02.19.07
Segundo dia do ano novo
It is a local custom that the 2nd day of the lunar new year is the day the married women visit her parents’ home. Well I did something similar today.
Mom and Dad came yesterday and today we planned to go see grandma in Auntie’s home.(Old home though, auntie remarried and moved out, leaving older uncle to take care of grandma there).
I haven’t been a great grand-daughter because as though living almost in the same city, i visit her less than once in a year. Grandma is 96 this year and looks like she still has a few years to last. When someone reaches such senility she becomes a child again.
Grandma has a very definitive taste of estheticism. She like bigger people with fair skin. In her days people starved a lot and it remains a pleasure for her to see people who are nutritiously well-supplied. Therefore , gordo is her cup of tea. She saw me and immediately asked if “the brazilian guy has come along together?” I said yes. Later she got up and re-examined Gordo from head to toe and made a comment”Not look bad, big and white.”and she even touched him to make sure he’s real. After all these she showed me a naive smile.
Grandma also likes to comment on my “fashion”. She likes my dress, likes my gold bracelet,likes my legs, like my jeans(so fashion-forward!!!), does not agree with the crack I showed on my rear when I bent down but thinks nowadays the designs must be all like that…
Grandma asked me lots of questions that I really don’t know how to answer…
The vist was short and sweet. Each time I left I felt bad about leaving her there and not coming back to see her often enough,but each time when I turned my head away I become so immersed in my own life I’d compleately forget about her existence.
After that we went for lunch at a restaurant which my cousin has a partnership in. He had a super cute baby girl but when I tried to hold her I really had no idea how to handle a soft bundle like that.
In the afternoon we drove to Antie and new hubby’s home. Nice yard. (Great place for barbeque!) Quiet, clean, old but neat. Looks like naughty autie has found another great hubby!
Then we drove again to visit my cousin’s newly-purchased apt where my other antie(this time mom’s sister) is visiting. Cousin has a master’s degree in German language and works in immigration. They served tea and I drank a lot.
To sum up, the whole day was about relative-visiting. Everybody talked a lot and my hometown dialect does not exactly sound delicate or exquisite, so by the end of the day I was physically so dizzy from the noise.
After dropping everyone off at grandma’s, me and Gordo drove back. Gordo’s ex-colleague had made some cheese bum and had invited us to go. We live in the same condo.
Their apt is just great. It has a great view, and the inside is decorated with taste. The light bossa-nova they were playing in the cd gives a vacation feel. We had flower-and-friut tea and the cheese bum. My eyes were busying registering every pretty item I saw in the apt.
Such is the day. The second day of the lunar new year. I’m still dizzy as I’m writing this, but getting together with relatives once in a while is great.
P.S. Today I am under-dressed. So cool, so cool:(
