Yes, Ms. Pan

Dear Amy,
The story that I was going to tell you was about our lovely TT neighbor-小胖胖.  小胖胖's dad is American while his mom is Chinese.  Bobbie has been talking about him all the time when she saw him in the hallway, and apparently he really liked her too!

Anyways, this Friday (yes, my birthday) when I walked out of gym from my workout, I indistinctly heard someone mummbling behind my back in Chinese and the phrase sounded like "阿姨".  At that moment, I thought I must heard it wrong or that phrase is NOT referring to me whatsoever, but I was WRONG indeed.  小胖胖's dad walked up toward me and started talking to me in Chinese.  He even asked 2 years old 小胖胖 to call me "阿姨"!!!  Sigh, I guess I'm just getting old and even Americans are calling me 阿姨 now (if you know what I mean).  Nacho, on the other hand, had a different perspective.  He was telling me that since I'm 22 years older than 小胖胖 so it made perfect sense for him to call me 阿姨 instead of 姐姐. 

I talked briefly with 小胖胖's dad (in English).  He thought I just came out of boat and was surprised that I had no communication gap with him at all.  After I told him that I have been in Texas for about ten years, he was saying that no wonder my communication skill was fluent.  Anyways, 小胖胖's dad used to work for international investment banking as a project manager for about twenty years.  He told me that he is somewhat older than his wife, who is currently obtaining her MBA at IU's Kelley's School of Business.  He told me that he met his wife when he was in Purdue doing his MBA while his wife was getting a MS in American Literature.  He is very proud of his wife and told me that his wife's English is probably better than most Americans.  I have no doubt about it.  I mean as a foreigner from China, his wife has the gut to pursue American Lit. degree is certainly impressive.  He told me that his wife was also pretty competitive so she wanted to work after she graduated.  On the other hand, 小胖胖's dad is tired from twenty years of working so he and his wife agreed that he would stay at home and take care of 小胖胖.  When he was talking about their life style, you came across my mind.  I remembered while we were at UT, you were telling that this is actually the life style you preferred.  I think 小胖胖's dad must be 財力雄厚, otherwise he couldn't afford to stay at home and pay outrageous tuition for his wife's MBA degree.  He was telling me that when he was still working and 小胖胖 was still young, his wife would order those branded stuffs online at Zappos.  When he came back from work everyday, there were boxes lying around living room.  I thought that's pretty funny because I guess he probably wants his wife to work rather than stay at home, otherwise she will probably end up buying stuff everyday!

The other important point from this story is that I finally accept the brutal truth that people/children will start calling me 阿姨 now!!!