on asians in canada

basically half of vancouver is asian. everywhere is chinatown. three-fourths of the house i'm in right now are asian. i guess i imagined canada to be full of sturdy white people that don't shave.
the elderfoo residence: i'm becoming quickly aware of some key differences in parenting styles between my people and nancy foo's people. i, for instance, grew up with the ability to say no to my parents. i also talked back, fought back, and let my opinions be known. which isn't to say i didn't get smacked for these things, but none of that was considered completely unacceptable, i guess.
nancy foo, on the other hand, is my parents' dream child: the girl never talks back, never says no, never expresses how she feels about things her parents have said or done. also, she offers to do things for them all the time. when jessie was here, she noticed this difference and said 'when i was little, i would get annoyed if my mom asked me to get her a glass of ice water.' i grew up much the same way. also, it is totally accepted and appropriate for me to say something like 'dad, i'm doing you a favor, stop complaining.' or 'you're such a crotchety old man. stop complaining. this is the way it's going to happen.' or something like that... in the elderfoo residence, this would never happen. and it's not like there's something that would happen if it did. it is, i imagine, totally unprecedented. and it just wouldn't happen. so like last night when nancy was making dinner, her dad came in to complain that he was hungry and it wasn't ready. i think more than once he did that. and so she was extra pissed on the inside. but of course didn't even think of saying anything. and i just imagined if that happened at my parents' house. i probably would say something like 'do you want to make your own god damn food?'
so anyway, nance is the best kid ever, it seems to me.

oh! i think i might be replacing nance as the second favorite kid in her family. her brother is the favorite, for sure. so we make dinner most nights for ourselves and her parents. and when i first got here, nancyfoo made most of the meals. and every night her parents, especially her dad (ckfoo) would always tell her how she could have made it better. and every night they ask where the meat is. then jessie and i started making food, and her parents say stuff like 'oh this is better.' since jessie left, every dinner, without fail, her parents always like the part of dinner that i made better. yessss.
also, the elderfoos have a strong aversion to leftovers. like it's a serious deal if there are leftovers in the fridge. and forget that i'm saving it to eat it for lunch the next day. ckfoo will take it, even if he doesn't really like it, because it is some terrible terrible offense to have leftovers in the fridge. i don't get it.

also, billychen is the cutest. she always says things are 'very cute' or 'very nice' or 'not nice'. this is the extent of her adjective use, more or less. like we can't have leftover quesadillas because they're not nice. or the singing toothbrushes she's sending to her sister in malaysia are very cute. or the eggtart (the one the lady took in the elevator) is very nice. the woman loves a good deal. she got this glass napkin holder and made nancyfoo and i both guess how much it cost. nance guessed $12, i guessed $16. it was seventy cents. for real. and then she left the price tag on it when she put it on the kitchen table. i guess so she could relive her moment of a great deal. then the other day nance and i got puzzles from a thrift store. they were brand new! which i love, because all the pieces are there. billychen found them on the table and was soooo excited that we got brand new puzzles for $1. then we talked about thrift stores, which she loves. and i was like 'yeah, i need to get some pants for farm working' and she said 'oh no we don't get clothes there. because they're used. not nice.' dang. i'm a dirty dirty girl.
also, yesterday we made homemade pizza. of course, the elderfoos prefered the pizza i decorated. and it was delicious, that's true. but i woke up sometime in the middle of the night and realized i had been feeling nauseous and half asleep for maybe about an hour. so then i went and somewhat violently puked several times, then took a shower, at maybe 3 am, but i didn't want to go back to bed covered in the backsplash. so that was awesome.

i think i'm going to start writing about more hilarious interactions with the elderfoos. because it's not ok to say no to them, we end up with things we don't really want or need. like 5 melons from our trip to the market. a long scenic drive (ckfoo's driving makes me extra car sick) to who knows where, only to stop for a few minutes to look around, then ckfoo gets ansty and we drive forever to the next destination. the puzzle we're doing might just get framed. i got three nasto pomelos because i wasn't allowed to buy them at the first store, which had delicious but slightly more expensive pomelos. the produce i had picked out just disappeared from the cart, and probably in chinese the elderfoos discussed that i should buy this from the asian grocery store.
the asian grocery store: there are always approx 3 people per square foot, and i'm the only white person, and therefore the biggest, and i get run over by several small asians pushing big shopping carts. but billy chen tells me to get whatever very nice produce is on super sale. and i run out of there feeling like i got punched in the face. emotionally, of course.