Ichiro

A group of older male teachers love talking to me about sports. This is to be expected, since I'm an expert on professional American games. (Detect the sarcasm there?) We talk about tennis a lot, which is fun because I actually do keep up with that one. They got excited when I knew who Michael Chang was, even though I thought he was Chinese (?!). When they asked me about baseball, I told them honestly that I didn't pay much attention, but that I had been to a Braves game once. Then one teacher asked me if I knew Ichiro, a Japanese man who plays for the Mariners. At the time I wasn't too informed, so I said "Ummmmmm, no." His eyes got huge, and he laughed at me and said,

"You don't know Ichiro?? You are not American!"

Well now I know, and because of that I'm significantly more American than I was before. Funny how moving half way around the world makes you more of what you were before you left. :)