Back from ''Meet the Parents'', Babel style

[Independent Gal]

Ladies! Well, I''m back in North America from my trip to meet M''s folks. Thanks so much for all your suggestions about how to manage the language and cultural barriers and for what to bring. I managed to understand a little over half of what they said, and vice versa, so needless to say it was a bit... exhausting. But they are such warm, kind and welcoming people. They are WAY more formal than my peeps in certain respects, as I''d been warned, but I now know one can be warm and kind and welcoming and formal all at the same time! Who knew?

His mama kept saying (in her language) ''I''m just so happy that you''re so happy!'' and then just smiling at us and blinking back what might have been tears. Awww. Shweet.

And they made a big effort to accomodate my weird dietary restrictions, which I told them NOT to fuss about. Which is to say, they went out of their way to make me comfortable in every respect. And M''s mama was always worrying whether he was being attentive enough to me... making me walk too far in heels etc.

And M''s daddy''s kids book collection is really amazing. I love kids books too, so we connected over that.

So, great future future in laws! And future grandparents for sure. Plus, what in laws WOULDN''T be great several thousand miles away? haha

It was also very cool to see M in his natural habitat, speaking his native language. He was a little different and even more adorable.

I met several of his oldest and best friends and found them all great: funny, bright, interesting. One of them is an important and very political artist and we had amazing conversations.

So, all very promising. Hurray.

 

[bee*]

That''s great that they arent going to be monster in laws!! I think its sweet that M''s mom is always making sure that he''s attentive to you, D''s mam does the exact same. She''s always fussing over me and making sure that D is treating me well-I think its so funny as so many mammies think their sons are perfect!! Glad you had a good week

 

[NYCsparkle]

awww thats great...all that worrying for no reason.

 

[dmbfan]

Glad your trip went well. Trust me I know all about how that can be. I am glad you all went out of your way to welcome each other, that will make a world of difference in the long term.

I am also very happy for you and M and how things worked out, and how you feel about him. You might need to add your name to the LIW here very soon.

 

[Independent Gal]

Thanks everyone! It''s true we often spend a lot of time worrying about things that will never happen. Still, I''m definitely planning to improve my language skills. My goal is that I would like to be fluent enough to be able to make his parents laugh next time we visit. and they are taking English lessons.

DMBFan, in terms of the LiW list, M has already joked about how ''In a few more months, when I''m 100% sure I want to marry you...but right now I''m only 99.8% sure.'' He has also told me he''s started a ring fund ''just in case''. He claims that if I turn him down, he''ll use the money to buy a new car. Haha.

After 6 months, I feel confident that he would make a spectacular husband and father. Unusually spectacular. But I told him that I wouldn''t want to get engaged until we''d been dating for at the very least 9 months. We''re at an age where that''s not ideal, but long enough to ''know''. I also told him he couldn''t move in with me unless we were engaged. His lease is up in the fall. So we''ll probably get engaged at the end of the summer which will be shy of a year since he took me on our first date. Or else we''ll break up then. But I suspect it will be the former. We''ll just have to see.

But there are some serious issues we have to work out, particularly with work and which country to live in.

I might post about those soon. I think he and I can work these through though. I hope so!