Amalgamation

The alarm went off at 5:30 this morning.  I pushed open the curtains for some light.  It was still dark outside.  But by 6:00, the windows were full of light and our house was full of action.  A short 45 minutes later, the school bus had come and gone and the day had fully begun.

With the girls settled into school, its time for me to focus on other projects.  This morning I packed up my computer and walked down the street to a little coffee shop.  It has a cozy vibe, and is providing lovely backdrop for focusing on work this morning.  Also, the coffee is delicious.

As I walked here, I thought about how I've become an amalgam of all of the places I have lived.  And further, how that amalgamation shows itself in so many things - especially in my life today.


I am a Midwesterner.  I'm a Kansas City girl who grew up spending weekends on the farm with my grandparents.  I have no fear of dirt, and I am most comfortable in a sot cotton t-shirt and cheap khaki shorts.  I am immediately attracted to people who are unpretentious.  I eat desert after every meal.  I am a Midwesterner.




But I'm also a little Shanghainese.  I'm not afraid of traffic, and it only took a day before I felt comfortable again stepping in front of moving cars with my kids.  The cars will stop if I tell them to, and I'm willing to slam my hand down on their hood if they don't.  I am unfluffed by mess.  I walked in the street and the traffic for most of the half mile here this morning, not because there is no sidewalk but because that sidewalk frequently tips entirely into the open gutter below.  And frequently when it doesn't, the tropics have overgrown it or a man lies sleeping on it. I am sharp and savvy; I can maneuver a new grocery store, find the best place for mosquito repellant and will not be taken advantage of by my household staff or the taxi driver.  Shanghai put the fight into me, and I've brought that along with me.


But I'm also a bit Caraqueño.  I'm not always in a hurry, and I am fine with arriving late.  In fact, maybe I was born a bit Caraqueño.  But more to the point, I am also very cautious.  Walking this morning, I held tight to my backpack and I watched my surroundings sharply.  I noticed the man walking too close to me, and shifted quickly away from him.  Caraqueños live with an ever present threat of danger, and I've carried that along to Indonesia.

I'm a bit Arlington, a suburb of DC where the rents are high, the stress levels are high and the expectations of everyone are high.  I was a Midwesterner in Arlington, preferring to see my kids play with their neighbors rather than enroll them in enrichment programs at school.  But I brought some Arlington away with me.  I picked up a new level of polish in Arlington, and an upper middle class appreciation for quality.  When we began replacing things in our kitchen, we bought fewer items at higher price tags than we ever had before.  We spent a lot of money on each item we replaced, but we did not replace everything.

And I am a trailing spouse, the wife of a diplomat.  Even though we saw larger price tags on each item, we still saw a surplus in our bank account at the end of our shopping.  Because each time we move, we simplify.  I carry what I need, and not much more.  Surprisingly, I saw us replacing many things from Venezuela with exactly the same item, because I had carried exactly what I needed and not much more.  I was happy to be rid of our surplus.  I've also picked up some diplomacy.  Our blonde little girls garnered a lot of unwanted attention in Shanghai, and I bristled against that.  I protected my children and their privacy.  Now, thankfully much more the diplomat, I smile and join the frame with my kids.  After our movie screening in @America earlier this week, a group of high school students wanted to chat with us and take our pictures.  A quick conversation with my crew of kids about being gracious, and we stood talking with them for fifteen minutes.  They left all smiles.

We leave a lot of things behind every time we move.  But this morning, I'm feeling happy about all of the things that we bring along with us as well, the amalgamation that each one of us has become.