At some time near the end of the school year in 2008, I woke up for the usual boring day at Shangwai Elementary School. The only thing that seemed exciting was that mom was coming from the USA to visit me. I had lived with my mom and grandparents for as long as I could remember. At the beginning of first grade, though, my mom went to the USA to visit my dad. Now she was coming back and I couldn’t wait to see her again. The usually long and boring day passed unusually fast and I was soon home again and being welcomed by my mom and grandparents. Also, surprisingly, the homework seemed to have lessened and I was finished just before dinner.
As we sat down for the delicious dinner of meat and carrot stew, spinach & fish ball soup, and baked chicken, we started chatting about life in America and China. “I forgot to tell you, I covered most of our yard with cement because it took too much water and time to take care of the lawn,” mom said to grandpa and grandma. Then slowly, the subject changed, and soon, they were all talking about me. I really hated when they talked about me because my performance at school was not always as good as they expected. Usually in these moment I never brought my ear to the table, only my mouth to enjoy the food.
“Look at Justin,”mom said in a casual, almost joking tone, “he’s gained almost 10 pounds since the last time I saw him.” The adults turned to me, making me nervous, but I did not stop eating. Mom took a long intake of breath and said, “Okay, Justin. Don’t freak out when I tell you.” I nodded dumbly, and still keeping my mouth busy. Again, my mom took a deep breath and said, “We’re going to the USA. Together.”
“Uh? What did you say?” I was astonished and confused! My ear usually did not work properly at dinner. USA? I couldn’t believe it! I never thought I would go to the USA to study because I grew up here in China. I spoke Chinese! What could I do there? Wait a minute. I started to feel happy because I could leave this boring school and go to a more interesting one in the USA, as mom had described it before. “Am I really gooooooing to USA?” I swallowed a huge mouthful of meat stew and seriously asked mom. “For vacation only or school?” “What about Grandpa and Grandma? Are they going to the US with us?” “When are we going?” I asked question after question, because there were so many uncertainties from this surprising decision.
Mom started to explain her plans to everyone, but I was already starting to recall those fun rides in Disneyland and Universal Studios, and of course, visiting the beaches when I went there for vacation last summer. And I also had left a skateboard in the garage that I could ride on again!
When I thought about these fun activities I had done before, I didn’t know that I was drooling and my mom snapped me back to reality. “Don’t you think about playing too early, because you’ll need to get good grades on report cards and the star test to earn the privilege to go to those parks.” Oh yeah, now I had to figure out how to survive in that new place. Too bad. Then I fainted (Just kidding).**
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