About: mish.wsl

Name:mish.wsl
2007-12-23 08:05:49
http://www.malaysian-at-heart.blogspot.com
Profile
Nationality: Malaysian Chinese I've lived in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, South Africa and am currently residing in Perth, WA. I was born to Malaysian Chinese parents which saves me from further confusing my already confused identity. =) I turn 18 in 2009 and I, unfortunately or fortunately, do not think that my life as a TCK/CCK will come to an end just yet.

Posts by mish.wsl:

You’re from WHERE? Wow, do you have [insert rare animals here] living in your backyard??

I’m sure that people, especially from Africa and Australia may have heard this one a fair few times before.
“OMG, you’re from Africa??? Wow, do you keep a rhino in your backyard??”
Or.
“Australia! So do you see kangaroos out on the streets??”

Some of the responses my South Africa friends have given are hilarious though. :P
Person: Wow, so do you keep lions as pets??
Friend: *to brother* Omg. We forgot to lock up tigger!
Brother: O.O Oh NOOOO!
Person: Who’s tigger?
Friend: Our pet lion. I think we left her on the street!

Another response I found hilarious.
Friend: Yeah, we keep our hippo in the swimming pool, and our pet giraffe? Really helpful during autumn! Get’s all the leaves down quick…

So just wanted to know if anyone else has had any weird questions like that regarding native animals living in our backyards. :P

No, this is NOT my backyard. But if my backyard looked like this, I might have lions in it? :P

July 17, 2008 | Filed Under General Forum | 15 Comments 

Worst Places to go to?

I was reading Uncle dan’s post ‘Fun With Languages’ which kind of escalated into something else that was NOT languages.
But I got interested in the way everybody was sort of slagging off America as being the worst place to repatriate to, or to go to live in.
What I want to know is, are there any other places which we find horrible to live in/repatriate back to?

Just a thought, and perhaps a warning for others of what we can expect. :P

July 13, 2008 | Filed Under General Forum | 23 Comments 

Fitting in with the Family?

It’s normally not that hard for me to fit into most countries, and this time, when I moved to Perth, it was (or, well, should have been) somewhat easier because I have family in Perth.
What I didn’t expect was that my uncle would be a little difficult.
My cousins are Mono-cultural, and they’re a little ignorant about my family’s way of life and possibly the world around them (one cousin asked me if Robert Mugabe lived in Australia- go figure), but they accept us, and so long as we are accepted for being who we are, I’m alright with whatever’s in your head.
My uncle on the other hand, does sort of accept us, but whenever we bring up another travel story or a part of culture that we miss, he sort of gets annoyed. And we’ve had to curb on our story telling just so that we can maintain good family relations. His wife is my dad’s sister and their brother lives with them, and he told us pretty much everything, and it confuses me as to how you can be so against countries like that. Especially in a country like Australia where everything is so multi-cultural. My uncle is a British immigrant to Australia, but he is an Australian now, and I don’t mind that he was an immigrant, or that he likes Australia so much, but what bothers me is that he doesn’t like us saying nice things about other countries. And I’m not even sure how to cope with that because it’s part of my lifestyle.
Is there a way to cope with this, or has anyone ever experienced this kind of thing before?

June 10, 2008 | Filed Under General Forum | 4 Comments 

Running Away

Question time!

I’ve been wondering about this for a while, but does anyone here feel this tendency to like ‘run away’ from their problems and stuff?
Usually, I move to a different country on average once every 4 years, so whenever something bad happens, or whenever something relatively uncomfortable/unpleasant come up, I usually think ‘ah well, who cares, I’ll be leaving soon anyway’, so I just keep quiet and let thngs continue on their own path.

So yeah, does anyone feel that tendency to run away from their problems?

January 17, 2008 | Filed Under Articles | 12 Comments 

Introducing moi.

Hi there guys. My name is Michelle Wong, and I’m a Malaysian Chinese currently living in Australia. At the beginning, where the the home page asks you to log in by stating where home is right now, I have continued to put down Malaysia, mainly because I cannot bring myself to put down any other place as home.
I’m currently a month away from being 17, so that means I’m pretty close to graduating. =)
I’ve lived in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, South Africa and I currently reside in Perth, WA. I’ve made loads of friends all over the place, but unfortunately, I find that one of the hardest parts about a TCK lifestyle is maintaining friendships. Some friends stay in touch, some don’t, and the ones you thought were the closest to you just end up ditching you because of the distance.
I come from Malaysian Chinese parents, so that has saved me some confusion on my own identity.
MY TCK lifestyle has led me on a journey different from many other peoples, although I can’t say that I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. But I can say that I am now open to many things that others are not, and due to my never ending international schooling, I can safely say that I will never offend another person by ignorant. =) While I can also say, I wish that this was my last move, I believe it will not be for some time. However, this website has opened my eyes to other people a lot like me, and for that I m actually rather grateful as I thought I was part of a select few specially chosen for this crazy and sometimes tortuous ride!
All thanks go to Brice for adding me on Facebook and introducing me to this website.
Hope to get to know others, especially Malaysians, who experience the same situation on a daily basis!

December 23, 2007 | Filed Under Introduction | 17 Comments