Unique name. Unique life.

It’s times like these where I wish I were home to be with my family…

I feel so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends who support me. <3 Thank you.

My heart hurts…and it will for awhile. I’m hoping it will get better soon…

Please get better. <3

So I’m going to take a break from my busy schedule to relieve some stress and just think about my family for awhile. I said that I was going to write about my grandparents, so here is the first one.

Being Chinese, naming is always a big deal. Depending on which side of the family your relatives are from, it changes what you call them. Then the order of the children matter, and if your parents are older then them or not also matter. Anyway, my grandfather on my mother’s side was called Gung Gung.

I really didn’t get to see Gung Gung a lot. He lived in Hong Kong all his life, so the only times I would ever see him would be when I went there for the summers early in my life.

Gung Gung is the my only grandparent that has passed on. My memories of him are few, but the ones that I do remember are precious. My mom tells me stories about him all the time. I know that he had an arranged marriage with my grandma and was married at the age of 18. He then went to the Phillipines to work with my great-grandfather, his father, for ten years, while my grandma remained in Hong Kong.

After he came back, they soon had my mother. My grandparents subsequently had four more children, three girls, and finally a boy. My grandfather was very hardworking. He was a tailor in Hong Kong and would be at the shop six days a week. My mother tells me that he only came home on Saturday nights to see the kids and play with them. He really loved his children. I think he wanted to provide more for them, but with five kids, it was really hard.

I remember one of my first times meeting him. I was actually a bit afraid. His skin had a lot of age spots and was dry, so being six, I guess appearances really mattered. He was a gentle man that really didn’t speak too much. He had kind eyes, and every time my brother and I would visit, he would give us something of value.

Later on, he had a stroke, causing him to fall down and break his hip as well. My grandmother wasn’t able to take care of her other grandkids and him full time anymore, so he was put into an assisted living home. His mobility was greatly limited. From then on, he would be in a wheelchair.

I remember visiting him in the assisted living home. I remember wanting to cry when I saw him like that. He no longer had a any hair, and his speech was so limited. He was still my grandfather though. I still loved him, my Gung Gung.

The last time I saw him alive was at my uncle’s wedding. His son was finally getting married. They had a traditional Chinese wedding where they were to pour tea for their new in laws. He was wheeled to his “home” one final time to see his son get married.

A couple months later in May 2006, we got a call saying that he was in the hospital. He had contracted pneumonia, and he wasn’t doing so well. My mother just cried. That night I had a dream. I saw him in his wheelchair, he stood up from it and gave me a hug. He then walked away.

The next morning, we got the phone call. It was my uncle. Gung Gung had passed away during the night. My mother and my brother flew back for the funeral a week later. I was forbade to go since I had finals. However, I did fold a thousand stars and asked my mother to burn them for him. 

In 2009, I finally was able to go to grave site. It’s tucked away in the mountains of Sha Tin. I asked him for forgiveness for not coming sooner, and I was finally able to say my goodbye.

I miss you Gung Gung. I hope you are happy where you are.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I still have three grandparents that I can talk to about their childhoods, and all the hardships of life. It amazes me to hear all their different stories about growing up in a time of war and government change. It’s also crazy to hear about some of their experiences, and all the hardships and sacrifices they had to make.

Being Chinese, each grandparent has a different name, depending on which side of the family they’re from. I want to start writing what I hear, what I know about them down on here, so that one day I can look back and reread all of their experiences and memories. Maybe I’ll learn something new about myself as well. They are a source of who I am today.

I can’t believe it’s already my second day back in school. I kind of wish I had more time to relax. Anyway, as most of you know, I went to Hong Kong for spring break because it was my grandmother’s 81st birthday. Apparently it’s a really big one for the Chinese woman?

I flew out on March 6th, and ended up losing a day on the plane. I flew into Hong Kong on March 7th at about 8PM. The very first thing I did was to go eat wonton noodle soup. Food is so good there! Then my mother and I went to my grandmother’s apartment to go surprise her. She was kind of mad that we didn’t tell her we were coming, but you could tell she was really happy. :)

Over the course of the week, the thing I did the most was eat!! There is so much to eat there, at all times of the day, and so much variety!!! I loved all the desserts and random noodle bowls and other food I ate. I also went to a really fancy buffet one day and it was amazing! The best food I ate was the times that I shared with my family. We held a banquet for my grandmother, and just being able to talk to my cousins and aunts and uncles who I haven’t seen for awhile made me really happy.

My cousins are also really cool. They took me a lot of places to eat and to do things. I got to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D (which is amazing!!) and go bike riding along a beautiful river. The scenery you see there is so different that what you see here.

I also got to go shopping a lot. Though this was the first trip that I didn’t buy that much clothing. Just a lot of candy that you can’t find over here unless you want to import it yourself.

I wish I could just take everyone there!

Happy February everybody! :) I can’t believe it’s already February, and I’ve been at school for more than three weeks now. I even took my first exam today.

This past weekend was filled with fun, dances, and love. I went to Philadelphia for a workshop with Joe and Nelle, and it was amazing! Friends, new and old were there, which made it all the better. Although I had certain problems (darn allergic reaction on Saturday night) all the dances I had were wonderful and lots of fun! Thank you to all the dancers!

On Sunday, Grant, my lovely boyfriend volunteered to drive me home to see my father, who had just gotten out of the hospital the previous day. It was so great to see him and the rest of my family. It is really hard seeing him with a lot of tubes on him because he can’t quite eat whole foods yet, but he was at least self sufficient and making jokes to make me smile.

Thank you honey for giving me that opportunity! <3

Grant then drove me back to school and we got here around 3 AM.

I somehow also finished all my work that was due tomorrow.

Lady GaGa was also robbed of a Grammy. Just saying.

Sleep deprivation makes me random.