Chinese New Year

I just got off the phone with my 92 year old grandma; she was showering me with wishes for prosperity and babies, although not in that order of priority. I love how she always calls Kendrick "what's-his-name". She doesn't do it on purpose, it's just that she seems to not have the capacity to remember his English nor his Chinese name. The literal translation of what she calls him would actually be, "that boy". However, this has not hampered the relationship between my grandmother and Kendrick one iota. She's approved of Kendrick ever since he gave her a ride in his luxurious *cough* black Mazda Protege5. They can't understand each other so they never have disagreements. Every time they see each other it's a happy occasion, usually involving chinese food. And of course, Kendrick can never have too many admirers.

I spent some time with Grandma over Christmas, and I showed her some pictures of Denmark. She was extremely impressed and thought it was absolutely beautiful. She has the vaguest notion of where Denmark is. The only place she knows in Europe is England. So I tried to tell her more about Europe. My parents had all their Euro trip pictures and I showed her all our shots of Paris and Venice. She pointed at St. Mark's Cathedral and declared that it was a lovely apartment.

Her primary concern, though, was life for me in Denmark. She asked me many questions about the cost of living, my workplace and my career, and how people treated us. She was seriously impressed when I told her that my company supplied free breakfast and free buffet lunches. So impressed that she thought aloud that I would never come back to Canada since the standard of living was so good in Denmark!