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Tuesday, March 23, 2004
solid
whenever i try to remember popo, i usually recall one specific memory, or rather period of time. it was when we were still living in scarborough (scarlem), 61 Dundalk. mom was still working at mt.sinai, ots at north american life. seiji and i stayed at home with popo during the day. ee was living with uncle david at the time. so i guess i was probably around 5 or 6? my memory includes a perspective where i can only see popo from a depressed angle i.e. i am always looking up at her. sono toki wa meccha mijikai =) she is moving around the kitchen, sometimes in her black and gold housecoat, always near the stove. when she asks us what we want to eat, we always say, "Supa meee!" and then she says ok, and makes it for us. I never knew why she called instant noodles Supa meee! the name always made the noodles sound like something superman (christopher reeves) would eat. We never got Supa meee! when mom or ots were home.
in the afternoon, popo would sit in the wicker rocking chair, which she used in the day, and then at night, ots claimed it for himself. then, seiji would clamber onto her lap, and i would usually perch on the arm, trying not to slide off. then we would wait together quietly, for mom to come through the front door, always with sunlight spilling in front of her. magic time.
popo would always get her hair permed every few months, usually in Chinatown. Kuku would drive her to this old salon that seemed like it collected old Chinese women in curlers and displayed them under big dryers. she always used a big afro pick to brush her hair back away from her face.
when my parents would fight, seiji would usually run to popo. i thought i was too old for that, and let him have her.
in the basement of 61 Dundalk, i would speak to her in Hokkein. I thought everyone in my mom`s family spoke Hokkein, thinking that they were just saying different words/phrases, which was why i couldn`t understand them. then i found out that they were actually speaking Indonesian, and it disappointed me. it was me and popo against everyone else. suddenly my baby hokkein was clearly outmatched when compared to the smooth and fast streams of indonesian pouring out of my mother and aunt`s mouths, their phonetic inventions so much more complicated and advanced. but i still regretted not learning more hokkein when later, when she was beginning her painful spiral she would cry out impassioned arias, and i had no idea what she was saying to me.
"no, gwa uda cha."
whenever i try to remember popo, i usually recall one specific memory, or rather period of time. it was when we were still living in scarborough (scarlem), 61 Dundalk. mom was still working at mt.sinai, ots at north american life. seiji and i stayed at home with popo during the day. ee was living with uncle david at the time. so i guess i was probably around 5 or 6? my memory includes a perspective where i can only see popo from a depressed angle i.e. i am always looking up at her. sono toki wa meccha mijikai =) she is moving around the kitchen, sometimes in her black and gold housecoat, always near the stove. when she asks us what we want to eat, we always say, "Supa meee!" and then she says ok, and makes it for us. I never knew why she called instant noodles Supa meee! the name always made the noodles sound like something superman (christopher reeves) would eat. We never got Supa meee! when mom or ots were home.
in the afternoon, popo would sit in the wicker rocking chair, which she used in the day, and then at night, ots claimed it for himself. then, seiji would clamber onto her lap, and i would usually perch on the arm, trying not to slide off. then we would wait together quietly, for mom to come through the front door, always with sunlight spilling in front of her. magic time.
popo would always get her hair permed every few months, usually in Chinatown. Kuku would drive her to this old salon that seemed like it collected old Chinese women in curlers and displayed them under big dryers. she always used a big afro pick to brush her hair back away from her face.
when my parents would fight, seiji would usually run to popo. i thought i was too old for that, and let him have her.
in the basement of 61 Dundalk, i would speak to her in Hokkein. I thought everyone in my mom`s family spoke Hokkein, thinking that they were just saying different words/phrases, which was why i couldn`t understand them. then i found out that they were actually speaking Indonesian, and it disappointed me. it was me and popo against everyone else. suddenly my baby hokkein was clearly outmatched when compared to the smooth and fast streams of indonesian pouring out of my mother and aunt`s mouths, their phonetic inventions so much more complicated and advanced. but i still regretted not learning more hokkein when later, when she was beginning her painful spiral she would cry out impassioned arias, and i had no idea what she was saying to me.
"no, gwa uda cha."
// posted by naomi @ 11:31 p.m. 
