The American Grandma

Even as I've lived in the US for quite some time, this is the first time that I am living with an American Family. Interesting. As mentioned earlier(or below), they don't seem to cook much, or understand food very well, and hence the ginger incident... Talking about the ginger incident, that note that the grandma left was a classic. Too bad I didn't keep it.

So this grandma is called "Tiger"... Tiger? Yes, don't question me. Unlike a stereotypical Asian old folk, American grandpas and grandmas are more interactive and "sweet", like a little kid. When they want to say something, they will start from the very beginning, with all the details that doesn't add much to the story(but does create some what of a suspense), and like to call people "hon".

Take this as an example. This afternoon, I came back for lunch. When I entered the house, Tiger was in the basement. I went to the kitchen and heated my food in the microwave while I went into my room. I heard the grandma's footsteps as she came from the basement. I then went back down to the kitchen.

"Oh hon you are back! Oh.... you know what? I was downstairs and I heard some noise, so I came up to see what it is. Then as I came up, I didn't see you so I thought you were out, and I kept looking around and around the kitchen, then I looked up and saw the microwave timer clicking, then I saw the microwave turned on! Oh man it scared me! Since I thought you were not here I turned it off, then I realized that you may be back, so I turned it back on. Sorry hon!"

So I listened to 5 min of story telling just to know that the microwave was turned off and back on. Ok. Also, she put so much effort into the detail of the story that she mentioned the microwave TIMER before the microwave itself! How professional!

Tiger loves to write notes because she doesn't want to forget things. She always have a few pages of notes on the countertop, and devised a messaging system for the communication between us if I don't see her in person. Basically, she got a chip board with a clip, a stack of scrap papers and left it on the stairs. So when I have a message for her, I will leave it standing on the door. When she has a message for me, she will leave it on the floor. The thing is, she's hasn't followed her own rule so far.

So she loves to leave notes, and the notes she leaves are written the exact way that she speaks with, with all the details... so her notes are often a few pages long.

Here are just some recent collections:



Tiger is also very innovative. To make things easy for me, after reading pages after pages of message, she ends it with a question. Yes or no. The best part is, she even drew check boxes for me to check the answer!!!


Tiger is also very appreciative. It seems that everything I do will generate some sort of reaction. Once I reminded her of my missing sponge( I was afraid that she didn't like to see sponge on the sink and throws them away). It turned out that the landlord's wife thought it was for cleaning and used it else where. So Tiger appologized, which wasn't really necessary. The next day, she left $10 for me and a note, saying that I could have been angry blah blah blah, and gave me $10 to show her appreciation... wow, that's easy money!

The other day, I pushed the thrash bin to the curb for the next day collection. She thanked me for 5 min.... arh...!

So once I was cooking my dinner, preparing to marinate some chicken. She was there and asked me if I always cook my own meals. So I had a chat with her regarding home cooked food and what not.

The next day, I found a 2 page message... wait, it was one page with a carbon copy below it. Basically, she went about saying how nice it is that I cook my own food blah blah blah, and that my mom must be proud of me blah blah blah, and that I need to send the carbon copy of this letter to my mom!

Today, she saw me and reminded me to send it to my mom!

Mom! Here it is!



Living in the American Dream, this is probably the second best thing to getting a purple heart from Mr.President.