Where I Live
Chinese New Years means trying harder to decipher the difference between firecrackers and gun shots.
We don't duck. We don't call the cops. We aren't scared of either sound.
When the helicopter is out -- and it's out often -- we take a moment of silence to listen to what they're saying over the intercom. "We are looking for a .. such and such" or "If you have seen someone running through your yard, please call 911" and my favorite "we are releasing the dogs."
Somewhere in my neighborhood there is a hidden grocery store that I don't know of. I know this because there are always shopping carts left all over the place.
When someone is running down the street, the first thing that comes to mind is CRIMINAL not health nut.
We never know what happens to the criminals the helicopters warn us about because it's not news to the reporters or local TV stations. It really isn't news to us either for that matter.
There have been two grand theft incidents at my house.
We have two recycling trucks that come around. There's the regular big truck that likes to block your driveway when you're running late for work and there is the other one -- a man in a trench coat, riding a bike house to house, with bags full of cans. If he isn't singing or screaming at his imaginary friend, he's playing music through a concealed radio. I imagine it's stashed in the coat.
Once during lecture on the differences between murder in American culture and Japanese culture, a student raised his hand and said that we have more murders because it's easy to drop dead bodies off in my area. Nice.
But this is home. And as bad it sounds, I feel pretty safe here. Perhaps, I'm just used to it.
We don't duck. We don't call the cops. We aren't scared of either sound.
When the helicopter is out -- and it's out often -- we take a moment of silence to listen to what they're saying over the intercom. "We are looking for a .. such and such" or "If you have seen someone running through your yard, please call 911" and my favorite "we are releasing the dogs."
Somewhere in my neighborhood there is a hidden grocery store that I don't know of. I know this because there are always shopping carts left all over the place.
When someone is running down the street, the first thing that comes to mind is CRIMINAL not health nut.
We never know what happens to the criminals the helicopters warn us about because it's not news to the reporters or local TV stations. It really isn't news to us either for that matter.
There have been two grand theft incidents at my house.
We have two recycling trucks that come around. There's the regular big truck that likes to block your driveway when you're running late for work and there is the other one -- a man in a trench coat, riding a bike house to house, with bags full of cans. If he isn't singing or screaming at his imaginary friend, he's playing music through a concealed radio. I imagine it's stashed in the coat.
Once during lecture on the differences between murder in American culture and Japanese culture, a student raised his hand and said that we have more murders because it's easy to drop dead bodies off in my area. Nice.
But this is home. And as bad it sounds, I feel pretty safe here. Perhaps, I'm just used to it.