Iain Rommel: Communism and Combat Boots

Allow me to start my second blog by saying that I just returned from picking fresh mangos. Not at a farm, but from the trees that are right outside my dorm. How cool is that? I have grown a lot over the past few months, a whole inch and a half. Not in height, but girth. I think it is from all the affordable beer. Fun fact! TsingTao beer imports their barley from Canada! Cheers. I might be drinking one right now…

 

I want to write about the American Dream. I feel we share this with our neighbors to the south. We have everything on the West Coast of Canada. The ocean. The mountains. Snow in the winter. Beach weather in the summer. We have career opportunities. We have a government that fears its people and not a society that fears its government. We have education that is available to every single one of us if we want it.  We have craft breweries that make killer IPAs (shout out to Jason, Kevin, and Gary at Driftwood Brewery.) And that is where the dream part comes in. We really have no reason to leave. If we work hard, we can set ourselves up to have a wonderful life on the West Coast of Canada.

 

However, the Chinese Dream is vastly different. It is about leaving China. Leaving China to make a better life for yourself somewhere else. My dear friend Angel is already planning her escape to UBC for her graduate studies. My neighbor Reco is planning his immigration to Australia and last night I met a gentleman who invited me into his home for dinner to help his daughter plan her graduate studies in Canada. To me, this is heart breaking. My Chinese counterparts dream of the life that we have, the life that I have taken for granted and that most of us probably have.

 

I suppose the point of this is to say, stop and smell the roses. Slow down. Enjoy life. We only have one, but it’s damn good.

 

Because what do the kids say? Carpe diem?

 

 

Iain is a third year Bachelor of Business Administration student studying abroad at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.