Cultures and Families

    This topic hits close to home for me. I am in an interracial relationship, I'm white and my boyfriend is Filipino. Because of this, there is a very obvious difference between the cultures we grew up in. Last thanksgiving he had the opportunity to come down to my parent's house and celebrate the holidays. He had never observed thanksgiving before, so it was a new and fun experience for him. We all had a wonderful time and he brought housewarming gifts for the family as a token of gratitude. Gifts are a necessity when you visit someone's house according to him. I had heard about this before but I never had the chance to be on the receiving end of it. He was also surprised about how relaxed the holiday was, the idea of having a day to give thanks and eat copious amounts of food was amazing to him. In the future, he's defiantly going to have to come over and celebrate other holidays with us, he was a wonderful addition to the family. 

    My dad use to be in the airforce, and because of that, he has worked with a lot of different people from different backgrounds. He used to be friends with some neighbors we used to have who were also Filipino. He's been able to experience the culture more than I have and asked my boyfriend if he could make a dish called Lumpia. He would have gladly accepted the offer to cook for my family, however, we couldn't find the correct type of eggroll wrappers in order to make them. I'm very happy that he was able to feel accepted and comfortable around my family, I know he comes from a household where your image is everything, so it was nice to see him relax a bit. I know that in most Asian cultures it is like that. There is nothing wrong with caring about how you are perceived, in fact, it's a good thing to care about. Something that I find admirable about his family is that they have a good sense of community, family is the most important thing in their lives. Because of this, he is constantly putting other people before him, and that is a really good quality to have. I think that it is incredibly important for everyone to be exposed to all sorts of cultures, we can only benefit from something like that and expand our way of thinking.