Family Matters

There's one more thing I need you to know about before we enter the territory of Beijing: 

Yi-Ting and the family who loves her.

Yi-Ting has been my office-mate since I started at Penn State, and from the beginning we have had a special friendship.  We frequently joke that we are like an old married couple, and she is top of the list of persons who deserve an award for dealing with my cranky old soul.

She is one of the most selfless persons I've ever encountered (meaning, she has so much sense of Self that she is not threatened by setting herself aside for the sake of others...).

And, she is hilarious.

In my time with her family, I discovered that she comes by this honestly.

Her sister is lovely.  Quiet and peaceful.

Her entire family laughs easily, and made me feel warm and welcome despite the fact that we could not communicate.

And her mother is a riot.

















On my first morning, I was sitting quietly in the family's living room, waiting for Yi-Ting.  Her mother entered the room and said something to me, with excitement written all over her face.  She was asking me a question. I put my hands up in the air, shrugged my shoulders, and raised my eyebrows in the universal sign for "I don't know?"

She nodded, sat down next to me, and pulled out a gigantic binder.  She started leafing through, indicating that she wanted me to join her.  I noticed that the pages were in English, and appeared to be lists of song titles.  I thought "Ah! She wants to know if I want to listen to music!"  Except--she kept saying "I don't really wanna know! I don't really wanna know!"

She doesn't really want to know what?  I was perplexed.

She was clearly looking for something specific in the lists.  I sat helplessly next to her, grinning broadly whenever she looked into my face.  Suddenly, she found what she was looking for.  It turns out that I Don't Really Wanna Know is the name of a song.  With enthusiasm she jumped up from her seat and went to the tv.  She put in a dvd.  I waited expectantly for the music to arrive.

I was not, however, waiting expectantly for this:

When she pulled out the microphones, 

I suddenly had a flash of understanding. 

And so, though I have avoided karaoke my entire life, there I was.  

Singing my little heart out.

With my new best friend.

It bonded us, I'm not gonna lie.

Moments like these, the whole family's generosity to me, their immediate acceptance and love of me--all of this made it difficult to leave.  As I sat in the van in front of their home, waiting to be whisked away to the airport, there was actually a tear in my eye.  

My life is fuller having gotten to be with them.

And that, my friends, matters.