Wedding time!

Oct 15th was Ruth and Lei's wedding. Here's a brief synopsis of the events leading up to the big day:

Thursday
I came home after work with the intention of studying for the GRE. Key word: intention. What I really ended up doing was wrapping candies ("shee-tang" in Chinese?) with Cindy for Ruth's wedding. And yes, we did experience a small episode of sugar high after performing the much needed "quality assurance" for the products that were being wrapped. Conclusion: this is more fun than our real job!

Friday
Xueyuan was in charge of Ruth's wedding reception and I offered to help. We left work early, borrowed the office's hole puncher and this massive paper cutter to make programs for the reception... and who do we bump into at the elevator? Our boss! Yes, we ran into our boss on the one day that we're sneaking out of work early, with our hands full of lab equipment. How come we never run into him when we leave at 8:00-9:00pm!?! Mike is so nice... he did not fire us. Traffic was bad and by the time we bought all the materials and drove to Chi-Wei's house in the suburbs, it was past 7. We did not finish until close to 2 am so I spent the night at Chi-Wei's.

Saturday: Wedding day!
Rode back with Andrew and Jiali to the city but were caught up in the traffic again. I had less than 30 min to shower, dress and look presentable for Ruth's wedding.

Hsing-Wen (middle) was at the reception table, signing in the guests and receiving the presents. I stayed with her for a bit and witnessed the best wedding book signing by Ethan, the ring bearer.


He wrote an E... left a space... wrote an N... drew a hotwheel with flames (or course!)... and then there was smoke... and clouds on other people's names!! We had to stop him before he took over the entire page!




Ruth had put me in charge of getting the kids (ring bearer, flower girl, and lantern bearer) ready. A job that I cheerfully accepted. Unfortunately, the kids were not as excited for their assigned roles. Here's a picture of all three of them showing their enthusiasm by collapsing on their parents' laps!

The ceremony was beautiful and the bride looked radiant!

A few of us left the church early to help set up for the reception at the Vesper Boat House by Penn's Landing. And I still don't understand how or why, but somehow... I ended up being the MC with Frank for the night! o_O No script, no real understanding of what was going on. All I know is that Chi-Wei and Xueyuan came to the rescue and took over whenever I had to translate anything into Chinese.

All I hope is that nothing Frank and I said did any permanent damage to the newlyweds or the guests. People seemed to have fun... or where they laughing at us?

One of my most favorite parts of the wedding was of course... the babies!

Alice, 6 months old, Jie and Ralph's little angel

Allie, 1 year old, with her dad Dennis, who adores her to death and claims that she won't start dating until she turns 30 :)

MANY MANY CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HAPPY COUPLE!!!

Cultural lessons

When people ask me the rather simple question: Where are you from?
This is what goes on in my mind: You mean, where was I born? Where did I grow up? Which country is my citizenship from? Or where do I currently live? This last answer also varies depending on when the question is posed...

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in different countries and experience the uniqueness of their cultures. It does make life interesting since there's always something new to learn. Just today at work, for example, I learned that if you're a Philadelphian, you add "jimmies" (not sprinkles) to your ice cream, you eat "hoagies" (not subs) and you can't say that you're "going to the beach" on the weekend, you "go down the shore". Once you're down by the shore, you can go to the beach, but not before. Philly also has a "special" breakfast meat called "scrapple" which is made of "pig scrap parts." It was described to me as: they put in all the pig leftovers that don't even make it into the hotdogs (just don't read the ingredients!), it looks like a grey meatloaf, but you fry it and it's very good with either ketchup or syrup. It's on my to do list :)

Having a conglomeration of cultures within you also allows for some interesting anecdotes. This past weekend, I was nicknamed Mulan by some friends. My reaction was "WHAT? Why? Are you guys saying that I could pass on as a guy and fool an entire army of people? I know I'm not very girlie, but I'm not THAT bad" Apparently, they had meant it as a compliment, saying that when Asians think of Mulan, they think of someone who has strong traditional family values, who is willing to step out and sacrifice herself for what she believes. Oops... Needless to say, they were rather amused by my "westernized" view of what Mulan meant.

That's the downside of being a cultural mutt. You end up not being able to fully identify with any one group of people and often miss the subtleties that are practically common sense to those who fully grew up within a given culture. I often misinterpret and misunderstand what's going on. My most unforgettable experience involving cultural misunderstanding happened in Honduras while working with Dr. Garcia. He is 100% Honduran, and calls himself "macho catracho", which roughly translates to Honduran macho man. When we were working on a proposal for a preventive health program, he told me that instead of asking patients if they've had relatives who died of complications from arthrosclerosis, heart attack or other heart conditions, we should ask if they've "died like the chicken". I understood his point that the proposal was technically impressive but will be ineffective unless modified to fit the needs and understanding of our target group, but I thought the "chicken part" was a joke. So I laughed. When he saw that I didn't believe him, he took me to the waiting room and actually asked a patient there if any of her relatives died like the chicken. Surprisingly, she took the question seriously, thought about it for a bit, and answered no. Dr. Garcia then asked her what she understood by "death like a chicken." Her reply was "sudden death", which is exactly how people who suffer from the heart conditions in question die. It was a very eye-opening and humbling experience.

My blogs will not be complete without pictures. Although completely unrelated to the topic, here are some of my babes. Actually, I can make them relevant to the subject matter... here they are:




Bryce Kamal Davis, the American babe.

Allie Hastings, the multicultural babe: half chinese, half Philadelphian.

Evelyn Sarah Wells, the Canadian babe.

Crunch time!

My best wishes of (ehemm...) belated birthday congratulations to some very special people:


CHISA, mi queridisma amiga de la adolecencia. Muchisimas felicidades en tu compleanos! Espero que lo hayas pasado de maravilla y que cumplas muchisimos mas. Recuerdas estas fotos? Andres estaba tan pequenito... se ve que ya nos estamos poniendo viejas :P
Quiero darte las gracias por tu amistad tan linda durante todos estos anos. Te aprecio mucho y aunque no nos podemos ver tan seguido como antes, siempre te recuerdo y te deseo lo mejor. Espero que estes feliz en California y ojala que nos podamos volver a ver muy pronto!
Muchisimas felicidades amiga mia!





KURTIZZLE MILLIZZLE... The one and only person who has successfully managed to make my conscience eat me alive using an onion and a little bit of acting! (good old times). Happy belated dude! Hope you were able to enjoy your birthday even if Ron and I aren't there anymore :P Remember that you're not getting old, just wiser (ehemm... yeah... wiser, that's right...) Hope you're having fun in K-town!





MICHAEL, the best mentor, supervisor, role model and friend. Michael, my best wishes to you on your special day and always! Thank you so much for all your support and encouragement over the years. I don't know where I would be now had you not challenged me to reach higher and to believe in myself. Miss you and Sandra like crazy! Hope to see you guys again in the near future.

It's crunch time for the GRE (which btw Rachel, it's like the SATs, but for "old people"). I have about 2 more weeks before the exam, but not as much time to prepare since I have to go back to Canada to renew my work visa. Ahhh... talk about bad planning. I do have to say that I'm extremely thankful for having moved because the "Penn bookstore" (which is basically the equivalent of a Barnes and Nobles or a Chapters/Indigo) is within 5 minutes walk from my new place. I've been quite productive studying there after work. Please pray for me!