TAB in Cambridge

Today is our 3rd day of living full-time in Cambridge, MA. The closing of the condo sale was on Friday, we moved in on Saturday. On Sunday, we cleaned up the old apartment in Woburn and officially turned in the keys.

On my way home today, driving on the congested Fresh Pond Pkwy, I was irritated by a TAB. First TAB I encountered on this coast, in her cobalt blue BMW SUV. She honked at me while I was merging into her lane. I wouldn't call it cutting her off because I signaled and pulled in very slowly. She honked at me 3 times nevertheless.

While staring at her in the rear view mirror with my typical angry face, I imagined what her life was like. I started thinking about her CEO father, collecting large paychecks at a semi-conductor company back in Taiwan, which supplied 80% of Dell laptops made in China; her mother, who's 55 but looks like she's in her 30's that flies from Taipei to the States twice a year to shop at various luxury brands outlets, especially Louis Vuitton; her white American boyfriend who has a MA in Philosophy from Harvard and loves eating sushi. I then moved on to imaging their parents-subsidized Huron Village condo and their lonely Westie puppy who is locked in there 10 hours a day while his owners are out driving in the BMW.

Before my mental revenge went too far, I realized all this stereotype was actually the norm in Cambridge. Compared to Woburn, every other couple I see around Harvard Square is an Asian girl in the arms of a white guy. Then, I thought how "average" Kristian and I are in the couple demographics of Cambridge. The popularity of Asian girl/white guy combination has certainly reached a critical mass for me to think my relationship might not be that cool.

Trying to be unique is exhausting. Like I was a little startled when the seller broker guy referred Kristian and I as "hipsters". It was ironic because I laughed a lot at stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com and I didn't really think I'd qualify as a hipster with my Libertarian believes. (Shh, I do love Whole Foods) But I guess joining the gentrification force in North Cambridge (our house is right next to the projects) and buying a post-modernist house qualifies us as hipsters. Maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Maybe being an Asian girl dating/marrying a white guy isn't such a bad thing either. Being unique is also costly: there are more services and social acceptance catered towards stereotypes. It's a matter of appreciating who you are and who you are with, and less on how similar you are to the others around you. Easier said than done, of course, like many other things in life.