My Inner Asian

College changes people. There's no denying it.

I'm drinking tea like a maniac. All I do in my spare time is make tea. Whenever one of my friends is on the verge of sneezing, I drag them back to my dorm and make them a pot of Jasmine tea.

In high school, with the exception of my killer grades (kidding), the glasses that framed my smallish eyes, and my last name, there wasn't much that could identify me as "Asian." I did not listen or dance obsessively to KPop, religiously follow KDramas, or own anything with Hello Kitty on it. I could not speak with an Asian mother accent without even thinking about it. I didn't know how to cook tapioca for Bubble Tea (I only knew how to drink bubble tea). I was not particularly adept at math or science. My hair spirals in impossible curls rather than fall past my shoulders in glossy, black, Asian straightness.

But here at Johns Hopkins, 3 weeks into college, I am beginning to feel it. I am at a school where, although the student population is 21% Asian, I am surrounded by people from so many different places that I literally have not have the time to realize my own background.
Which was perfectly fine with me (given the Asian immersion that my high school was)... up until about a week and a half ago. That's when the cravings started:
My friend, who's not even Asian, I might add, starts whistling Gee (from SNSD) while we're going to Late Night at the FFC. He's not the only one to get that song quickly stuck into my head.
I plan a sushi/bubble tea party on my floor, and end up going 30min. all the way to the HMart to buy supplies. I returned with a 20lb. bag of rice, 4 bamboo mats for rolling sushi, and Kikkoman soy sauce.

My pilgrimage to HMart, MD. It's nowhere as big or impressive as the one in NJ.

And now, one of my goals for the next few weeks is to learn the Gee dance. I envy my white friend's Hello Kitty shirt. I will try to learn the Asian accent from one of the many, many awesome TAs on campus (preferably the one who looked at me as if wondering how I got into Hopkins when I went to him with a really stupid Calc question). I can actually do math now without too much difficulty :). I learned to make bubble tea (despite the nasty burn splashed across my stomach as a result) and sushi, all in one day. There is, sadly, nothing I can do about my stubbornly un-Asian hair.

The years of endless urging of my friends didn't do it. The peer pressure of a million KPop/KDrama fanatics through 4 years of high school didn't do it. The summer abroad in China, or working at an Asian learning center, or the fact that my genes are 100% Chinese couldn't do it.
But after barely a month of being a freshman at Johns Hopkins, I have connected with my Inner Asian.

Bubble Tea & Sushi Adventures!
            

A Sheet of Marble

It's pouring rain outside. The marble that trims this entire school is glistening with wet. The white lines that crisscross through the campus, the smooth white stairs that students have to cross in order to get to half their classes, the giant spreads of white stone that lay as the entrance to most of the buildings = one really dangerous morning trek to anywhere.

Therefore I'm hiding in my room in Wolman listening to that Chopin piece I can't play and eating a sandwich.

I have to reread 2.5 Macroeconomics chapters because overslept and missed this morning's lecture. I have to get the history notes from the other JFong in this school who happens to have history with me, because I overslept and missed this morning's lecture. I have to go over to my friend's room and get the Calc notes from him because... I overslept and missed this morning's lecture.
I never realized how important the alarm on my phone was until it didn't ring and caused me to sleep into the two digits this morning.
At least I got 8+ hours of sleep. 3:00am - 11:30am.

Yes, 3:00am is pretty average at this point. In between going out ;), eating pancakes at 11pm, 140+ pages of reading in one night, sleep doesn't seem to have a place in my life anymore. Disappointing.
Welcome to college.

On the other hand, I've met people from literally all over the world -- Africa, Sweden (my roomie!), Belgium, Mexico, throughout the US. I found out that I'm really not that bad at Volleyball, and rediscovered my loathing of Calculus (and the fact that I can't process math). I went mudsliding in the midst of a Hurricane Irene (aka just really heavy rain) and eat a ridiculous amount of food everyday. I play more piano now than I have in 7 years, and more consistently than I have in 7-8 years.

So despite the treacheries of the fine white marble that literally called out to me the first time I drove by this campus back in April 2010, Life is pretty darn good.