Cousins, Ears, and My Sister

So with my mom being one of 8 children, that means that I have a lot of cousins. Below is a photo of me with 3 of them, 2 girls in middle school and a boy who is in kindergarten. Their names continue to elude me (as with most Korean names), though the boy's English name is Paul.

While I was hanging out with my family, my uncle pointed to my ears and said something along the lines of, "unbalanced." My hair was pulled back, and so of course I immediately knew that he was talking about my asymmetrical ears (something which my doctor many years ago said I could get "fixed" if I so desired). They had definitely been a point of extreme sensitivity when I was younger, and so at first was a little offended. But then, he grabbed Paul's head, pointed to his ears and said, "Same." And much to my delight, apparently all of my cousins' ears are like that. It was the first time I could enjoy a biological defect as a stamp of belonging.

Now as a side note, my cousin, Paul, I must admit is adorable. At first he was very shy around me, like all Korean children who have to speak English to me, but he eventually warmed up. I discovered his English vocabulary is probably better than my Korean vocabulary. He wouldn't sit still for the camera, so I have many a blurry pictures of him, as seen below.

These pictures were taken the same weekend that I met my sister. The first meeting was a little hard to describe. I didn't actually get to chat with her very much. She appeared a little overwhelmed and our interactions were somewhat awkward. I asked what she thought when she found out, and her answer was "nothing." Her Korean answer is a little difficult to translate into English, but essentially my impression was that she was so surprised she didn't know what to think. I saw her occasionally wipe her eyes as she retreated from the many family members that were present to regain composer. My mom still hasn't told her husband, and I don't think she will for awhile.