"Aunt Michelle's returned."

Aunt Michelle had been inhabiting my room in the one year that I'd gone, living with granma. I'm not sure how she did that. Must've been a very awkward roomate relationship.

I nodded my comprehension...And proceeded to catch another 40 winks.

When I did wake up, I found Aunt Michelle in the living room, on the sofa. We talked and chatted, even though I felt a bit awkward at having to wander around with a bunch of adults in only a pair of loose pj's and a just-woke-up kind of expression on my face.

Mom had to go out for lunch with her buddies. More like a full-day outing. She left at around noon and didn't return until after me and aunt Michelle had dinner.

Lunch was chicken rice (again). We talked and chatted a lot, and I got on really comfortably with her. Apparently she'd been in Perth lately. Sweeet. We talked about Singapore in general, what I missed and stuff, but we also talked about her some. I hate when the conversation is so focused on me, it makes me feel like an attention whore.

In between we hardly interacted, I mean you know me, given the chance I curl up in my room for hours on end on the computer.

Dinnertime. Kway tiao was on the menu. Aunt Michelle bowed her head low in silence before she tucked in, which made me pause. Oh...She was a Christian. Wow. How did all the relatives on my Mom's side turn to Christianity? Surely someone must've played Evangelist in the household.

We talked again, this time about Korea, Korean, and Korean dramas. Yeah. She'd recently been to Korea and I was asking her a lot of stuff. Are there seasons there? (Yes) Is the food nice? (Yes, very) Isn't the food spicy? (Yeah, I like spicy stuff)

"The people are nice," she said. "Very polite. Deep Confucius teachings, respect your elders and all that."

"Wow," I said. "I want to go to Korea someday."

Eventually she found out the cause of my interest in Korean culture - I'd watched KDramas. And so did she. So we talked and went over the titles of some dramas we knew. After that we started talking about languages - she'd studied French and Korean before, this aunt had studied so-and-so, this and that and it was traveler's jargon in general. Which is strange because I am not a traveler. Not at all. Not yet.

I like aunt Michelle, she seems young enough for me to be comfortable around her and not disdainful and uninterested like I am around most adults. Yet at the same time she's got that adult, mature air among her, confidence and security, and if I trust her I will know I'm not trusting some unreliable teen.