but I wonder why.

Some reasons come to my mind. First of all, the way parents and teachers teach the kids are quite different. In Taiwan or most Asia countries, parents and teachers tend to teach the kids in a negative way. Even thought you are perfect, they have to tell you some shortcomings to be improved. As a result, we are likely unconfident. On the other hand, American parents or teachers tend to teach in a positive way. After attending classes in America, I built some confidence because the teachers always exalt me even when I asked a silly question.

Secondly, I found that the status of American kids is higher than Chinese kids. There is a well-known Taiwanese saying: “Kids should only have ears and shouldn’t have mouth.” In contrast, as a student here, I found that I was highly respected in class. For instance, I attend ACC as a part-time student; however, ACC financially supported me to the seminar and gave me the chance to contribute to my class. It’s impossible in Taiwan unless I am a PhD student. It really shocked me that how Americans value a kid or a student.

Despite all the points above, I don’t think Americans are better. Sometimes, I will think that Americans are overconfident. It’s hard to balance between two cultures, but I think it’s interesting to know others’ cultures and then respect them.

Christmas in the nursing homes

Time passes so fast! It’s holiday season again. I was in America last Christmas and I can’t forget it.
I go to a Taiwanese church after coming to Austin. I serve there as a choir member. Christmas is a big day for Christians; therefore, we played a cantata on the Sunday worship. Since we had made a lot of effort practicing, we decided to select some of the songs and play with our children choir in two nursing homes nearby on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. When we arrived at those homes, because we volunteered, I feel that nobody cared about what we were doing. After starting to sing, people started to stop their feet. The most miracle thing is that I saw some of the elders crying after we finished our performance. Actually, we are not professional singers who can sing very well. I guess the reason why they cried is that the children in our church reminded them about their families. In addition, the only visitors they have are not their families but strangers like us. I knew that lots of Americans will spend their holidays with the families, but I was surprised that there were so many people staying in the nursing home on Christmas Eve.
In Taiwan, the most important holiday is Chinese New Year. In New Year’s Eve, my parents and I will go back to my grandparents’ home and eat hot-pot or dumping every year. When singing over the nursing home, I recalled my grandfather. Two years ago, he got an accident and has to stay in nursing home. At that time, my husband got the admission from UT and decided to come to American for at least five years. Consequently, we know that we might not have much time gathering together. We took my grandfather out of nursing home and stayed at home for two days celebrating Chinese New Year. I can never forget the scene that my grandfather held my hand and said “take care of yourself” with his eyes filled with tears when we were leaving. I hope that I can spend more time with him but I can’t. Chinese New Year is in the middle of a semester in America; as a result, it’s impossible to visit him during Chinese New Year. Fortunately, he is better and better after that and can stay at home now. For the coming Christmas, I think that we will do the same thing. I am very happy doing this because it seems like that they are my grandparents. Since I am not going back to Taiwan this winter, this is the only thing I can do. At the same time, I hope that my grandparent can feel my love in Taiwan.

How are you?

A month ago, I went to my ACC class and only one of my classmates was there because we were early. He said “how are you?” to me. Although I were getting used to this question, I still can’t answer on the spot because I didn’t feel very good on that day. I thought that he was expecting a positive answer and stopping this topic; however, I didn’t want to lie. After replying “so so,” he started to ask about what happened. I didn’t really get sick so I didn’t know how to response, just ending the conversation with few words. I guessed that he might think that I am not a friendly person and the atmosphere was kind of getting freeze. It also happened when I went to HEB. I am always confused about how to reply the cashier.

I’ve attend a speech, which talked about adjusting to American life. The speaker told us that when Americans ask you “how are you,” it is not a question. They are just saying hello. Sometimes they even don’t give you a chance to reply and say “good” at the same time because they expect that you will answer “good” and ask back “how are you.” They don’t care about your answer actually. I was shocked when hearing this because I always answer this question seriously. Nevertheless, when I recalled what we ask in Chinese to say hello, I found something interesting.

Unlike Americans asking “how are you,” we ask “have you eaten?” in Chinese. If someone answers yes, then we can start the conversation with discussing the food he or she ate. On the other hand, if someone answers no, we can invite him or her having a dish or a snack. However, we won’t ask this question to a stranger such as a cashier because it will take longer time. I guess the reason for the difference between the way to say hello is that Americans and Chinese have different definition of friends. While Americans tend to have many friends even without deep relationship, Chinese tend to have several friends with really deep relationship. Therefore, Americans ask “how are you?” to everyone and want to get a quick answer showing that we are friends. I think that I still need time to get used of this.

Treat or Trick

Although this is my second year in Austin, it's my first time to "join" Halloween yesterday. Since I live in the apartment near Far West area, there were no kids knocking my door last year. One of my friends who live in UT apartment told me that there are lots of kids in their apartment, so I decide to visit her place and watch the football game at the same time.

We arrived her place around 6 p.m. I already saw several kids on the way there. Some of them are bufferflies; some of them are supermen and I can't tell some of them. The kids are really cute. The most impressive one is a boy that he sang a poem after knocking the door. I wish I have a video camera that I can record all of them.

We ran out of candy before 8 p.m. We didn't expect there would be so many kids. Fortunately, there is no more kid knocking our door. My friend told me that if you don't want to participate in handing out of candy, just don't decorate your door with any Halloween decoration. If you do some pumpkin curving in front your door, it means that you are welcoming them to knock your door. I think I will decorate my door and prepare more candy next year.