Same same different

I had lunch with my school mates today and within the first five minutes of the conversation I realized how I didn't share the same thoughts, ideas and character.

For instance, both of them claim to have some sort of female problems where it makes then hormonally imbalanced. Since I'm quite alright when it comes to that time of the month, I asked what happens when they're hormonally imbalanced...

They in turn looked at me seriously and rattled on about the typical hormonal symptoms of a woman going thru her menstrual cycle. But the way they were talking about it, the expressions, the earnesty in their voices... I couldn't tell if they were misinformed or if they really were going through some hormonal trouble.

Then one of them started to tell us about how she met her new boyfriend. She said she was skeptical at first, so we asked her why? Regular question, no?

"Because I didn't want to date a whitey,"

I stared at her.

Our other friend nodded sympathetically.

So I asked gently (seeing that this seemed a bit of a sensitive thing to her) "Why don't you want to date a Caucasian?"

"Oh there are just too many differences. We don't speak the same language, we don't share the same culture... It's just different. It's just a lot of work. You wouldn't know..."

This is a woman who is one day older than me and we've been friends since primary school. Yet she didn't seem to know that I dated an American for seven years.

"Oh.... So you've always wanted to settle down with a nice Chinese man?" I asked.

She nodded. Apparently it took the poor dude about two months of courtship to convince her that it's okay to date a white guy. Hats off to you, mate!

I kept quiet while the two of them rambled on about how cultural differences can create strains on a relationship and a few other trivial things.

I must say I was quite taken back by that two hours I spent with them.

I thought we lived in a glocal (portmanteau: global + local) world that every one of us were educated (one has a Masters Degree, works with a major oil company and earns a five-figure salary while the other has two degrees).

A world where every one of us had access to plenty of information.

A world where every one of us was aware and embraced the many colors of different cultures.

Unfortunately I was proven very wrong by people close to me.

I need to do a re-check.