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Olympic cheers

I’m a global citizen, so over the years I have cheered for many countries during international sports events. I am generally not a huge fan of watching sports (I prefer to do sports myself), but it’s always fun to watch a Dutch soccer game with friends (and a lot of beer) during the World Cup.

But I’ve also watched China play with Chinese flags painted on my face, for example when I was in Seoul for the soccer World Cup in 2002. So far I have not cheered for Canada yet, but that may come soon when watching the Olympic (ice) hockey semi-finals on Friday!

The day before the Sochi Olympics opening ceremony, Scott and Elaine were allowed to were civvies (as opposed to their daily uniform) to school, in the colors of their home country. When I read that they had to choose their country I was looking forward to which country they would choose.

The kids are both Dutch, in the sense that they have a Dutch passport, speak Dutch, watch some Dutch TV programs and go to Holland about once a year. But they never lived there, so I was not sure if they would choose Holland.

The more obvious choice would be China, where they were both born and raised until they moved to Vancouver about a year ago. They are both fluent in Chinese, they still love Chinese food (we mainly ate Chinese food in Shanghai) and they have a lot of Chinese friends in Vancouver as well.

So when they had to make the choice they both said… Canada! Frankly, at first I was a bit surprised. But when I thought about it a bit more it’s actually quite logical. They have only been here a year, but for them it probably seems like their whole life. They don’t really remember their life in China anymore and all their friends are now here. They probably don’t realize that they have a Dutch passport and they also never see me wearing orange for sports events. They now sing the Canadian national anthem in school every week and learn everything about Canada, so it’s logical they feel Canadian.

Thinking about it, I am happy that they made this choice, because it shows they are developing roots here. Over the years I have seen too many expat kids who lived all over the world and don’t know where they belong anymore. At least Scott and Elaine will likely feel completely Canadian when they get older. And I will cheer for Canada with them this weekend if “we” make it to the hockey finals!

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