Well, today is the big day! I arrived in Honolulu early yesterday morning, before he sun was even up, after a long 8 hour flight. I didn't do much the whole day as I was tired from both jetlag and just not enough sleep. We did take advantage of my super early arrival (5am!!!) to head out and see the sunrise. What beauty! I'm still a bit jetlagged now, but hopefully I'll be able to make it through the entire reception without crashing.
I have been really bad about giving information about the couples prior to the actual weddings, so I thought for today I'd at least try to do a quick bio before heading out to the wedding! Danny is actually my cousin. So today will be not just a wedding for the project, but also a family reunion. I am however, the only representative from my family. Danny grew up in Taipei but moved to the US in middle school. Both he and his brother, one year younger, adjusted quite well and were typical American teens by high school. They ended up at the same university as me, so we actually got a chance to hang out a bit during college.
Kath is Danny's college sweetheart you could say. She, like Danny, is an immigrant to the US although her path took her from Korea to Hawaii, where she grew up. She went to the "mainland" for university and has stayed in the Bay Area since, but her family is still here in Hawaii (thus the wedding on Oahu!) Both Kath and Danny are well educated and gainfully employed - ideal representatives of the American Dream for both them and their parents. Although different from Son and Trang, who are the immigrants themselves, Kath and Danny are still part of more than one world and rooted in more than one place. There have been countless times when I've sat in envy of Danny as he moves seamlessly between Chinese and English - a level of literacy that I've never been able to achieve.
The aftermath of the immigrant experience (and the experience itself) is something that I think a lot about, especially given my relationship with my parents. It's something I'll no doubt talk more about, but I'll save that for the future. For now, I have to toss that suit back on, grab my camera, and head out to the wedding. Pictures and more words soon. Mahalo!
2 comments:
just a logistical question - are you actually wearing your suit on the flights? and are you getting it cleaned every now and then?
Shhhhh! Insider's secret: I'm usually wearing the suit enroute to the airport. If the flight is long, I'll switch out of my suit while on the plane (but sometimes I get lazy, like on the 9 hour flight to Hawaii... and I don't.) But I am wearing the suit at every airport and at all the weddings. As for cleaning it... wellllllllll..... best a question left unanswered. Hehe.
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