Foreign Exchange Student. Graduate Student at Cal State, Dept
of Kinesiology. Tai Chi Instructor.
No, really!
Mikkelus' Canadian passport, stamped with a valid student visa for the US, lists his date of birth as April 1, 1974 and his birthplace as Hong Kong. He freely admits to having no recollection of what happened to his natural parents, living in a Catholic-run Hong Kong orphanage for six years until he ran away, then living as a Hong Kong street kid before the Li-Hai temple took him in as a brother. Likewise, he makes no effort to hide the reason he left Hong Kong: with the end of British rule approaching, many had looked no farther than the situation in Tibet before opting to emigrate while they still could.
Through the years he has maintained contact with the family that had hosted him when he first arrived in Vancouver. Charlie and Sara Prescott explained life in the Western world, helped him get his citizenship, then encouraged him to get his G.E.D. and apply to college. He still calls them from time to time to talk, and visits them when back in Vancouver.
On or off campus, at first glance Mikkelus seems just another student, an otherwise unremarkable looking healthy young adult human male. He moves on foot with the poise and grace of a dancer or gymnast, or zooms through the city streets on his lever powered recumbent tadpole trike. The English he speaks and the manner in which he speaks it, show a distinctively British influence. Ordinarily a calm and unhurried individual, he gives the impression of considering all the ethical implications of each new decision before giving an answer. Sometimes given to lengthy deliberation about the ethics involved in a given situation, speculation abounds as to whether this is the result of years of isolation from the real world while living and studying in the temple or from the years spent in the kitchen as a dishwasher.
Mikkelus favors simple, efficient, functional and comfortable clothing. Jeans or chinos, tee-shirts or button-down shirts, sweats, and a few sweaters in muted colors make up the bulk of his wardrobe. No designer jeans or three piece suits hang in this closet! Just as he would never be mistaken for one of the "in" crowd, none of the small collection of garments he has accumulated would ever be mistaken for fashionable, unless functional and utilitarian became fashionable .
Frequently mistaken for an
undergrad student, his youthful appearance often gets him carded despite being
over 34 years old. That he is a graduate student in the Department of
Kinesiology at Cal State and not a high school senior or college freshman
surprises people, particularly club bouncers, new faculty members, and the
students in his lab sections. Security staff at the few age-restricted events
and bouncers at clubs have been known to ask for a second or third form of ID to
verify his age, sometimes turning him away despite his credentials and the
explanation that he merely wants entry to observe synchronous motion in a social
setting (more commonly known as dance) as part of his research on the
relationship between synchronous motion in a social setting and
overall health
of the community. Whether because of his youthful appearance or the rare
opportunity to show a college boy with all those fancy words that maybe he's not
as smart as he thinks he is, he gets more than his share of scrutiny.
It's hard to say for certain whether the Sherer Touring model recumbent trike he uses as his primary means of transportation might better be termed an indulgence, a necessity. or a personal statement. On the one hand, the lever-propelled recumbent did not come cheap, representing four years of savings. On the other hand, in the city his legs can press the twenty inch levers to propel the Sherer at speeds that rival most automobiles; any rider can easily travel a hundred miles a day on such a machine. To get around in a vehicle that produces no greenhouse gasses, emits no polluting exhaust, and burns no fossil fuel seems the ethical choice for him. And, since he has never learned to drive a car or gotten his license, the other readily available options would be to take public transportation or to ask friend to drive him.