During her second year, she lived near campus with a mathematics professor and his wife. In exchange for room and board she cleaned house, ironic, and helped prepare meals. One of the things that survive from this period is a black composition book entitled Recipe of California. As a child, I read it like a book of mysteries for clues to a life both alien and familiar. Some entries she had copied by hand; others she cut out of magazines and pasted on the page, sometimes with a picture or drawing. The margins contained her cryptic comments:‖ Saturday bridge club.‖ ―From Mary G. Do not give away.‖ 在她大学的第二年期间，她和家位于校园附近的一名数学教授一家住在一起。作为房间的交换，她打扫房间，出乎意料的，并且帮忙做饭。从这个期间幸存下来的东西其中之一是一本黑色的名为ROC的食谱。当我还是一个孩子的时候，我就将它作为一个充满奥秘的书来读，以寻找一种既熟悉又陌生的生活的线索。有一些条目她亲手抄写，其他的她从杂志上剪下来并且贴在书页上，有的时候也有相片或者绘画。页边空白都是她神秘的评论“周六桥梁俱乐部.‖ ―来自于 Mary G. 不要放弃.‖
Ironic 讽刺的，出乎意料的 margins 页边空白 cryptic 神秘的
The book holds part of the answers to why our family rituals didn’t fit the norm either of our relatives or of the larger community in which we grew up. At home, we ate in fear of the glass of spilled milk, the stray elbow on the table, the boarding house reach. At my grandparents’, we slurped our chasuke. We wore tailored dresses and black shoes with white socks; however, what we longed for were the lacy colorful dresses that other girls wore to church on Sunday. For six years, I marched to Japanese language school after my regular classes; however, we only spoke English at home. We talked too loudly and all at once, which mortified my mother, but she was always complaining about Japanese indirectness. I know that she smarted under a system in which the older son is the center of the familial universe, but at thirteen I had a fit of jealous rage over her fawning attention to our only male cousin.
这一本书部分解释了为什么我们家的习俗和我们亲戚以及我们长大的社区都不一样。在家的时候，我们吃饭时担心打翻牛奶，没有把胳膊肘放在桌子上，the boarding house reach。在我们祖父母家的时候，我们咕噜咕噜地喝chasuke.我们穿燕尾服，白袜黑鞋；然而，我们期待的是其他女孩子周日穿去参加教堂的色彩斑斓的蕾丝裙。六年间，我在我常规课程结束之后去走去上日文课，然而，我们在家只讲英语。我们讲话很大声并且一下说完，这使得我妈妈觉得受辱，但是她总是抱怨日文的不直接。我知道她在以长子为尊的系统之下觉得痛心，但是在我十三岁的时候，我对于她对我们家唯一的侄子奉承性的关注觉得生气又嫉妒。 Stray 迷路的 走失 Slurp v 咕噜咕噜地喝 Mortify v使受辱 Smart v 刺痛 Fawning 奉承的
My sister has found a photograph of our mother, a round-face and serious twelve or thirteen, dressed in a kimino and seated, on her knees, on the tatami mat. She is playing the koto, a difficult stringed instrument thought to teach girls discipline. Of course, everything Japanese was a lesson in
discipline –flower arranging, embroidery,
everything. One summer my sister and I had to take ikebana, the art of flower arrangement, at our grandfather’s school. The course was taught by Mrs. Oshima, a soft –spoken, terrifying woman, and my supplies were provided by my grandmother, whose tastes ran to the oversized. I remember most clearly is having to walk home carrying one of our creation, which, more often than not, towered above our heads. 我的姐妹找了一张我们妈妈的照片，长着一张圆脸大约是十二十三岁的年纪，穿着kimono，双膝跪在榻榻米上。她正在表演koto，一种很难得弦乐器旨在教导女孩子们规矩。当然，所有日本的东西都是关于规矩的课程—插花，刺绣，一切。在一个夏天，我的姐妹和我不得不在我们祖父的学校学习ikebana,一种插花艺术。教导这门课程的是Mrs. Oshima，一个说话很轻柔，很可怕的女人，然后我的材料是由我的品味太过头的祖父提供的。我几乎不记得课程的内容和它的原则了。我最清楚记得的是不得不带着我们创作之一——常常比我们的头都高。 Stringed 弦乐器 Embroidery 刺绣