I'm afraid Cantonese could be a dying language. We're here in Flushing, Queens hanging around in the middle of Chinatown, but we'd might as well be somewhere in China. I mean the place feels like any other Chinatown... crowded, bustling, the smell of fish, and the sound of someone hacking up a loogie. Pretty normal. What's peculiar to me is that everyone's speaking Mandarin. Shi-shee-sher-shi-sher. How do you say "WTF?" in Guo Yu [Mandarin]? It's a bit alienating actually. Not being able to communicate here is a foreign concept to me, as if we're in China and not China-town. Maybe there are a lot of Taiwanese here, or maybe it's the FOBs from the mainland. Whatever it is, we need to put the village back in Chinatown. Where the hell is Cindy when you need her?
Anyhoo, other than the psuedo language barrier, the tong yun fau [Chinatown] here is pretty big. Bigger than in most cities... and Flushing is just kinda like a suburb really. I guess in the past 20 years or so, there's been an influx of Chinese people moving into the area... kinda like moving from SF Chinatown to the Richmond and Clement Street. You can still see remnants of the old neighborhood before Chinatown took over, like an old church next to the boba shop and an antiquated Macy's that now seems oddly out of place. I bet the white people were asking the same question... how do you say "WTF?" in Guo Yu?
So, my cousin is terrible with giving directions. We're on our way to his house for dinner and we just got on the #65 bus from Chinatown. We're carrying a bunch of groceries from the HK Supermarket and it's heavy. He tells us to look for the Walgreens on 73rd... we can't miss it and that's where we should get off. Ok. The bus zooms by 70th. We're on 71st... 72nd... no Walgreens in sight. 
73nd... Hmm, not a good sign. Luckily, we see his wife hailing down the bus and we come screeching to a halt. What a lifesaver. Being lost in Queens isn't quite our idea of a good time. Though, seeing my 90-year old uncle and having a nice dinner and great conversation with my cousins most definitely is. The steak isn't bad either. Random Stuff:
Au Bon Pain... we love this place. It's a chain, but it's not on the West Coast, so it might as well be a gourmet restaurant for us. It's kinda like Briazz in SF, serving up quick eats of freshly made salads, sandwiches, soups, and hella yummy baked goods. Unfortunately (or fortunately), they've been labeling everything with the number of calories next to it. Our favorites, the sweet cheese danish and the creme de fleur contain 380 and 490 calories, respectively. Not exactly health food, but so worth it.- Staying at the Midtown Courtyard is nice.
My Cousin and His "GF"
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