As much as I enjoy learning new things and experiencing new cultures, sometimes it gets to be too much. I spent four weeks here, and the closest thing I’ve done to my Chinese-American identity was buy shoddy soy sauce and take a bus that happened to go through Chinatown. Other than that, I grew distant from what I related to as my Home experience.
I underwent something like this during my adjustment period to Duke, when I no longer heard Chinese on the day-to-day because my parents and grandparents were many miles away. I no longer ate Chinese food for almost every meal (surprisingly never got tired of it at home). I no longer saw any Chinese art or paintings on the walls, but only the oh-so-lovely Eggshell (?) paint of my new Bassett home. I really missed the massive Chinese family parties, the strong sense of community that just seemed absent.
And while I did find a strong community at Duke, and while I do really enjoy my cohort here at DE San Francisco, I decided to take a day for myself to go and re-immerse myself into my culture.
Sunday, July 2nd. First stop: the Asian Art Museum. With over 18,000 pieces of art in it’s collection, I couldn’t get through it all in one day. Not only was there Chinese art, but Indian, Korean, Japanese, and many more were represented. After a few hours of standing and looking, my brain was bursting with information and my feet were crying for help. So Wandi, another Duke Engage intern, and I went looking for something else.
Second Stop: Dim Sum. We went to a place in the Richmond, and the food was delicious. There was a bit of a miscommunication when I was ordering, but long story short I got 3x the amount of food that I intended to. Oops? I didn’t regret it one bit.
Third Stop: Chinese supermarkets and pharmacies. I went in and got frozen dumplings (a household staple during my childhood. Ate approx. five bags (~30 pcs/bag) a week, along with other small Asian snacks that reminded me of growing up (haw flakes, hi-chews, pocky). This really brought back some memories.
Fourth stop: Bubble Tea shop. After all this, we decided that we weren’t quite done with the day. We stepped into this small bubble tea shop and got this ice-jelly-cream-thingy that was absolutely delicious and cheap too! Really rounded off the day.
Looking back on the day, all I really did was look at art and then eat my way through Richmond. Regardless, it was extremely refreshing to ground myself in things that felt so familiar in a place that felt so foreign. Even though I’ve grown to love trying new experiences, it never hurts to anchor yourself to your own identity lest you start to feel adrift!
-Pat
P.S. Made a healthy (albeit bland) rice dish soon after my weekend.
