My G-ma

Life abroad so far has been great and I love it here in Amsterdam, but one thing that keeps me thinking about home and stuff is definitely my Grandma. It was only recently that I realised that by moving to Amsterdam I had chosen a life which did not involve her (sounds stupid I know) but it cemented the fact that 'home' had suddenly been reduced to 2 weeks per year, and that was IF i chose to use my holidays to go home rather than to travel to other parts of the world.

There would be no more spontaneous dimsum-ing, grocery shopping, or eating, no sitting seemingly un-noticeably next to her on the old blue couch watching TVB soap operas, no painting her triangle-filed nails a magenta shade of red whenever we had a big dinner to attend, no plucking beans off her home-grown bean stalks and watching them turn from purple to green in the frying pan, no morning walks at a snails pace with her around the block, no joint exercise sessions where we flail our arms up and down at our sides to rid our bodies of gas, no nothing, maybe just a phone call here or there.

My grandma is one of the most interesting (and amusing) people I know. On my last trip home, I got to spend lots of time with her, especially on the cruise we took from Vancouver to LA where I was her personal milk-tea preparer, food advisor and gambling sidekick. Although the cruise itself was somewhat boring, she kept me amused and I learned a few things about her still.

For one, she is astonishingly unshy about being video-camera'ed or photographed. This was evidenced by my stockpile of 'her eating' photos as well as video footage of her a) taking her morning pills, b) eating beans and c) rolling around in bed during a nap. The bean-eating was especially entertaining, as she stuffed more and more into her grinding mouth, occasionally muttering that she was 'bao' (full) but still stuffing food into her mouth. It was by watching her eat, and the contents of her mouth which would somehow get pushed out to the edge before she rolled them back into her mouth for more grinding, that I realised her mouth was nothing but a machine to break down food, chewing, grinding, and sometimes sloshing with a bit of milk tea.

She is also very complacent and patient. If there's nothing going on, she can totally just sit there, with her soft hands folded on her lap above her giant belly, usually clutching her purse in the same place, and stare very innocently into space. She doesnt' ask annoying questions like 'What are we doing now?" or "Where are we?" or "Are we there yet?" She just kinda sits there.

On the cruise, we had a rare opportunity to do a lil sun tanning, and it was the first time we had ever done so together. It was fun also cuz I think my G-ma's legs see the sun maybe once every ten years, and so this was almost cause for celebration!! On our way to the deck, she informed me that her legs were the envy of every woman in China, cuz they are so straight and look beautiful in cheung-sam's, the traditional Chinese dresses, and well, look at them, pictures dont lie!!!!! :)

The best thing about my G-ma is she never tries to tell me what to do. Although she once said she would prefer that I stay in Vancouver so that we could go dimsum more often (among other reasons), she is so supportive of what I want to do and even paid for my plane ticket back to AMS. Sigh, it sure is a bummer not to be closer to her, but maybe one day, I can find a way for us to be!