We are back home!
It was quite a trip. I think I’ll break up Hong Kong and China entries over the next week just to pick up some highlights and not write one long draggy boring entry!
The point of my trip was to go with my dad, my brother, his wife, and other members of my father’s family to visit the cemetery where my grandfather and grandmother are buried. There is an annual holiday in China to honor your ancestors, so we paired a trip to China with a few days in Hong Kong as well. In China, we visited Ning Bo, where my grandfather is from, and Shanghai. There are no pictures from this part of the trip (during which I wore my wig) because I didn’t feel that picture-taking was appropriate. While I found a lot of stuff that happened there to be intriguing, I will save those details. I am fairly open about my life, but I know that my dad is quite private.
Actually, there are a few pictures from when we were in Shanghai at my grandmother’s house (no wig), but my cousin has them and I’m not sure if I’ll see them or not. We visited my grandma and were surprised to see her bed-ridden. I held her hand, but I don’t know if she knew who I was. It’s not that we were close. We’ve always had a language barrier and an ocean between us, but I always remember her as spunky and spry. And when she visited the states, she liked to make Boboli pizza at home and slice hot dogs on top! She also liked Rice Krispy treats, so I made them for her when she’d fly home.
The following day after we visited, she passed away. My dad is back in China and my mom flew in to meet him, but my brother and I flew home according to schedule.
I am really not a sappy, sentimental person, but, cherish your elders and visit them and talk to them, and if you speak the same language, you are lucky! Or, in a more broad sense, as Manda mentioned while we ate breakfast after she picked up Hairy and me from the airport: just remember to appreciate and cherish the people who are here and who love you.
On a lighter note, here is Bunny inside of the tree-trunk dog bed/house that Hairy bought at the Ladies Market in Mongkok/Kowloon. She has always been a burrowing dog, so we figured she might like a little house..and she does!!!!
