So, the past weekend, my family and I decided to head down to the states to partake in my cousin's graduation from med school. There was a lot of driving going on this weekend. Thankfully it was all done by my older brother Andrew. My family are all spread across 5 states in the north eastern part of the states, so it took a while getting everyone together. Well, the graduation itself was really boring as expected, but it was nice getting together with the cousins. We mostly just ate out a lot and hung out like we usually do. One long weekend definately wasn't enough time to drive all the way to NYC and back, but it was fun.

On a different note, on one of the many car rides, my uncle put in a Burmese music video on the DVD player. First of all, I was really surprised when the song wasn't half bad. I guess Burma's adopted some of western pop music culture, and the song had a pop beat with Burmese lyrics. Very different from the Burmese songs I'm used to hearing at home that my mom plays. Second of all, since it was a music video, it kinda showed what Burmese people look like. Well, for me growing up, I've never quite known my nationality. My grandparents were all born in China, my parents were both born in Burma, and I was born in Canada. I've always considered myself to be Chinese Canadian, and definately not Burmese (that's now you say it btw, not Burmanese or Burmesium). Well, for my entire life, I don't think anyone's ever told me that I actually "look" Chinese. I tell people that I'm Chinese, and that's usually good enough, but no one has ever told me that I look like a typical China man. After watching that Burmese music video, it all started to make sense. The people in the music video just seemed to have a lot of similar characteristics. The eyes, the nose, the skin tone, it all looked very familiar in me and my family. All my life I've been rejecting the very dark skinned, kind of mix between brown and chinese part of myself, but maybe it's time that I begin to embrace my Burmese heritage?

Actually, the country Burma no longer exists. It's called Myanmar now, but it will always be Burman to me.