Qin qi (relatives)!

Catching up is going to be hard, but it's making me realize that the past week and a half or so has been very action-packed. After going to the Forbidden City and Beihai Park, we settled in for a particularly difficult week with a midterm to look forward to on Friday. I could hardly focus on my midterm, though, because I reached and, for the first time, met my relatives!

My father's mother's older sister's daughter (complicated, I know) lives in Beijing. Very close to my dorm, actually. Her name is Xiao Yun (lit: Little Cloud), but my teacher told me I should call her "GuGu," which is an affectionate, yet respectful way to address an older, female relative. I called her on Tuesday afternoon and I was so struck by how warm she was, how she wanted to meet up with me immediately the next day. So, we planned for me to wait for her at the campus gate as soon as I was done with class and she would come by.

Sure enough, on Wednesday, she came at the arranged time -- but, better yet, she brought her son! His name is Wei. He's my age, maybe a little older and has been studying at a college in Paris. I took them both up to my room and we sat on the bed and began to talk. First, she gave me the black fan with golden calligraphy that she had told me to look for as a way of recognizing her. She started to read the characters to me, and, even though I didn't completely understand everything, I looked at her while she was talking and was overwhelmed with so many different emotions.

At first, I just looked at her face. Lined at the corners of her eyes and mouth, I could tell that she laughs and smiles a lot. Her hair was also streaked with gray and pulled back in an elegant bun. She wore relatively thick glasses through which she peered closely at the fan to make sure she could read to me every single character. Her voice is low, but not in a masculine way -- more maternal and instantly comforting. As I watched her, listened to her, and observed her, I just felt so happy. My happiness was so different from the kind of happiness I feel when I'm around my friends or teachers. I had never met this woman before and in a few minutes, I felt more at home than I have this entire trip.

I was so happy Wei came, too. He was wearing his Celtics sneakers and his Kevin Garnett t-shirt. He is a huge KG fan. We talked about basketball for the first 5 minutes. He is smart, studying business at his college and proficient in English. He kept telling his mother to slow down or that I didn't know those characters yet, perhaps slightly embarrassed by her, but also acting as any son does towards his mother. He kept trying to speak English with me -- I assume to practice -- but I was firm about only speaking Chinese. Nonetheless, if I didn't know a word, he almost always did, so that was very helpful.

After a few minutes, Xiao Yun showed me a picture of my grandmother with my uncles' families, when they came years ago. She wanted to know if my family was in the picture. We were too young at that time, so I showed her other pictures of my sisters and parents instead. It was so touching to watch her touch the screen and comment on resemblances or how lovely my sisters are.

Then, she gave me a couple of Beijing guides, read me my lesson for the next day, and started making plans to take me around Beijing when I got back from Shanghai. I was so proud that I was speaking Chinese with her, and more importantly, proud that I had connected with her and found her myself. Here was somebody who has been halfway around the world from me all my life and after one phone call, she had come and made me feel loved and taken care of. In a moment, I felt luckier than everyone else in my class to be able to jump to and explore a new branch of my family tree.

When they left, I had to immediately turn around and go have dinner with my HBA-assigned tutor. But, when I went to bed that night, I felt at ease, peaceful, and excited to get to know Xiao Yun and Wei, my family.