About Me [and my family]

I am so bored. >.<1

Soooo, about me. 2

Birth name: Chloe C Chan
Nickname[s]: N/A
Birthday: July 30th, 1997
Age: 11
Ethnicity: Chinese/Korean American
Role: Middle child, middle schooler, going into 7th grade [I'm in the middle of everything ]3

Appearance: Let's see... I have a roundish face, with a big nose and mouth and small, dark brown eyes... sort of pale skin, compared to all the other peeps I see nowadays, but not that pale. I'm somewhere around five feet, one and a half inches tall, a bit chubby. My hair is dark brown/black, always in a ponytail, but the ponytail is really messy and poofy now, dunno why. I always wear jeans and prefer large T-shirts and things non-pink, but my mom buys stupid shirts with big brand names that I also wear. I always have on my watch, and sometimes I wear glasses. Uncharacteristically, the glasses are purple/pink. Ah, well. My palms and toes are almost always reddish, for some reason. And when it's not too hot, I'm usually wearing a large black sweatshirt with my orchestra's name on it in red and white.4

Personality: Weird. With adults, I'm occasionally joking, but usually serious and quiet. With my friends, I'm generally loud and strange and, according to them, crazy. When I'm sleepy, I feel insane. Sometimes I'll be withdrawn or mean, sometimes I'm rude, sometimes I'm really nice... usually I'm sort of neutral. It all depends on where I am, who I'm with, etc. I also have a tendency to use 'etc.' a lot, which bugged my teacher to no end. I think I have a mild case of arachnophobia; if I see a spider, I totally freak out. Haha, I know they're smaller than me and probably more afraid of me than I am of them, but still... they're just creepy. 5

Things I like to do: Sleep, eat, read, write, hang out with my friends, play catch with water balloons, walk across shallow creeks, make dams in the aforesaid shallow creeks, crack stupid jokes, exaggerate, play piano/cello FOR FUN ONLY, swim for fun, win, play with my DS if I'm REALLY bored, play with my toy horses and toy dogs and toy bird and toy Pokemon, a Torchic [The horses are called Sally, Swift, Ivy, Ebony, Ariah, Shady, Desert, Island, and Dusk, the dogs are Darwin and Grayson, the bird is Safari, and the Torchic is Typo; I always used them in games with my friend Hana, before she moved away a few years ago to Korea, but we still email each other], annoy my sister, go on slides or swings in parks, swing in the hammock in our backyard.6


- A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MY IMMEDIATE FAMILY -7


Birth name: Something Chinese which I always forget... but his American name is Eric Wai Chan.
Nickname[s]: When he was a kid, he was called 'Worm,' because he was small and skinny.
Birthday: January 9th, 1950-something - 56, I think.
Age: 53
Ethnicity: Chinese
Role: Dad
Occupation[s]: Sunday School teacher, engineer at Topcon.8

Appearance: Not tall and not short, not fat and not skinny; I think he's a bit thinner than average, though. His skin is averagely tanned, he has some stubble on his chin; his hair is a mix of black and white and gray, and is kind of short. His eyes are dark brown, and he wears glasses. Apparel varies, depending on the occasion. He doesn't mind dressing up, which is unlike me.9

Personality: It takes a lot to get him mad, but when he is mad, he is VERY mad. But usually he has a good reason for it. Sometimes he can be mean to my mom, but usually he's easygoing, kind of serious, but really nice and funny with little kids - all the kids at church love him. He's good with grownups too. My dad works really hard and is tired a lot. He's very impatient when he's driving, though.10

Things he likes to do: Read [but he doesn't have much time], spend time with his kids [mainly my little sister, because she demands the most attention], sleep. 11

A little history: He was the second youngest child, I think, of five siblings. Eldest to youngest: Something-or-other [forgot her name, we aren't in contact], Auntie Christine, Uncle Chan [he never got an American name and never told me his Chinese name], my dad, and Uncle Donald. We aren't in contact with Uncle Donald much either, but I remember it because, for some reason, it always made me think of a moose with a queue, and that is not something I see everyday. Anyhoo, he was something of a city boy, my mom says. He was also pretty poor. He doesn't say much, but there are some stories. One of them is that once, he and Uncle Chan went under the bed with firecrackers. They came out with black faces, but were unharmed. He also lost a tooth when a door slammed into him. He also says he watched the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a lot. He and his siblings would get a ticket at the movie theater and all sit on top of each other in one seat. 12


Birth name: Yu Oakhui [now she's married, Oakhui Yu Chan]
Nickname[s]: N/A
Birthday: I'm not exactly sure. She sort of has two, because of two different calendars... one is October something-or-other, the other [the one we celebrate] is December 6th. The year was 1950-something. I think 59.
Age: A lady never tells... but I'm not a lady, am I? Don't say I told, but she's fifty.
Ethnicity: Korean [SOUTH Korean - there's a difference, people!]
Role: Mom
Occupation[s]: Engineer. Or a sort of tester person. Not quite sure. Works at RKI.13

Appearance: Really short [I think], about a centimeter below five feet tall. Apparently the ladies at her work with big bums call her anorexic, which she's most definitely not. She's on the thinnish side, and is far from fat, around 100 or 105 pounds. She wears fashionable clothes. Her hair is dyed, so it's a sort of dark reddish brown/black, and recently cut short [not pixie cut short, though]. Her eyes are dark brown. She has some wrinkles and sunspots, of course, but I think she's pretty. 14

Personality: Worries a lot about her weight and fashion and stuff. Okay, she's a worrywart, period. She's impatient and easily angered, and I think she's a little hypocritical and paranoid [she never lets us go out of the house when no adults are home - says we'll be kidnapped or worse, but our neighborhood is really quiet]. I think she thinks well of herself - always talking about how good she was when she was a kid [unlike us, of course].15

Things she likes to do: Study her Bible, speak on the phone, talk to other moms about their kids and her kids [and it's annoying; we usually don't know what she's saying because she's generally speaking in Korean], yell, watch Korean dramas, drink red wine [BUT SHE'S NOT AN ALCOHOLIC, OKAY?!?!?!], eat rice and kimchi [kimchi is a Korean food... lettuce or cabbage or something, I can never tell the difference, put in this stuff so it's really spicy, almost always eaten with rice], sleep [yes, everyone in the family likes sleeping], talk about how when she knew how to cook for herself since she was six, and how she studied so hard by herself, and how she always listened to what her mother said, etc., etc.16

A little history: She's the second youngest of six siblings. I don't know the oldest brother's name [he's ten years older than her], but there's two boys and four girls - Auntie Lorie, Auntie Kim-jae [something like that - always made me think of kimchi ], Auntie So-and-so [forgot, haha], and Uncle Sam [he's the youngest]. Apparently my mom was teased for small eyes [because of that, she later got an eye surgery thing to get double lids or whatever that most Asians don't have]. She used to keep a journal and write all her feelings there, but her siblings would read it and make fun of her. Her dad was the mayor of their small village. He died when I was a few months old - she says they had to give him food directly to his stomach when he was sick - and I know two things about him: one, that he drove a motorcycle; and two, that he never raised his voice. She liked reading, but her parents didn't let her read much, so all she had was her textbooks. My mom didn't have many friends. She did really well in school, like most of her siblings. Her mom didn't give her much food because she said her brothers deserved it, and my mom also had to work really hard. She went to America later with her older sister, and she had to cook all the meals even though she was only in middle school. She took care of herself and studied hard, and eventually made some good friends [who she still talks to today]. I know that she worked at Lord's ice cream for a while [we went there once and got free ice cream! Awesome! Haha]. Her mom also said she was ugly, so she also thought she was ugly, but later she realized she wasn't really. 17


HOW MY PARENTS GOT TOGETHER:
My mom's the only one who tells this story, not my dad. So they met at their work. My dad asked my mom if he could have some of her kimchi [you should know what this is, I explained in 'Things she likes to do']. My mom says he didn't really like it, but wanted to get close to her, haha. And when my mom was going to her bike to go back home one day, it had flowers on it. These were from my dad. [My aunt, Auntie Christine, says that he'd taken the flowers from her garden, haha]. And so later they got married, when my dad was 39 and my mom was 36. JC [my brother] was born a year later. My dad used to be a Buddhist - his parents still are - but when he married my mom he took on her religion, Christianity. That's why he's a Sunday School teacher. My dad was really geeky in the wedding picture - with big square glasses and all. My mom was the same, but younger-looking, of course. Nowadays, they fight a lot - especially when one of them is driving. 18


Birth name: Jonathan Yan Chan
Nickname[s]: N/A
Birthday: March 9th, 1996
Age: 13 [but he usually forgets and says he's 12]
Ethnicity: Chinese/Korean American
Role: Oldest child, middle schooler going into 8th grade19

Appearance: Short black hair, glasses, dark brown eyes, some funny-looking, hard-to-see hairs above his upper lip. And my brother is REALLY skinny. Meaning, as skinny as my sister. And my sister is eight. She's not even chubby in the least. In fact, she's skinny for her age! So Jonathan must be, like, skeletal or something. Generally frowning.20

Personality: Evil. Computer geek. Smart-aleck. Genius. Grump. [And not like most older brothers seem to be. I'm serious. He calls me so many name - retard, fatty, lazybum, a handful of swear words, and other such profanities. He used to kick and hit us. If anything goes wrong, it's always MY fault or my sister's fault, but never his. I really, really hate him. I mean, I can make myself cry thinking of my sister dying. Yes, I do that, haha. But anyway, when I think of him dying - not a tear. Not even a frown. Not a hint of remorse.]21

Things he likes to do: Yell, scream, shout, sleep, eat meat, show off, sneer, tease, etc. But somehow he's nice to his friends. It surprises me that he has them. 22


Birth name: Sophia Ming Chan
Nickname[s]: Sophie. I almost never call her Sophia.
Birthday: June 1st, 2001
Age: 8
Ethnicity: Chinese/Korean American
Role: Baby of the family, crybaby, tone-deaf singer, whiner, etc.23

Appearance: She has dark brown eyes and a sort of round face, fair skin, and reddish lips - sort of like Snow White, but she looked more like that when she was a baby. She was the cutest baby of all, haha. Anyway, her hair is black, and recently cut short, like my mom's [they donated their hair, but I'm selfish, heh]. She's 4 feet tall and I think she's thinnish for her age, or around average; anyway, her legs are exactly the same size as JC's. 24

Personality: Annoying. Very. She acts all shy around strangers and even more annoying, like a baby. She's a complete crybaby. One time I woke up to hear her crying. "Why are you crying?" I said. "I - I" - *sniffle* "I don't know." Seriously. She says "Meanie" a lot, and is extremely immature, acting more like a four-year-old than an eight-year-old. She has serious anger problems, and a lot of temper tantrums, during which she stomps her feet, pouts, and starts to cry. She makes up 95% of the noise in the house, as my uncle said, and is a smart-aleck. Sophie often quotes from books, and says things like "I'll take up the rear!" She's an acknowledged genius, and reads the same books I do - way beyond her level. Her favorite series is the Artemis Fowl series. Figures. That's my favorite. She's such a copycat. For example, one time I said, "Can I have vanilla ice cream?" She said, "Me too!" I said, "Actually, can I have chocolate?" "Me too!" "Never mind, I want vanilla." "Me too!" She's a little spoiled. But I love her a lot.