A Visit to Bei Gang to see Jo's Oldest Sister and Family

Jo and I made arrangements to head down to Bei Gang to see Jo's oldest sister and family over this past weekend (I will say "recently' from now on, since sometimes weeks go by between posts....). Anyway, it was fun and we had a good time, even though we only spent a few hours with them.

I remember Jo told me about her family many times and I keep needing reminders to remember all the names and such, but I am getting better. However, one person in Jo's family I won't soon forget is Pei Ying, who is Jo's oldest neice.

When we got married at the court last month, Jo had actually not told her mother yet and was planning to wait for an 'auspicious time' which really meant she was nervous about telling her and just wanted to let the fact that she was getting married to a crazy foreigner cool down, so that she could say later that the deed was done.

However, not realizing how good Pei Ying's English ability was - course I guess you can tell from the pics... - she was very curious about her youngest Aunt's situation and was very interested in our blog (she is probably reading now, right? Hi!) and found out we got married at the court. She then told her mom (Jo's sister) and then, well, you know how news like that travels....

But all is well and everyone is following the adventures of Jeff and Jo. Of course there are worries about marrying a foreigner since many of us tend to make a bad impression on many Chinese, but that is not the case with all, as Jo has mentioned many a time. Plus, being able to speak Chinese and having lived here for so long seems to ease some of the worries. Anyway, thank you Pei Ying for keeping up with us!

So we met the family, who live in a small town near Jia Yi, which is the nearest big city. It is quite laid back and cozy so the feeling was good.

Here is a pic of us - which is now my new family as well!

From left to right, Pei Ying, Jo's oldest sister, Yu Shiu (Jo's younger neice), Jo, Me, Jo's brother in law, and a good family friend. Actually, I asked all of them to crouch down a bit, so that is why I am a little taller in this picture....

Many people say that Jo and her sister do not look alike, and while a bit true, can you guess the part that is almost exactly similar? If you guessed their mouth - or more precisely - their teeth, you are right. Geez! I have never seen so many perfect mouths and teeth in all my life. Anyway, as you can tell, Jo's family (as well as mine) is very young at heart, so we smile a lot and thus look younger than we really are.

The same goes for this picture. I bet you will have a hard time guessing ages here. I know I was shocked a bit when I found out the real ages (or horoscope signs of Jo's sister's family). Anyway, I have always told Jo I will look 27 til I am 65 at least.....She jokes that she will look 24 til 90 and I sometimes believe it....

Oh, I will not attempt to list out all the titles that Chinese families use between relatives since it will easily take up 50 posts...but one thing I would like to mention: From when I first arrived in Taiwan, most people did not call me "Jeff." They called me "Jie Fu" since an "f" on the end of word is not in Chinese phonetics. In Chinese, "Jie Fu" is what you call your sister's older brother in law. Thus, when we met, to be polite, I called him "Jie Fu" and he called me "Jieffu", which was a bit funny....but you had to be there.....haha.

As you can tell, they both use crutches to walk and that is because when they were growing up, polio was still a problem and affected many families. The cure was found, but many people still became affected. That does not phase them though - she was off to a dance show that afternoon and he was busy showing us his new battery powered traction wheelchair. Cool.

Anyway, both Jo and I look forward to spending more time down there. Also, we would like to say Hi to Pei Ying! Post a comment when you can!

Jeff and Jo