chinks from the world over

my family, last night, decided to host a dinner for our relatives who came from abroad. it always amazes me really how my large family seems to get even larger whenever i would attend dinners such as these. the new additions tonight, my dad's cousin who is visiting from greece, where she in now based with her family, and my grandama's cousin and her kid, who are visiting us from hong kong.

i have heard about this cousin of my dad's quite a number of times already but this was the first time i have ever seen her in person. i can't really say my family mingles often with the family of my lola's sister so beside some familiar faces from their side, the rest are practical strangers to me. she was wearing a black and white sun dress, her skin tanned by the greek sun. one look at her face and her small physique and i could immediately recognize familial features that most women in my family possess. the angular jaw, the beady eyes, the wide hips, the small feet, yup, she's a relative alright.

i didn't really get to chat much with her since, well, she didn't really talk to us that much either. after the brief introductions that she's the cousin and i'm the youngest son of my dad, we basically went on our separate ways and found ourselves occupied by other things more interesting. she went to adore my uncle's siberian husky and rotwieller while i was too engrossed watching UFC.

the other set of guest-relatives however were more interesting. she, was technically my lola's cousin (to what degree, i have no idea) but she's as young as my mom. her son, is a 27 year old national scholar of china, currently taking up his PhD in mathematics. she, is a reserved, soft-spoken, dotting mom. he, is an equally quiet, awkward, big boy. i think, and some of my aunts agree, that he's actually autistic, well, maybe a savant, a super genius trapped in a socially handicapped shell. he spoke very little and interacted very little through the night despite my cousins constantly trying to get him to talk. if ever they do manage to make him speak, he would limit himself to single word answers delivered in a voice as soft as that of a mouse. he followed his mom like he was her shadow and kept himself occupied by staring at people like we were walking numbers (i guess).

again, i however, lost my oppurtunity to know this side of my family better since, well, i didn't really feel like i was in the most socialble of moods. i kept myself to the people i knew and basically stayed with them until the end of the night and after everyone had left for home. it would have been nice, now that i thought about it, to have learned something new from these people but alas, the moment had already passed me. (sigh)

ON A LIGHTER, LESS REGRETFUL NOTE however.... meet my current fixation.



i swear, hacking coughs and effervescents never looked so.... adorable.