Afterward Silence

4/2/2012

Spend the day like a chaffer/babysitter. While all my relatives are at work, I had the pleasure of chilling with my grandpa who met with a few friends he hasn’t seen in years; not too bad, right? Well, they all speak in Taiwanese (and another subsection called Haka) while I know next to nothing; although they don’t think I’m smart enough to completely understand so I don’t even need to eavesdrop when they talk about me. So I just sit there and wait; I could be playing games on my phone but I don’t want to seem like an arrogant asshole who doesn’t have respect for elders [cause I can’t wait for the day I get old and embarrass the shit out of my grandkids in public]. So there I sit…waiting for the inevitable doom when drags me into the conversation whereas I’m forced to participate and nod my head like I understand everything that’s going on; I mumble my answers and they hear what they want. They laugh and I smile and think to myself that I have no fucking clue if I’m laughing with them…or being laughed at. The minuets pass in agony as I talk to myself like a crazy. Once they figured out that I was a photographer, they asked me to take some candid photos of them talk, “for memories” for some shit like that. Um, that’s not candid anymore (especially if you ask me to stop taking things from that side of you and go the other way). But in the end, I guess it’s good that it makes others happy. Another thing about families/friends/Chinese in general is that we LOVE to fight over the check; this is why I love trying to pay sometimes. I’m too young for them to ‘accept’ me paying for [insert thing here] everyone older hordes me to try and get the check away. It’s like watching seagulls fight for food, but more of a scene.

I still haven’t gotten to do any exploring as no one will give me a damn key to the place. I’m about ready to backpack a few days and hole up in some shady hotel that may double as some sort of love shack. But at least I’m doing my own thing and getting a new ‘perspective’ on things; nothing like the walls shuttering with moans from next door to change my views on things. But it should be all too bad; tomorrow I’ll be able to do some landscape photography (I hope) since one of my cooler aunts will be taking me to a flower garden thing. Hopefully it isn’t all too crowded and I have a nice few workers tending the field.