Question: Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
In the way one handled a delicate china tea set, Mom handed me a sloppy Ziploc bag of black powder the night before I left home for the States: "This is Gu-yuan-gao. Yao-Yao, remember, one spoon a day. You need to mix it with very hot water and eat it before you eat anything else. This is very good stuff: red jujube, sesame, walnut, lotus seed and black rice... all in one bag." In all seriousness and certainty that you could possibly ask for in a housewife, Mom added: "It keeps you healthy."
I held the bag to my chest. "I know, Mom. Thank you." Despite its look, the powders actually had an assuring smell of walnut, bitter but sweet. Just like home.
So I had to check "Yes" for the "I am (We are) bringing fruits, plants, food, or insect" statement in the Customs Declaration Form. The check mark proved troublesome: I was asked to open all my suitcases for inspection every time I passed through a security check. As I approached one after another suspicious-looking officers, fear took in charge of my heart: the smell, so strong - would they have a dog that didn't like the smell of walnut and jujube and barked at me? The Ziploc bag, sloppy - would they mistake the scary-looking black powders as some sort of illegal drug? How should I explain the ingredients? Will they even understand me? Or what if they end up taking the powders away from me? Oh please don't discard it to random garbage where it laid some unfinished General Tso's Chicken in a box - Mom had to wait two and a half hours in the pharmacy before all the jujubes were dried and grinded and well mixed...
Thus I never could wait till the officers to ask me what those powders were. Eagerly I felt an urge to defend myself soon as they unzip my suitcase: I believed that the dangerous smell of walnut and jujube had now invaded their limbic system and stirred up gigantic waves of suspicion. Now the officer was wiping the inside of my suitcase with a piece of dusting paper testing for potential "foreign virus"; I knew the drill, and I bet you he had caught sight of the obnoxious Ziploc bag - though vaguely, didn't I just see him frowning? ...
I decided to take initiative. "You see that bag of black power underneath the big blue SAT book? Yes my mom prepared those for me. It was nuts and all sorts of things grinded into powders..." But wait! Wouldn't I be better off showing case all the ingredients?
"Sounds like a lot of nutrition! So you eat it like protein shake with nice cold milk?" The officer began zip up my suitcase.
"No... but yeah." I lied. With deep relief, I pushed forward a smile on my face. "Certainly."
He didn't even lift the SAT Official Guide, let alone pay attention my sloppy Ziploc bag of black power with the strong, bittersweet smell of walnut and jujube.
In the way one handled a delicate china tea set, Mom handed me a sloppy Ziploc bag of black powder the night before I left home for the States: "This is Gu-yuan-gao. Yao-Yao, remember, one spoon a day. You need to mix it with very hot water and eat it before you eat anything else. This is very good stuff: red jujube, sesame, walnut, lotus seed and black rice... all in one bag." In all seriousness and certainty that you could possibly ask for in a housewife, Mom added: "It keeps you healthy."
I held the bag to my chest. "I know, Mom. Thank you." Despite its look, the powders actually had an assuring smell of walnut, bitter but sweet. Just like home.
So I had to check "Yes" for the "I am (We are) bringing fruits, plants, food, or insect" statement in the Customs Declaration Form. The check mark proved troublesome: I was asked to open all my suitcases for inspection every time I passed through a security check. As I approached one after another suspicious-looking officers, fear took in charge of my heart: the smell, so strong - would they have a dog that didn't like the smell of walnut and jujube and barked at me? The Ziploc bag, sloppy - would they mistake the scary-looking black powders as some sort of illegal drug? How should I explain the ingredients? Will they even understand me? Or what if they end up taking the powders away from me? Oh please don't discard it to random garbage where it laid some unfinished General Tso's Chicken in a box - Mom had to wait two and a half hours in the pharmacy before all the jujubes were dried and grinded and well mixed...
Thus I never could wait till the officers to ask me what those powders were. Eagerly I felt an urge to defend myself soon as they unzip my suitcase: I believed that the dangerous smell of walnut and jujube had now invaded their limbic system and stirred up gigantic waves of suspicion. Now the officer was wiping the inside of my suitcase with a piece of dusting paper testing for potential "foreign virus"; I knew the drill, and I bet you he had caught sight of the obnoxious Ziploc bag - though vaguely, didn't I just see him frowning? ...
I decided to take initiative. "You see that bag of black power underneath the big blue SAT book? Yes my mom prepared those for me. It was nuts and all sorts of things grinded into powders..." But wait! Wouldn't I be better off showing case all the ingredients?
"Sounds like a lot of nutrition! So you eat it like protein shake with nice cold milk?" The officer began zip up my suitcase.
"No... but yeah." I lied. With deep relief, I pushed forward a smile on my face. "Certainly."
He didn't even lift the SAT Official Guide, let alone pay attention my sloppy Ziploc bag of black power with the strong, bittersweet smell of walnut and jujube.