Home Is Where the Heart Is

I had the strangest thought today. I'd suddenly felt I'd wanted to go home to Oz and blend back into the crowd again. Blend back into Oz? But don't I "blend" better here? Here in Taiwan I look just like everyone else. Asian, black eyes, black hair - Taiwanese. Yet I feel more comfortable in Oz. I feel like I belong in Oz, that I am just like everyone else there even though I obviously don't look like your typical sandy-haired, sun-kissed white Australian. How funny that what we feel inside has no reflection on the outside.

There is a term for people who look Asian on the outside but feel white on the inside: a Banana. But I am not a Banana. I was raised in Australia and naturally grew up with certain Australian outlooks and beliefs, but I am also acutely aware of my cultural background and what is entailed in that identity. Here in Taiwan, I do not feel as if I am a foreigner, confounded by the Asian way of life. Yet concurrently and possibly by default of being marinated for longer in the Australian multicultural stew, I am Australian and that is where I belong ultimately.