[Canalejas]

My lone trip to China was just over twenty years ago.  

(Incidentally, that was just a few months before I became a US citizen, so my visa was $15 cheaper than it would have been a year later.  Score!)

Beijing was great. It reminded me so much of both of the worlds I grew up in. Getting around on buses and subways, hanging out in public plazas, and cramming way too many people into a taxi felt exactly like my memories of México as a little kid. Except for the language barrier, of course. 

But it also felt a bit like home because my pre-Stanford days here in the US were spent in one of those pockets of the San Gabriel Valley that is majority Asian, with the bulk of that being Chinese/Taiwanese. The trip certainly brought me to a different world, but not one that was entirely unfamiliar.  

---  

In the times that I've fantasized about being an Olympic champion I've told myself that the obvious decision, given the choice, would be to represent the US. After all, I've lived here nearly all my life and completed all of my post-kindergarten schooling here. But somehow I know that my mom's smile would be just a bit wider if the anthem playing was el Himno Nacional Mexicano. So maybe not so obvious after all.

[Canalejas]

My lone trip to China was just over twenty years ago.  

(Incidentally, that was just a few months before I became a US citizen, so my visa was $15 cheaper than it would have been a year later.  Score!)

Beijing was great. It reminded me so much of both of the worlds I grew up in. Getting around on buses and subways, hanging out in public plazas, and cramming way too many people into a taxi felt exactly like my memories of México as a little kid. Except for the language barrier, of course. 

But it also felt a bit like home because my pre-Stanford days here in the US were spent in one of those pockets of the San Gabriel Valley that is majority Asian, with the bulk of that being Chinese/Taiwanese. The trip certainly brought me to a different world, but not one that was entirely unfamiliar.  

---  

In the times that I've fantasized about being an Olympic champion I've told myself that the obvious decision, given the choice, would be to represent the US. After all, I've lived here nearly all my life and completed all of my post-kindergarten schooling here. But somehow I know that my mom's smile would be just a bit wider if the anthem playing was el Himno Nacional Mexicano. So maybe not so obvious after all.