Reunions

It's been a weekend full of reunions. 

In 2008, two friends (GR - a native Chinese, and Bumbleberry - an Egyptian Canadian) and I took a monthlong trip through China, visiting universities and orphanages and house churches in Beijing (and going to the Olympics); taking an overnight train in a sleeper car across the wide expanses of country; biking and horse-back riding through the mountains and alongside rivers in Lijiang; visiting the stone forest and beaches and living the everyday everyman's life in Kunming; and visiting my dearest law-school friends in Hong Kong.  

During the week in Kunming, we stayed with GR's relatives, GuGu and GuFu, an older couple in their late sixties.  I had never experienced such hospitality, and it was awe-inspiring.  GuGu and GuFu didn't have much: they had two bedrooms in their humble apartment.  When the three of us came in, they moved out to another relative's apartment so we would have a place to stay.  And every morning, GuGu returned to the apartment and cook us breakfast.  I got up to putter around with her in the kitchen, gradually learning to comprehend her nanfang guo yu (Yunnan accent).  During the day, GR, Bumbleberry, and I hung out with LR, a college student and family friend of GR's.  Together with LR's family, we traveled to various parts of Kunming, or just hung around the neighborhood, watching chickens as they were carted around on bicycles or as large wheelbarrows full of green beans were carted by.  When we returned home, GuGu was hard at work, making homemade dumplings or noodles or some other delicious meal.  We helped out some, but the lion's share of the work was already done.  More family and friends gathered in that tiny apartment for dinner--all somehow in honor of us, their American/Canadian friends--and then we spent the rest of the evening watching the Olympics while nibbling on gigantic pomelos.

I haven't seen GuGu in five years.  But GR is getting married, AND he is graduating from Harvard with his SJD degree.  So, of course, the entire family came from China to celebrate.  We had dinner together in Chinatown on Friday.  GuGu looked more or less the same, except she's got a fancy new coif: "I permed my hair because I was coming to see all of you!" she said.  Also in tow were GR's parents, his other aunt and uncle, his brother (whom I had also met in Beijing), his best friend from high school, and of course, his fiancee.  It was so good to see all of them, some for the first time, some for the first time in years (I hadn't even seen GR since our own wedding two years ago).  At times, dinner was awkward; between the language barrier and their jet lag, plus the sheer size of the group, sometimes it felt like there wasn't much to say.  Or perhaps, there was too much to say, but not enough decompression of time to let it all out.  In either event, it felt like a family gathering, and I was reminded of how sweet friendship can be.  It doesn't have to be talkative or highly interactive; sometimes, it's sufficient to be present.

Part 2 of Reunions to follow.