nathan chow:

thursday 4/3/08

the most awkward meal:

after the funeral, my family and relatives had lunch together. we had two tables in the restaurant, one for adults, the other for the kids.. and the undertakers decided to join the kids table.

i swear.. it was like a scene straight from a comedy movie. one undertaker was a chinese man who had a really dorky smile the whole time.. and the other two were big and serious american guys who seemed like his sidekick goons. during the first 10 minutes of the lunch, absolutely no one said anything at the table. meanwhile, all of us kids kept exchanging glances with each other, as if we were all thinking the same thing and at any time were about to crack up at how ridiculous the situation was.

my brother and i finally broke the silence by asking the chinese guy questions about chinese customs at funerals. when we ran out of questions, i asked the undertakers about their jobs and why they chose it.

tuesday 4/8/08

the most random thing:

at dinner with titi, miguel, alex o., chang, and ashley n., i was sitting at a table facing the swipe-in desk. one table separated mine from the swipe-in.. and two girls i didn’t know were sitting there. when i saw one of my friends swiping in, i waved at her.. and i guess the two girls i didn’t know thought i was flirting with them. they started giggling and whispering to each other. but i didn’t know it had anything to do with me until..

when they were leaving the dining hall, one of the girls came up to me and put a little raffle ticket on my table and said “call me.” i flipped the ticket over and saw “call me, babe! =)” with a phone number and “3rd floor!” written on it.

the friends i was sitting with were like.. wtf? minutes after the girls left, i used my friend’s cell phone to call the number. i was ready to play a joke back at the girls by pretending i was gay, but the person on the other line was a guy! i “flirted” with him and found out he also goes to BU.. so at least it wasn’t a random number. he was friends with the girls, but i couldn’t get him to tell me his name or the names of his friends.. haha.

thursday 4/10/08

the weather today was finally beautiful!

dinner with titi, giselle, giselle’s friend alex, and titi’s admissions guest sarah. i just met alex, but he remembers me from last year’s COM201 Coffeehouse Reading, where i was chosen with 3 other students out of 400 to read our memoirs as examples for students taking COM201 that semester. alex said he was able to identify with mine.

i’m so glad someone remembered my piece. one of my goals in life is to have my art – mainly my films and writing – inspire people and make a difference in the world. it doesn’t necessarily have to be featured in papers and be famous and whatnot, but as long as one person identified with it or was changed by it, i’m proud to have made it.

in the evening, we went to the GSU to watch the documentary “the price of sugar,” which is about sugar cane cutters in the dominican republic. we had a nice talk with the producer after the show.

afterwards, we went to “jamnesty” in the basement of the GSU, where i saw stephanie s., ankita, nishita, and lauren m.

later when the live band “spiritual rez” was performing, titi, sarah, lauren s., sid, and i danced together.

friday 4/11/08

i went to BU’s Campus Movie Fest finale. i was supposed to go with giselle, alex, and maria, but i wound up sitting with maria, erika, and clarissa.

we were sitting near my friend javier and his production group. they won “best drama”! congratulations, javi!

also congratulations to all my other friends who made a film, whether it made it to tonight’s top 16 or not. that would be too many to mention, but i’d like to say i really liked watching melody get chopped up in iris’s film! lol

i usually get through everything in life fine. you can throw anything at me, and either i’ll have the strength and endurance to fight it or i’ll have the attitude to not care about it. but even if i got through this week, i’ll have to admit that it was one of the roughest i’ve ever had – rough enough to leave me scarred.

i had a test monday; a paper due wednesday; a quiz wednesday; a project to prepare, film, and edit; lots of reading to catch up on; a bunch of meetings and gatherings; and my grandpa’s funeral to go to on thursday. i barely slept each night, and i had to squeeze in short naps in my little free time just to prevent my eyes from burning. having teary eyes at the funeral and standing near a pot of burning incense didn’t help much either (at chinese funerals, we burn things like play money so the dead can spend it in heaven).

to top it all off, when i was getting back into the car at the cemetery, the corner of the swinging door left a bloody scratch under my right eye. after i bowed three times to grandpa in his coffin, traditionally i wasn’t supposed to look back at the coffin. so i was opening the door while staring at the ground, and the funeral car doors were heavier and longer than i expected. the top corner scratched my face and left me an apt reminder of the battle i survived this week.

at the end of the week on friday, i fell back on my own “religions”: Kindness, Hope, and Trust. (under religious views on my facebook profile, i have “Kindness, Hope, and Trust are the world’s greatest religions.” one of my friends, a writer for the daily free press, mentioned it in her article about faith last year.)

anyway, on friday, i pointed out a dropped ipod to its owner, i helped a random prospective student and his family find directions, and i helped out a (new?) resident with her mailbox in the mailroom. i usually do stuff like that, but more than ever, this time they were nice reminders that under all the hardships and adversity, there is still meaning in this hustle and bustle we call life.

i Hope things will get better. no, i Trust they will.

my yeah-yeah (cantonese for grandfather on my father’s side) passed away last week on friday, march 28th. he lived a long and happy life (1914-2008) as an artist, painter, restaurant owner, father, husband, and grandfather.

(the photo: my grandparents with their grandkids. i’m the little rascal who wouldn’t stay in place. my brother is in checkers. the other two kids are my cousins. my sister jasmine and cousin tiffany weren’t born yet.)

yeah-yeah and i never had a long conversation with each other because of a slight language barrier (my limited chinese and his limited english), but we were still able to express ourselves with bits and pieces of chinese and english, with body language, and with touch. despite our not being close in the conventional sense, he was still one of my favorite relatives. i’ll always look up to his artistic ability, his calmness, and how he would never hurt a thing.

my mom and my sister were at his bedside in the hospital when he left this world. when he was approaching his death, my mom told him to wait for me.. and he started breathing again. i was supposed to visit him the next day, but he still left that evening =/

a few days after his death, a photo of him fell down from my desk shelf (the same picture i posted here). none of the other 50 pictures of family and friends ever fell.

yeah-yeah, thank you for everything you’ve done for the family, for your inspirational art that will continue to be passed around the world, and for just being you. we’ll miss you dearly.

- nathan