Visiting Grandma

My Grandma, my uncle and my cousins live together. Recently, my uncle is busy running his restaurant, my cousin is working late night shifts at the hospital. With no one to stay with Grandma, I volunteered to keep her company, at the same time, I thought this would be a great opportunity to get started on "Project 17". 

Here are some random facts that I learned from Grandma:

1. My Grandma knows the bus system better than I do. You can literally ask her any destination, and she can tell you which bus to take, which stop to get off at, right off the top of her head. I find this rather fascinating. I found out later that she takes spontaneous bus trips to different places when she is too tired of staying at home.  

2. My Grandma and Grandpa grew up together. They were childhood friends. When I asked further about my Grandpa, she would always answer with the same reply, "Your Grandpa was a good man, he didn't smoke, he didn't gamble, all he did was go fishing, it was his favorite thing in the world." She told me fondly about the time Grandpa caught a gigantic fish that weighed 16 kg with the help of his friends. The whole neighborhood rushed to see the catch. There was enough fish for every family that came. Grandpa was a generous man. When I wanted to know more about Grandpa, she would change the topic suddenly, so I guess it's something that she doesn't really want to talk about. 

3. Grandma never got to finish elementary school due to the war raging on then. I found out about this when I asked her if she wanted to read the newspaper that I brought home. She told me she was illiterate, that's why she watches the news on TV. She can speak and understand Chinese, and also Japanese. She took calligraphy and Japanese karaoke classes at the community college for the elderly. She talks to me in Chinese with Taiwanese in between. I can understand a bit of Taiwanese, but I did find it difficult to reply in Taiwanese, so I guess it would be beneficial if I could learn more of this dialect. 

4. It has to be a universal habit for Grandmas to offer food continuously. When I invited Lily over for lunch, Grandma prepared fried rice and wanton soup, which Lily later named it," The Double Main Dish Lunch". Grandma would offer dessert, drinks, and fruit after we were bloated from lunch, which we politely accepted, because one does not simply say no to offered food, especially from Grandma. I guess it was her "housewife" instincts kicking in, after cooking for many many years for her family with 5 children. 

I will try and update more about her. I secretly recorded our conversations with a recorder, which I hid in my pocket. She would reveal more about herself when she was cooking, so some of the audio files contained what I like to call it, "kitchen sounds". I promised her that I would visit her every Wednesday when school started. I think I should gradually ask her if she would let me take videos, since she is rather camera shy, I guess it's something I have to work on.