relative insanity

So my parents were in town this weekend for my cousin's son's wedding. That's right. The next generation is getting hitched. I'm feeling a little bit behind.I had a dragonboat tournament all Saturday so had to leave my parents to entertain themselves. When I returned in time for the wedding banquet that night, it was to discover that my parents had met one of my neighbors, discovered that she was also going to the same wedding, and that she has three eligible nephews. She was their new best friend.

So why are chinese wedding banquets so loud? I could barely hear the best man speech and other later speeches b/c the people around us just kept talking and talking. My dad was even standing around and having us pose for pictures when the father of the groom was giving his speech. sigh. I found it all.. a bit rude. But I guess most of the folks around me were there to socialize with the relatives and not pay attention to the actual bride and groom.

And why do chinese people think they can just bring extra guests just because they figure they can just squeeze them in somewhere? I had 4 tables of relatives but the table we were assigned to was completely full b/c my cousin brought a friend and then my other cousin brought her 2 kids so they took our 3 spots. Luckily, at the next table, my aunt had 3 people in her family bail so we got seats.

All in all, it was kind of nice to see all my relatives again though one of my aunts said this when she was introduced to me again: "You can't be the younger daughter - you used to be so skinny!". sigh, don't you just love family?