谷家

I've really been enjoying my stay in Changsha quite a bit. I was nervous as hell on the flight over here from Nanjing; although it was only an hour flight it felt substantially longer. Then I wandered around the arrivals gate looking for people who would recognize me as the only foreign person in there and eventually up walked three people all with eyes set on me and I knew. It was RenZhi (任芝） and his girlfriend and RenXiang (任祥), we introduced ourselves and quickly went out to the car that my other cousin RenGuang （任光）was driving. I quickly got over my nervousness in the car as we drove back to their apartment, driving over the big Xiang Jiang river with a nice view of the city on both sides. Since I have arrived they have been very hospitable towards me, eager to provide me with food, sight-seeing opportunities, and even a hotel room since their apartment is too small to fit everyone. RenGuang lives with his wife, 2-yr old daughter, and his mother (late uncle's wife) in that apartment and he works in an office involved with Changsha city governent. The other two cousins who showed up came from Shenzhen where they work in 外贸 foreign trade involving a product that helps people to quit smoking. They took an 8-hr train ride to get here. Two other cousins live in Leiyang, my father's own hometown, but were too busy to make it to Changsha this weekend.
They've busted out tons of photos of when my grandfather, aunt WenLing (She pulled the trigger?!) and WenQi (UNCLE JIM!) came to visit them many years ago. They have pictures our grandfather sent them over the years and they seem to hold him in high regard. Ironically enough, he even sent my cousins here in China those family reunion t-shirts from 1995 that has every single Ku family member's signature except for theirs. And my cousins had pictures of themselves wearing those shirts on a different occasions in China. Tonight I was given a copy of the family tree book our grandfather had had bound way back when. I saw it once before when I was younger bc my dad has a copy, but now I have my own.
Yesterday I went with a few of them to Hunan University (our grandfather's 母校) as well as the small mountain that hugs it. We hiked up the mountain and came back after dark. It was such a peaceful and relaxing place, with nice autumn colors and not too many people. It's been interesting spending time with them. Sometimes there are long moments of silence bc I can't really think of things to say when my language capabilities are so limited and I barely know them to begin with. When they speak with each other it is almost entirely conducted in the Leiyang dialect of which I understand essentially nothing. The brothers translate their mother's words into Mandarin for me since she does not speak standard Mandarin. Sometimes I don't understand their standard Mandarin either and I either make a guess as to what they are saying based on context or I just pretend I understand and later probably ask a question that they've already explained the answer to. In this sense, my lack of listening comprehension ability as well as proper grammar when I try to speak sometimes makes me feel really embarrassed, but they know I've only been studying a little over a year. Sometimes I have an easier time than others... I think my language capabilities are actually quite dependent on things like the weather, the time of day, how hungry/full I am, how tired/awake I am... so my ability seems to fluctuate.
All in all though, I've had a great time here so far. My cousins have been incredibly warm and welcoming. RenZhi is very friendly and amiable, RenXiang quiet and sweet, and RenGuang talkative and buddy-like. As for mistakes or other discrepencies in my Mandarin oral-audio skills, I can only really learn from those. Our family here seems quite happy in spite of the unfortunate circumstances their father (my uncle) was left in during the Cultural Revolution when the rest of the family went to Taiwan. But I mean, they are Ku's after all, of course they're going to prevail in the face of hardships.