Over Achar

I had a wonderful weekend. Parents are here and we had a mini family gathering.

It has always been nice to have my mom's siblings and their families over, because you learn so much about their relationship with each other. Through their conversations (at any one time, there are like maybe 3 or 4 conversations going on, on different topics, everyone talking at the same time, and involved in all those topics discussed) I appreciate the fact that they are closely knitted. I thank God that they are on talking terms (more like animated :P), unlike many other Chinese families that are feuding.

4 out of 6 uncle and aunts were there (including my mom), learning how to make achar (pickled veges) from my mom. Uncle and his family were there for dinner with us. It felt like a Chinese New Year gathering of sorts, and the things that they were having discussion about were really funny. They were so animated and loud. Non-Foochows will most likely think that they were having an argument with each other.

If you can imagine a war zone where bullets and missiles are flying at every direction imaginable, the noise they make, then you can kind of expect that from their interaction with one another. They randomly talked about their children, what is happening in Sitiawan and the different people they knew from there, travelling, Chinese drama series and cooking. Really everything. It was really funny observing them. Oh, in between they'd speak Hokkien to me, and Mandarin to my other cousins.

This is family man. Can't imagine having a small family. It'd be really boring. If I don't know the language, I'd be bored as well. My mini Chinese New Year gathering. Fun.

over achar,

grace