Strongly Worded

We Are Family

This weekend marked my first-ever visit with my three cousins on U.S. soil.

I have this tiny extended family. Three of my grandparents died when I was little; I lost my grandmother right after college. My parents have one sibling each (and my dad's brother died a few years ago). I have six cousins. That's it. Other than my nuclear family, there are only nine people on this planet to whom I have familial ties.

Also: all of these nine people live in another country. The last time I visited said country was in 2000, and there have been only a few U.S. visits since then.We email on birthdays, and my mom and aunt talk all the time, so I get all the details about the fam (I hear about everything from my cousins' marital challenges to their home appliances).

The fact that the three cousins decided to visit was a huge deal. One of them has four (!) kids and the other one has two kids, and they've never been super close as sisters. This bonding trip is not only freeing for them, but also incredibly cool for me, since we got to really talk without sippy-cup-, diaper-, or time out-related interruptions.

I was so, so excited and nervous to see them, especially since my three cousins and my mom stayed with me last night in my one-bedroom apartment. There is something about side-by-side airbeds that breeds hilarity and closeness, and we snapped tons of sassy photos. My cousins were also enthusiastic about my home and neighborhood and appreciated all kinds of things I'd never considered before. For example, at most crosswalks in my area (and I imagine in most of the U.S.) the "Walk" sign is followed by beeping and a numeric countdown that allows you to saunter across the street, or haul ass, as appropriate.

And the weirdest thing? My cousin couldn't get over the American accents. Everyone sounded, to her, like the people from American Pie. She kept laughing, and saying (over and over)" "this one time ... at band camp ..."

Posted by Dori at 8:29 PM