Family Drama

I just finished a 1.5 hour dinner with the family. Lots of conversation, lots of energy, and lots of family drama at this meal. It started out as per usual, with me sitting silently while they talk quickly and animatedly and I barely understand half of what they say, especially when Laure and her cousin speak to each other. or M. Beguin to Laure. After they talk rapidly for the first third of the meal, as they finish start paying more attention to their food, they calm down and talk slows down and somehow (usually with the aid of Mme. Beguin explaining something to me, or M. Beguin asking me a question during a lull in the conversation) I get integrated into the convo. At this point I can follow what's going on, and occasionally offer commentary of my own. Tonight after these first two parts and after we started dessert, the family got to the subject of Jean, the son and his girlfriend. His girlfriend, Josephine, is also his cousin. I met each of them once, together, one Sunday when I ate lunch with the family. I noticed that they seemed to be flirting and touching, but I figured it was just a close relationship between cousins. The next weekend, Mme. Beguin explained to me that they were dating, and that there are relationships that parents don't approve of, and this is one of them. Tonight she and Laure went on and on about how they disapprove of this relationship, for many reasons, but primarily because she is a cousin. At one point Mme. Beguin stopped to explain the situation to me. Josephine's father is her nephew, and thus Jean's cousin. That makes Josephine Jean's first cousin once-removed? Anyways they are still related quite closely, and apparently Jean has always been a big brother figure to her, especially since her father moved out and remarried five years ago. I'm not sure how old she is, but I heard the numbers 16 and 17 tossed around and she looks really young. Jean is 22 or 23.

Anyways, that was the family excitement of the night...I could finally follow most of their conversation, probably because it was mostly just Laure and her mother echoing the same reasons for disapproval over and over. It was quite amusing as an observer.