Saturday, September 25, 2004
Arching back and forth
I finally made a call home in slightly over a month. My father answered the call after nearly 20 secs of incessant ringing. Somethings never change: the peeps in my family take forever to crawl their way to one of two phones. The conversation went something like this:Me: Hello I'm Xiaohui.
Dad: Huh? Oh wait ah. [then shouts in the background to an imaginary me 'Xiaohui ah!'before realising that I wasn't at home anymore. He returns to the phone]
Dad: Erm Xiaohui is not at home.
Me: I am Xiaohui. It's Xiaohui here.
Pause
Dad: Oh! Xiaohui ah! Aiyoh so long never hear your voice already, cannot recognise it. [Nervous chuckle] Hmmm you want to talk to mama?
Me: Okay.
Mum: Papa qi sin [cantonese for crazy] one. Don't know what he's doing. So how are you?
Well, I'm fine of course. This is wonderful, your father forgetting how you sound like because you're too lazy and irresponsible to call home regularly. My friend and her mum laughed at me because prior to this embarrassing start to a call home, I was clueless as to how to use the calling card. I made a simple set of instructions seem particularly complicated and incomprehensible. I really quite am the limit.
Called a close friend after 20 minutes of chatting to my sis. Uni life for her is, apparently, quite a tiring mess too. All the readings, weekend excursions to the library and dodgy faculty mates... well encountering dodgy faculty mates seem to be an ongoing intercontinental phenomenon. To all my friends having difficulties meeting potentially good friends in your faculties: you're not alone. To all those who've met one or two good one: you're fortunate, you asses! To all those who've managed to gather a neat tight circle: you're either Potter discovering Hogwarts or Alice in Wonderland. Only time will tell.
Out of sight out of mind. I'm pretty sure some peeps back home have forgotten I ever left for Oz. I'm not bitter about this because it is inevitable. After all some peeps back home have clean slipped off my mind. In the midst of this new life I'm leading, I still find myself yearning for some familiar things from back home.
Be my Cheshire cat, darling.
lux at 1:29 pm