signs that i have been in guelph for far too long

~on the first day of project i kept marveling at the number of azns on project. (around 25%) this was reminiscent of frosh week. ("ohmigosh there's so many white people!") oh the irony.
~resulting in the fact that the first impression that i made on my chinese roomie from t.o. was that i was "white".
~T&T (THE chinese supermarket) was THE only place that i really wanted to visit after arriving in calgary.
~the lyrics "heaven, i'm in heaven" was on repeat in my head while i was strolling through T&T.
~i got excited over seeing chinese pastries and well...everything in T&T in general.
~after being spoiled by a car i was still willing to trek to T&T on the c-train even though it was a two hour trip round-way.
~i'm still surprised at the different accents that i hear at work.
~i didn't think that i needed to bring a rice cooker to calgary not because i thought others were going to bring it, but that i wasn't going to use it. *shock*
~i think calgary is multricultural. this coming from the girl who lived in t.o.

overall conclusion? living in guelph has whitewashed me enough so that now i'm BI-cultural. i'm not a complete banana. NEVER! i still have jay chow on itunes, but now i feel like fish in water in both cultures whereas three years ago i was so initimidated by caucasians.

on a similar note what is it with men thinking they can "impress" by saying stuff in a girl's mother tongue? ok fine...it's impressive when they can quote tang poems or something, but today this middle-aged man poked his face into mine, grilled me on my ethnic background, and proceeded to say "i love you" in mandarin. GROSS! hellooo? personal space?!?! i don't even know what he was trying to do. show off? ego-boost? no clue, but it was creepy.

i think it's totally cool when people are seriously trying to get to know the language and the culture for whatever reason (i.e. OEX/stint/ICS/general interest in certain country), and i have the utmost respect for "eggs" (white on the outside, yellow on the inside). you know caucasians who can sing jay chow, honestly at least have a basic understanding of the culture and aren't just posers. that i'm impressed by, and it's totally cool to be talesamo'ing with oexers/stinters, but despite what "yellow fever" says girls don't dig it when their mother language is butchered in a sleazy attempt to "impress" or "pick up". ugh what's with middle-age men? mid-life crisis? eww...there that's my rant of the day. i'm still shuddering.