28. Home is

My mom exclaiming to my little brother, "Your sister taught all these white people to eat hot pot!" after I told her how we celebrated the end of the semester with the staff team. Also listening to my mom tell me how stressed she was at my little brother's cross country banquet, with a Caucasian family on one side of the table and a Vietnamese family on the other. So much English!

Rewatching the first season of the old period drama Huanzhu Princess, and wishing I could sing along completely, though I still know fragments of the theme song.

當山峰沒有稜角的時候 當河水不再流　 當時間停住　日夜不分 當天地萬物　化為虛有　 我還是不能和你分手　不能和你分手 你的溫柔是我今生　最大的守候 　 當太陽不再上昇的時候　 當地球不再轉動　 當春夏秋冬　不再變換 當花草樹木　全部凋殘　 我還是不能和你分散　不能和你分散 你的笑容是我今生　最大的眷戀 讓我們紅塵作伴活得瀟瀟灑灑　 讓我們策馬奔騰　共享人世繁華　 讓我們對酒當歌  唱出心中喜悅 讓我們轟轟烈烈　把握青春年華

When the mountains fail to peak, When the rivers stop flowing, When time stops, and day and night are no different, When all things on heaven and earth disappear, I will still not be able to part with you, will not be able to part with you Your gentleness is my life’s greatest anticipation. When the sun ceases to rise, When the earth stops its rotation, When the four seasons no longer change, When all the nature has withered away, I still will not be able to part with you, will not be able to part with you Your smile is my life’s greatest attachment. Let us live this life together, live it freely and unrestrainedly Surge forward, basking in the bustling of the world Treat wine as song, singing out our heart’s delight Live grandly and spectacularly, seizing hold of our youth

Not the same translated…just not the same. Not the same rhythm and poetry and expressions.

Also wondering how many of these themes would translate into an English or British drama. What would or wouldn't pass along with the themes in family, shame, honor, suffering?

Watching the characters in the above drama as they write traditional brush calligraphy. Knowing that the brush should be vertical. Noticing the messy pages written by an uneducated character, and instinctively knowing where strokes are fat on the ends that should be thin and vice versa. Wondering if my (future) daughter would know the same. Wondering if I should be ashamed for not knowing the four-character idioms that characterize a scholar. 

I can't believe that first season was when Anthony and I were in third grade. They made a sequel (does that make it a second season?) in sixth grade...but it feels much sooner.