Chie's Family Arrives

Posted on 2007/06/25 20:54:16 (June 2007).

[Friday 22nd June]
Today Chie's family arrived in the UK for their week-and-a-bit visit to come and meet my family.

They landed at Heathrow around 4 or 5, and both Chie and I had knocked off work a little early, so were there in time to meet them. As is often the case, getting out of the airport was a frustratingly slow process. We had a long drive ahead of us, and everyone was pretty tired already (me and Chie included). It took Chie's parents well over an hour to work their way through the labrynthe of customs and immigration, and the hire car company also seemed particularly inefficient today. I have to (somewhat begrudgingly) admit my recent experiences of hire car companies in the US really put their UK counterparts to shame.

Anyway, we got away eventually, probably it was getting on for 7 by the time we were out on the Motorway, and headed straight for South Wales. We just had one stop en route - a motorway services - never a very inspiring introduction to England.

We arrived in Abergavenny around 9:30, and had a late dinner at a sort of pub/restaurant place on the main road. Vera and Robin came to say hello while we were in there, which was jolly nice. It was a first glimpse of the potential challenges of getting two groups of people who speak entirely different languages to communicate with each other. So far, so good though - everyone more or less carried on as they normally would, whilst Chie and I translated industriously. Besides, in this sort of situation people don't tend to have such complex conversations anyway - they're hardly about to start debating Sartre having just met like this. So basically everyone just smiles and nods a lot.

After dinner we then deposited Chie's parents and Mikiko-san (a friend of the family who had come along for the ride) at a hotel just outside of Abergavenny, whilst me, Chie and Yuka (Chie's little sister) went back to stay at Robin and Vera's.

A long and complex itinerary lay ahead of us over the next few days, but tonight at least I slept well for knowing this almost military operation (of getting Chie's family to meet all of my family, spread out all over the country as they are) was at last well underway.

It must be quite "heavy" work, translating, making sure that everything is timed perfectly and that noone is misunderstood and explaining jokes and sentences that are perfectly normal for you but you soon realize that are quite hard to make in a different language/culture.... Oh wait! I have been doing that all my life!!! :D I know it's not easy, but at least it makes you sleep well! :D

Posted by Lox at 2007/06/26 08:20:19.

By the way say hello to the Moriwaki's

Posted by Lox at 2007/06/27 11:52:26.

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