An Empire State of Mind (Pt. 3)

The people are what makes home a home, no?

I wasn't planning on going back to New York at all this school year, but my waipo (外婆) passed away at the age of 100, and I thought it'd be best to be there for my mom and the rest of the family. According to Chinese custom, any death over the age of 80 is considered a "xi zang" (喜葬), meaning that it should be a celebration of that person's longevity and accomplishments. We weren't allowed to wear black (I wore dark purple because I really couldn't wrap my head around it, but my mom wore yellow).

My waipo was from Nanchang, Jiangxi. She was uneducated yet wickedly intelligent, escaped China during the Civil War, brought up 6 children, and lived in the United States for over 30 years. My waipo did what she thought was best for herself and her family. She was very good to me and I have nothing but fond memories of her, but was far from a perfect woman. This experience taught me that people's merits are illustrated most clearly at their passing.

My cousin Scott, his wife Laura, and one of their daughters, Megan.

My mom and her three sisters.

Me and my brother. :)

Next stop: my wonderful and artistic yeye (爺爺) and nainai (奶奶)! They're simply my most favorite people in the entire world... it was so nice being able to drop in on them. :) I love them into itty bitty bits!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I look like a mess! I'm going to look so ugly!"

"It's fine! Look at yeye, you can't look worse than him." (seriously.)

My grandmother used to work mostly with watercolor, but she's been doing a lot of oil paintings recently. This is her homework project... painting rabbits for the new year. There's some major western-chinese style (con)fusion going on here, hahaha.

My grandfather doing his thang.

I was also very lucky to be able to meet up with a few of my best friends while in New York. Katherine, Vicki, Chris, Alice, Fred... thanks for dealing with my crazy schedule! :D

New York is always a total whirlwind because it's hard to be able to catch up with everyone that you care about, and then even if you manage to accomplish that, it always feels like once is not enough! I always have to ration my time so carefully such that being back is never a relaxed affair, but since I probably won't be moving back anywhere in the near future, this is the mode of operation going forth. Eventually New York will probably seem less and less of a home, but there's always a reason to make a pilgrimage so long as the people that I care about are still there.

But you know, you guys could also come visit me too...! All right, Nanjing isn't the pimpest place, but one day you can chill with me on my yacht and we can go catch badass fish like marlin and tuna... :) And then we can have our on-board sushi chef prepare maguro and otoro on the spot! ONE DAY!!!! *shakes fist at the skies*