Friday, November 3rd, 2006
Part I: The arrival of THE hillbillies. OR, How I lost my Eye Virginity
Just weeks before moving across the Pacific Ocean, my parents informed my brother and I that our whole family will be moving soon (I was 12 yrs old). But they didn’t say when, I kid you not, as they really didn’t know. Our paperwork at the embassy wasn’t completed and our plane tickets weren’t purchased yet. It was so uncertain, but it was clear that we were soon to leave China and enter another country on the other side of the globe. I didn’t know anything about the US and schools back then don’t start teaching world geography until Junior High. I have never left the province I was born in. As a preteen about to enter puberty, it was very scary to think of all the changes to come. I don’t even know the A B C ’s. I was very sad / depressed about leaving all my friends.
Turns out, I had literally days to say my good-byes.
It was very sudden. We packed all of our clothes, some blankets, my mom’s super duper professional sewing machine and serger, bundled everything into several gigantic duffle-like bags, a couple of boxes, and hauled ourselves to the province’s capital. I remember having to get our physicals done, because they had to withdraw blood and I was and still am very squeamish about needles. I also remember the very tall blonde woman at the embassy who spoke perfect Mandarin. Firstly, I haven’t seen many Westerners in my life and secondly, she spoke Mandarin! My 12-years-old self was bewildered and fascinated that Westerners can speak Chinese and fluently at that.
We then went to Hong Kong where we gawked, glared, oohed and ahhed over everything simply because I’ve never seen anything bigger than a tiny municipal. After all, our parents most prized possessions were two beaten down bicycles as means of transportation. The neon lights, sky rises, cars, people wearing fancy clothes and jewlry and glasses. Oh my. No wonder people from Hong Kong look down upon us Mainlanders. There was so much to take in. We were in fact, the Hillbillies.
We (our family of 4 and my aunts’ family, a total of 8 people) boarded the 20+ hour plane ride heading for Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. That’s where the REAL fun began. The food they served were, how should I say, not very tasty to palates that’s been eating solely authentic Chinese food their whole lives. I was so hungry but didn’t find the food appetizing, so I munched on peanuts and crackers while watching the inflight movies and shifted my body 300 thousand times. Ah the inflight movies. I vividly remember a scene where a completely naked man holding a picture frame to cover his private parts. I think I lost my Eye Virginity at that very moment. Years later find out the movie was called “A fish called Wanda.” Then there’s the lavatory. Toilet paper abound, and the area is clean! And the toilet flushes! Blue water nonetheless!
When we finally landed, we were hungry and exhausted. None of us had eaten much of anything, we rather starve than eat raw vegetables (salads) and gooey cheese globbed on meat and noodles (pastas). To us who’d hardly stepped outside of the cow’s pastures, those kinds of food ain’t called food. It was very late in the night. And very cold. There was an elderly Caucasian couple at the airport along with my great-uncle to greet us at the airport, none of whom I’ve met before in my life. The elderly couple are friends of my grandparents and they wanted to hug each and everyone of us. I totally freaked out and hid behind my mom when the old white man held out his arms to me. We don’t hug in Asia. We don’t even see our own parents hug each other. The only times when people hug is if one of the parties is less than 1 years old!
As we stepped outside the airport, we saw snow for the first time in our lives. It was COLD but very pretty. My great-uncle took us to his daughter’s home for the night. We were to head to Iowa to be reunited with my grandparents the next day. We literally passed out laying around the guestroom, sleeper sofa, and floor. We took showers with hot water for the first time, used a flusing / sitting type of toilet that is clean enough to sit on for the first time (I didn’t know how to flush it, SERIOUSLY, as it was different from the airplane ones), and slept on thick plushy mattresses for the first time.
When we woke up the next morning, my great-uncle’s granddaughter (what is the term for that in English?) who was born in the US greeted us in English. We just looked at her, having absolutely no idea what she just said, as none of us knew a word of English. Great-uncle took us to the Greyhound station and bought us one-way tickets to Iowa. He came with us on the seemingly never ending ride, passing farm after farm after farm, full of nothing but black dirt as it was winter time. I remember looking out the window and thinking to myself, why did I leave all my friends for?! For all these farm and country that I could find back home in China?! I started to hate coming to the US already, and I haven’t even reached my final destination yet.
— To be continued — (read here for the next segment)
on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 at 9:59 am:
So fascinating, Jenn hehe. Looking fwd to more! So glad ure doing NaBloPomo hehe
on Saturday, November 4th, 2006 at 12:55 pm:
I can’t even imagine what a journey that was! I hope you blog more about immigrating. How long did it take before you could speak English?
on Saturday, November 4th, 2006 at 6:02 pm:
Wow! And, btw, your great-uncle’s granddaughter is your second cousin.
Got here throught the NaBloPoMo Randomizer.
on Saturday, November 4th, 2006 at 10:02 pm:
Jenn - thanks. My head swells from all these writing
Just kidding.
Amie - it was unbelievable. I think most immigrants go through something similar. I think our journey was extraordinary in that our lives in China were different in every single possible way, and made the culture shock just that much more intense. I was young (12) so learning a new language was easier. I was in ESL for 3 semesters but I was pretty much assimilated into all regular classes within a year.
Rachel - the fabulous randomizer. I love it!
on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 at 10:05 am:
Glad to have read your entry, where’s the to be continued part???? You’d better get back to it soon.
on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 at 11:36 pm:
[…] Hey don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten to write the sequel to this earlier post. I’m just taking a little longer to think about how to write it and what to include etc. And I’ve been busy hanging out with my friend from out-of-town in the last few days. […]
on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 12:37 am:
[…] do I limit to just one link… Here are two that I wrote during last year’s Nablopomo: Part I and Part […]