Bring Me Chocolate, Call Me Son

I’m not sure if future mother-in-laws go to a special day-camp for training on how to impress their future son-in-laws, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Maggie mom just arrived from Dalian on a 23+ hour train ride. Rather than bring things she may need to make her stay more comfortable, she instead brought me chocolate and Maggie breakfast porridge. You can tell whom she loves more. 😉

Her mom will be visiting for the holiday, and as I can’t say much to her in Chinese and she can say absolutely nothing to me in English, it should make for an interesting few days.

Currently both her and her daughter are taking mid-day naps. Mom because of a long and mostly sleepless train journey, and Maggie from the pressures of having her mom here all week (I assume… because really, she’s not the most go-go-go person I know).

I’ve recently set up Lost Laowai’s blog, and as such I will be splitting my time/posts between these two blogs. The focuses of the two blogs are slightly different, but as they’re both about China and observations thereof, there may be a bit of overlap. The cool part about the Lost Laowai blog is that it’s not just me. I’ve designed it to be a collaborative effort among a few friends/fellow bloggers.

It’s JUST started, so there’s not a lot in the way of posts yet and likely still much to tweak, but check it out and give us some feedback in the comments.

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4 Responses

  1. Mothers in laws are interesting people. I sort of have two. Having just spent a week with one of them (your mom), I can tell you they’re okay! I’ve had my other one with me for several weeks on end and survived relatively unscathed. The only advise I have is to remember that you both share a common love 🙂 Good luck! I can’t even imagine what it would be like to not speak the same language!

  2. I’ve known my wife’s parents for almost 7 years and I can probably count on two hands how many times I’ve actually been able to get my father in-law to understand something I’m trying to say. They speak and understand very little English and I speak even less Chinese (which is one reason I’m trying to learn to speak more Mandarin Chinese).

    What we usually end up doing is using my wife as a two-way translator. Comes in handy, but it’s tough to carry on an argument with her filtering out the comments. Probably a good thing in the long run, but frustrating when you want to get your point across.

    Best of luck to you! The only advice I can give is learn and know the common Chinese insults and cuss words. At least you’ll know if she is saying something bad about/to you.

  3. @Thea: “relatively unscathed”… I’ve heard horror stories about the woman, but then… consider the source 😉

    @Shaun: Haha… well, it’s day 6 and through a solid day together in Shanghai I’ve managed to get her to follow the basics of what I’m trying to communicate. Trouble is, my fiancee is a LAZY translator… I really don’t trust her to convey anything I’m trying to say. 🙂

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