After reuniting with my relatives in China, I discovered there has been some assumptions floating around regarding the U.S. Some cracked me up while others were just very wrong indeed.

1. What is a State? It was one of the first questions I got thrown at me when I returned: What is a “State”? “It’s like a country,” I explained. Is each State close? was their next question. “Uh, no,” I answered, “it takes 6 hours to get from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas and another 4 hours from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.” That was when my aunt finally understood why after so many years in the U.S., her classmates never met. She said one lived in San Francisco, another in Texas, another in Chicago, and a forth in New York.
2. All Westerners speak fluent English! That is a very big assumption and it drives me crazy and makes me laugh at the same time. Wrong, I do not believe all Westerners speak fluent English. Yes, probably they do speak a little broken English or heavy-accented English but I don’t agree with this assumption. My uncle has been trying to have me approach every westerner on the street and speak English to them. “To make you feel at home,” he said. I just laughed.

   

3. There is no Chinese food in the U.S.! They seemed to assume I haven’t had rice or dim sum in more than a decade. Every time we went out to a restaurant, they tried to get me to eat more. “Eat all you can here,” they all would say, “who knows when you’ll get the chance to come back again.” Okay, I wish I was having anything else but rice in the U.S. It’s a little annoying sometimes. I have a China town where I can practically buy all the products I can find here in the grocery store. Also, my mom and I go out for dim sum at least twice a month. We could go more often if not for work and school.