Your comments about the Chinese made me chuckle quite a bit. I think CA is a bit worse than where I grew up (Texas). I went to dinner with my brother in law’s folks and my sister (who was out of town) called me to ask that I tell them that I was a lawyer instead of a grad student (I was a non-practicing one who had gone back for a grad degree). I was pretty surprised by the request, but my sister had been criticized by her in-laws for getting a PhD instead of an MD, so she was being really sensitive.
All they could talk about was the fact that I gave up a lawyer’s salary to go back to a grad school stipend. Absolutely boggled their mind. Seems like personal happiness is a strange concept. Never mind the fact that I drive a Mazda3 when I could be driving a BMWer instead–that just accentuated my weirdness.
That’s why I don’t hang out with too many Chinese at all.
