So i was away for about 10 days... my parents, little brother and myself started our road trip to Winnipeg through the states last thursday and we are now home. My sister and her finance had the luxury of flying to Winnipeg but at least we have a ton of stories and a ton of "Wendy's" in us. Everytime we stopped for lunch i called Wendy's... i love their 99 cents value menu... honestly there is value in it! Anyways more importantly... my dad and i had the wonderful opportunity of driving... my poor dad had to drive most of it because i can't really stand driving more than 3 hours consecutively.
The family reunion was great: i saw my relatives (my favourite relatives are on my dad's side) Sue, Viv, Goo Ma who's now in BC, Nelson, Derick, Gordan, Aunt Cindy/Rebecca, Uncle Ken and of course my GRANDPA. I haven't seen him for 3 years so it was great to see him... and this time i can talk to him in Cantonese (Thank you HK) The only people missing were my fave cousins from BC and their wacko kids.
This reunion was massive... 64 people at the organized banquet and even more afterwards. The coolest part was finding out more about our family tree and family history. My great Grandfather had 2 wives because the first one passed away so my dad only really knew the 2nd wife and she took good care of my great grandfather according to the family. So in total there are 2 daughters (Aunt 1 and 2) and 7 Sons (Uncle 1-7) My grandpa is uncle 4... only Uncle 4 (my grandpa) and Uncle 5 are alive but Uncle 5 is in BC and his health isn't that great so he wasn't able to come. Uncle Fee aka Uncle 1, Uncle 6 and 7 passed away. Uncle 2 and 3 passed away but they lived in Trinidad and the offspring i believe are still in Trinidad. Aunt 1 and 2 have passed away and i beleive Aunt 1 is burried in China. The family is crazy massive. It was cool to get to know my distance relatives and to see how we are all related... like i said before this reunion is the biggest one of all and there was even a committee which consisted of my family (Uncle 4's kids) ... they all scrambled at the last minute before the banquet to organize everthing: there were games, a crazy slideshow, a bbq/potluck and a beach party that was eventually cancelled because so many ppl coudlnt' make it.
The week was filled with so much laughter, Nucci's Gelati, The Grand Forks Marketplace, MJ, old stories from the village, Daily Trips to Superstore, FOOD, more FOOD, golf, the driving range (i can't wait to go back to the range... now that i have my left-handed iron), bubble tea with cousins, Cora's breakfast with cousins, slurpee's (getting yelled at because we bought them right before the banquet), Baked Expectations for cake, The Winnnipeg Casino ( I won $15.10), Uncle Calvin's dvd store and getting free Jet Li Dvds, Dim sum @ Kum Koon (There are only 2 big chinese restaurants in Winnipeg one being Kum Koon and the other Marigold), cleaning grandpa's house (well i didn't, i managed to escape that), Watching "WonderFalls" all night with Sue, going to the cemetary to remember our family... too many things in 10 days
The strangest and scariest things happened on this trip... while i was at the casino my dad and eric went fishing and caught a catfish... when i got back my brother was crying because my dad cut himself trying to fillet the fish... he's alright but he claims it was the "revenge of the catfish"... he now knows he must KILL the fish before filleting it! Good Idea.
The second incident occured in the states while we were driving to Minniapolis... eric had to use the bathroom so we stopped at a rest area (note that it was about 95 outside) and as we were about to drive off the van woudlnt' start... we had to wait for AAA to come and jump start our car. We had asked a man to help us but i guess his car didn't have enough power to jump start us... we waited for 2 hours but we're grateful that we were at least at a rest area with water, a vending machine and a bathroom. The tow truck guy Mike was so nice to us... he led us to a firestone and we left teh car there... he dropped us off at a Super 8 Motel where we had free WIRELESS... thanks Gable for your laptop! I was able to notify my sister and all my friends about the incident in case we didn't come home on time. My dad was so happy because on teh way to firestone he saw "Old Country Buffet" that made his day!
Other than that scary moment it's good to be finally home... crap is that i have to work.
