IT pays to be the son of parents who are both diplomats. My mom and dad work in the CIA as diplomatic undercover agents. Our family is hobnobbing with diplomats and spies from all over the world. It’s just like seeing the setting of all James Bond movies before your very eyes. In the event of it all, I have gone to a dozen different elementary and high schools all my life since I was born in 1978. I have also learned a dozen different languages and dialects during that period. I am not bragging. That’s simply the truth.

In 1979, as far as I can remember, I was in a city called Cagayan de Oro in the Philippines where my parents have been assigned. The most popular danceable track then was YMCA by the Village People. My parents recounted to me that I was dancing to the tune of YMCA with glee. And while I was already a year old, I was already learning a few Filipino words like mabuhay which means long live and po which means please. They said I was the apple of the eye in the suburbia that we lived there because I was the only inhabitant child with Caucasian features. Wow, I was really flattered.

But off we went to Moscow when I was about to enter nursery. It’s nice being in Moscow although I had to endure their very cold winter as far as I can remember. There was snow falling all around and it was at a later period that I had learned that the temperature back then was about up to -5 degrees Celsius. I was already shivering. It was there that I first learned how to play baseball as a nursery kid. They had advanced international schools there and I was beginning to learn a few Russian words as well from my Russian friends. It was there that I met Svetlana. I never knew back then that Svetlana would later become my wife. But it was really heartwarming in Russia.

The only thing that I hated in Moscow was that folks were lining up for grocery items. I pitied them. We were lucky because we were living in an apartment full of diplomats and their families and we were a little bit pampered. Then the Soviet Union disintegrated and my parents were assigned in Japan. It was there that I experienced my adolescent life. It was there that I experienced being flirted with a mere 14-year-old schoolgirl in Japan. They were wearing micro-mini skirts for uniforms. I find it weird in some way but then again, that’s their culture so I respect that. But the girls there were really friendly and awesome; they helped me struggle to learn a few Niponggo words. They even toured me to their Shinto shrines, at least the public part of it. Believe me, I graduated from high school there in an international school of course because I had not mastered the Japanese language yet.

The next country that I grew up with tagging along with my parents, me being their only child, was Canada. The particular province was Quebec. This is much more of a familiar environment for me because I was surrounded with Caucasians like me. But then again, I have to endure learning French because Quebec happens to be located in the French-speaking part of Canada.