One's identity
Something weird happened last week. I got quite upset when Paris lost the bid for Olimpics and as I was talking to the other interns, I was refering to the city as my city, using a lot the "we".
My collegues noticed it. Then, London got bombed and at the beginning no one knew why. I was really frightened and started again with "Thanks Lord it didn't happend to us". This time, one of the girls asked me smiling if I was feeling French already. I froze. I didn't realise it.
I am very proud to be Romanian and I never hide it. I talk a lot about my country, about my family, about our food and costumes... but I consider Paris my home, not Bucharest. I certainly don't think of myself as a Parisian. But if there was a bomb in a metro an I happend to be there, I would also be dead, irrespective of my nationality, so of course, I believe that everything that concerns Paris concerns me too.
I'm a bit embarassed in front of those French women. Of course that 2 years of living in France don't make me French and I'm angry at myself for speaking out loud like that... The thing is that I'm a bit puzzled.
Some time ago I was reaing an article about people who lived a certain number of years in another country and then came back home. About them being outcasts, not being foreigners but Romanians even less. I'm quite down to Earth about this type of subjects, but right now...
Do you have foreign origins that ever made you wonder who you really are and to which cultural group do you really belong to?
My roommates go out EXCLUSiVELY with Romanians (close friends and even bf). I can't stand the Romanian menthality- it's a very down to Earth one - and I'm extremely open minded, quite glad to change eating habits and menthal patterns once that I could - the process was never an easy one... My parents are gonna come visiting me in September and I start to fear the moment. What if they don't like me anymore? What if I can't stand them and their peculiarities anymore?[/b]
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