A Very Long Weekend
This past weekend Dana's sister Deane got married. Mental note: don't pick such a crazy busy weekend to try and visit friends. Because Deane's husband Avin is Indian it was a very long weekend since Indian weddings typically last 4 days.
After I arrived at Dana and Andy's Friday night I dropped off my stuff and left to join them at the Sangeet - I hope that's how it spelled. Basically what happened was a talent show in honor of the bride and groom. There was plenty of food and plenty of dancing to be had. By the time we got home it felt like we had already been to a wedding.
We spent most of Saturday decorating the church for the Canadian/Christian wedding ceremony. That was par for the course with a standing reception afterwards. Again more food, but no dancing this night.
Sunday was the big day - the Indian/Hindu wedding. It was pretty interesting to see the differences and similarities between the two ceremonies. The Indian wedding is fairly regimented, but it was still fun. Dana and Deane's family were pretty worried about the day because of the cultural gap between our two cultures. Avin seemed about as lost as most of use on Deane's side felt since he grew up in Canada, but about half of the guests on his side has traveled from India to be here. The ceremony was primarily done in Sanskrit, but thankfully the priest translated as he went.
The reception involved plenty of food. They organized the night very well having the speeches in-between each course of the meal. It was a big, delicious meal so the breaks in eating were quite welcome. The first course was pene in a vodka sauce with tortelinni in a cream sauce. That was enough pasta for a meal. The second course was a house salad. Course three was a choice between a chicken dish or an eggplant one. Can you guess which one I had? :P The last course was vanilla ice cream wrapped in a crepe and topped with strawberries and blueberries. Are you done drooling yet? And after all that the dancing started. During the dancing there was a table with even more sweets available. I was so stuffed I couldn't even bear to look at that table.
Every wedding I go to just reinforces how much I dislike dances. I just wasn't made to dance and yet people harass me and drag me up on the dance floor thinking they can make me have fun. I know their hearts are in the right place but I haven't the first clue how to dance. I couldn't feel any more awkward and uncomfortable.
So all in all my first road trip was definitely fun. I just picked the wrong weekend to try and spend time with Dana, Andy, and Nathan since they were so busy. But it was nice to be there for them and Dana's family since they've "adopted" me. It always nice to have those kind of family ties without needing to share a common blood line. We're all pretty exhausted. The earliest I got to bed this weekend was 1 am and with Nathan you can't exactly sleep in all that late.
The Jetta was great the whole time. All in all I traveled 1100 km (680 miles for you crazy Americans) and used just over one tank of gas. With all the driving around Toronto I wasn't able to get the tank anywhere near empty. I wanted to try and drive home with the quarter tank I had left, but since it was a holiday yesterday I didn't want to take the chance of not being able to find an open station that carries diesel. I hope to take some more road trips this summer, hopefully with friends, so I'll have to looking into getting an iPod attachment for the stereo. The iTrip (radio transmitter) is nice, but if there's a station anywhere near the one I set it to there's plenty of static. Well in a huge city like Toronto it's pretty tough to find a clear station to transmit on.
Matthew.
After I arrived at Dana and Andy's Friday night I dropped off my stuff and left to join them at the Sangeet - I hope that's how it spelled. Basically what happened was a talent show in honor of the bride and groom. There was plenty of food and plenty of dancing to be had. By the time we got home it felt like we had already been to a wedding.
We spent most of Saturday decorating the church for the Canadian/Christian wedding ceremony. That was par for the course with a standing reception afterwards. Again more food, but no dancing this night.
Sunday was the big day - the Indian/Hindu wedding. It was pretty interesting to see the differences and similarities between the two ceremonies. The Indian wedding is fairly regimented, but it was still fun. Dana and Deane's family were pretty worried about the day because of the cultural gap between our two cultures. Avin seemed about as lost as most of use on Deane's side felt since he grew up in Canada, but about half of the guests on his side has traveled from India to be here. The ceremony was primarily done in Sanskrit, but thankfully the priest translated as he went.
The reception involved plenty of food. They organized the night very well having the speeches in-between each course of the meal. It was a big, delicious meal so the breaks in eating were quite welcome. The first course was pene in a vodka sauce with tortelinni in a cream sauce. That was enough pasta for a meal. The second course was a house salad. Course three was a choice between a chicken dish or an eggplant one. Can you guess which one I had? :P The last course was vanilla ice cream wrapped in a crepe and topped with strawberries and blueberries. Are you done drooling yet? And after all that the dancing started. During the dancing there was a table with even more sweets available. I was so stuffed I couldn't even bear to look at that table.
Every wedding I go to just reinforces how much I dislike dances. I just wasn't made to dance and yet people harass me and drag me up on the dance floor thinking they can make me have fun. I know their hearts are in the right place but I haven't the first clue how to dance. I couldn't feel any more awkward and uncomfortable.
So all in all my first road trip was definitely fun. I just picked the wrong weekend to try and spend time with Dana, Andy, and Nathan since they were so busy. But it was nice to be there for them and Dana's family since they've "adopted" me. It always nice to have those kind of family ties without needing to share a common blood line. We're all pretty exhausted. The earliest I got to bed this weekend was 1 am and with Nathan you can't exactly sleep in all that late.
The Jetta was great the whole time. All in all I traveled 1100 km (680 miles for you crazy Americans) and used just over one tank of gas. With all the driving around Toronto I wasn't able to get the tank anywhere near empty. I wanted to try and drive home with the quarter tank I had left, but since it was a holiday yesterday I didn't want to take the chance of not being able to find an open station that carries diesel. I hope to take some more road trips this summer, hopefully with friends, so I'll have to looking into getting an iPod attachment for the stereo. The iTrip (radio transmitter) is nice, but if there's a station anywhere near the one I set it to there's plenty of static. Well in a huge city like Toronto it's pretty tough to find a clear station to transmit on.
Matthew.
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