Belonging as Aliens
Language can be tricky and fluid. When I was a Resident Assistant in college, we were told to call residents from other countries “international students” instead of “foreign students.” International sounded inclusive and welcoming, it was explained, unlike foreign. I could see the point. Then I moved to China, a country whose very name in […]
I Think It Is Okay to be an Alien
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t feel like an alien. When I was a little girl, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed little Canadian girl growing up in a Mexican village, I ate as much spicy food as possible to prove I was at least equal to my Mexican counterparts. Then, when I was a high […]
Aliens and Strangers
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. I craned my neck back around the airplane seat and said to my husband “you realize everything we own is in the belly of this […]
Forever and Always Foreign
After five years of making my home in southeast Asia, you would think people would stop looking at me like I have little green blobs growing out of my head. Yet somehow, I never cease to amaze people with my foreignness. “You paid the electrician HOW MUCH as a tip?” (Oops, too little.) “You spend […]