grandma

Grandma called this afternoon, after a day of drowsily wobbling around school and a deep nap on the car ride home.

You see, grandma calls a lot, but she always chats with my mom in that sing-song Shandong Chinese, and since I can barely speak..well, my mom takes up that time.

But today, my mom still wasn't back from work and I picked up, surprised to hear her voice on the other end--a voice I haven't heard in two and a half years.

It's interesting, how with my limited comprehension of understanding of spoken Chinese and my (humongous) vocabulary of about five phrases to respond with, that we kept a good three minute conversation.

She held most of the conversation, obviously, ranging from how handsome I've grown from the pictures she's recently received (through her newly founded email account) to something about my girlfriend (though I only recognized the word "girlfriend" and the rest was beyond me..who knows what she said--it sounded enthusiastic, at least?) to how if I never needed anything, ever, that I can ask her for it.

And that's when I remembered what it's like to have close, loving family. It's nice to know there's more than just one (my mom) out there, even if they're five thousand miles away.

And who knew that, even with a sizable language barrier, it'd put a beaming smile on my face.