Good morning!
Lisa - 12 hour shifts - blech! And I don't remember if I ever said it, but congrats on the baby.
Star -
Quote:
I was joking with my mom the other day about how kids are the most brutal STD you can get
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Funny, I heard someone make a joke almost identical to this the other day!
Any prospects at the end of your contract? A renewal, perhaps?
So, I'm stopping in to say hi after a bit of a hiatus ... it seems like it's been quiet around here anyway. I'm just busy with thesis work, and will continue to be so for the next month, so I'm sure that I will be missing in action again for much of July. I've been on-plan, off-plan, up, down, every which way ... circular motion, not really making progress, too hot and humid...blah, blah, blah...
Last weekend I was in Toronto visiting my friends from uni. I also had to go to a wedding of one of my good friends. It was a Muslim wedding (actually the wedding part of it was about 1.5 years ago so it was really just the reception this weekend - a little late, but knowing my friend, I was not surprised!).
It was really interesting - I've never been to a wedding other than my hometown weddings before, and my hometown weddings are pretty standard: get married in a church, take pictures, have dinner and a reception, dance to country and/or rock or oldies music. So...this was way different. It was held in the community centre behind the mosque, and the men and women had separate receptions (though I knew before hand that the men and women were to be separated, but it's still interesting to see). Their whole 'community' was invited, so there must have been about 200 women. There were about 5 of us invited from my university class, so at least I knew some other people there. I felt a bit underdressed, but I figured that even if I dressed up a bit more, I was going to stand out anyway since everyone else was wearing typical Indian style dresses, and I wasn't.
In some ways it was just like other receptions I've been too, with a buffet meal (though a bit spicier food was served than I'm used to), and wedding favours, and a few speeches and a slide show. But then it was different in that there was also the times when it was time for their prayers so the women would either go into the mosque to pray or pray at one end of the room, and not being able to take pictures of the bride if she didn't have her hijab on, and not seeing any men at all. But overall, I had a lot of fun visiting with my friends and it was neat to see this other aspect of my friend's life. She looked great, like an Indian princess.
Later in the summer another good friend of mine from uni is getting married, and her parents want her to have a traditional Indian (Hindi) wedding, and she doesn't mind...so I get to go to another interesting wedding! I'm really looking forward to this one - it will also be huge...she said her parents invited their 'community' too, so I should expect about 500 people at the reception! Yikes!
Then my third wedding is a wedding in Quebec City, so that will be entirely in French, which should add an interesting element to that wedding, too.
I feel so cultural this summer.
Too bad I couldn't afford to go to my friend's wedding in Shanghai last December, to really round out my wedding experience.
Anyway, hope everyone has a pleasant day, and I'll try to drop in more often if I can,
Julie
ETA:
Hey there Brenda!
Laura - a Death and Dying Seminar - that certainly doesn't sound too uplifting...