When my family moved to Vancouver from Hong Kong, I was at the awkward age of 14. In addition to language barrier and social adjustment, most of my cultural shock came inevitably from high school. One thing that impressed me the most was how popular gum-chewing was (and still is). All these cool kids were hanging out by their lockers, exchanging colourful and minty gums, and engaging in a perpetual chewing contest throughout classes. You see, students in Asia would never dream of eating/chewing/drinking/whining/talking in class. You can tell how fascinated I was at these rebellious classmates; they may not…