I've always felt really blessed for having such a big extended family. I suppose that's one of the benefits of having a lot of siblings, you end up having a big extended family all up in your business (my siblings better have a lot of kids when they get old).
Since I've stopped going to church on Sundays in the beginning of this year (no, this was not a new years solution) I haven't seen my extended family in a while. My entire family goes to one church - aunts, cousins, grandparents, great aunts and uncles etc. - so Sundays always felt like a big family get together.
Anyway, so during my weekly dinner date with my grandparents tonight, my aunts and uncles happened to be there, and since I haven't seen them in a while, I was surprised that they were all up to date with my business. Upon reflection, I think it might be my mom who's spreading the gossip. Le sigh, and just when I thought I could trust my mom with details about my life.
For some reason, and I highly suspect that it's because I'm the oldest of the oldest, my family is very curious about my love life. I mean, you'd think that Annabelle and Vinay would be a hotter topic, but no, every time I see them a more absurd version of my invisible boyfriend pops up.
I've blogged about this before, and so far the ridiculous, absurd details of the invisible boyfriend that my entire family is convinced that I am dating is:
1) That his name is Yunchi
2) That he's Chinese
3) That he's very rich
But today I learned a new detail about my invisible boyfriend: that he speaks Cantonese. This came up during dinner, and I swear it took every ounce of self control not to burst out laughing.
Uncle: Ann-Ann, I heard your boyfriend is Cantonese.
Great Aunt (who's still visiting from the Philippines): Really? Say something in Cantonese.
Me: *trying to recollect Amy Tang's various phone conversations with her dad* Uh ...
After denying it again and again, they were somewhat convinced that perhaps my invisible boyfriend truly is invisible, so invisible that he doesn't exist. The conversation continued:
Grandma: When you go to Korea, make sure you find a nice Korean boy.
Great Aunt: No no, don't marry a Korean, he'll make you his slave.
Uncle: Go to Philippines and find a nice Filipino boy.
Aunt: You mean, find a nice Chinese-Filipino boy.
Great Aunt: Ahhh yeah, those are the best.
Uncles: *Gives each other mid-air high fives*
Good gravy. And the reason they've mentioned my going to Korea is because the other day, I mentioned to my mom that I was interested in going to Korea after I graduate. She ended up lecturing me about the dangers of traveling to a foreign country by myself and flat out refused, so I thought that was the end of that. But apparently, behind my back, she's been telling my relatives that I AM going there, like it was written already written in stone or something.
In a way, some good things came out of my mom's white lie to them, I've learned just to what extent my family will go through to be with me. Hypothetically, if I ever went to Korea, it would only be for one year, but my family made it sound like I was going to be there for the rest of my life. My grandparents started lamenting and insisted on coming with me, while everyone else started making vacation plans to visit me in the summer.
How cute, I really do feel odd sense of smothered love.
I accidentally hugged my aunt tonight (my family doesn't hug) and she was super surprised. I eased the awkwardness by talking about not eating meat.
Oh and speaking of not eating meat, lent is over! I can eat meat again, although I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be eating it regularly. Lent was an interesting experience: I learned to experimentally cook and I've noticed that my skin has gotten clearer, plus the fat roll on my stomach slightly disappeared. Hoorah. Lent was pretty much pain free for me, it was only hard in the beginning when I was tempted by all the chicken Matt keeps bringing home from work.
Ending this post with a random, trivial, unimportant fact: family dinners are very confusing sometimes. Since we're Chinese-Filipino everyone converses in three languages all at once, it's always a random mix of Fukien/Tagalog/English, but if the old old old generation is there, they throw in Mandarin to the mix. I just nod and say yes.
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because Yunchi speaks Cantonese, you magically speak Cantonese too? lol!
You just made my day with this post...thanks Ann! Did Matt come up with Yunichi? Haha..
Yeah! Matt came up with Yunchi! Matt's a big liar.
you have to let me know when you bite into meat again,lol i want a detailed report on texture, tastes and smell!lol jk, but i am really curious hehe
OH, I ate a pork dumpling last night! lol! I wasn't very satisfactory!