A wedding to remember...

Wednesday one of our good friends got married. In the US we have times that seem normal for our weddings - they are usually in the afternoon or in the evening. Well, in India they base the time of their ceremony on how the stars align on a particular day. This results in some obscure wedding times. Ramya's wedding started at 8:30 in the morning and it was not the craziest time we have heard of people having their ceremonies.

Another huge difference in the marriages is that the ceremony lasts for days. Because of this - thousands of people attend but everyone is much more casual even as the ceremony is happening. The entire thing feels more like a wedding reception even though the bride and groom are in the middle of their vows.

Ramya's family is very wealthy and they go all out for events. They have made us feel very welcome in India by inviting us for holidays and ceremonies - if you know someone from another country invite them over for a holiday - it would seriously mean the world to them- it has to us!! Her wedding was the most expensive and extravagant wedding I have ever been to. Here are a few pics...

1. It was very windy.
2. I forgot until that morning that I didn't know how to put on a saree. I had to run over and ring my next door neighbor's doorbell at 7:30 in the morning for help....ahhhh!!
3. They had the entrance to a nice hotel build to look like the entrance to a Hindu temple just for her wedding.

This is me with one of my friends. Isn't her saree beautiful!! It is hard for us to tell but there are ever changing trends when it comes to Indian traditional wear just like our clothes!

This is the set that was constructed just for the wedding. It was beautiful. Just the set cost over $100,000 to build and her family does not want it to be used again for anything. Wow, I kept thinking, "that could have bought Stephen and I a house."

Becca, Brittany and I in Stephen's favorite room... the huge buffet!! They had all of our favorite Indian foods and some American treats like Rice Krispies, kiwi and tons of mango!!
I love this picture of the wedding band!! A good wedding has to have good music = )
This is Ramya and her husband!! Isn't she beautiful!! They are going to be moving to Arizona in August. I hope they will come celebrate an American holiday with us sometime!
Stephen and I simply asked a guy to take our picture together on the stage... apparently he was a trained photographer and insisted that we take one like this...I think it is just hilarious because Indians will often boss you around when it comes to stuff that doesn't matter.

Bless You...for the rest of the day.

If you know me, you know that I have allergies.  Not just any allergies but really bad allergies.  

My mom will say that if I would just get allergy shots that they would get better but you can not get allergy shots in India.  Plus what 25 year old wants to sit in the doctors office for half an hour after getting a shot three times a week.  When you are young and can get out of school it is probably worth it but now... I'm just not sure.

My freshman year of college I lived with a friend from high school, Lindsey Farmer (at the time.)  As you know dorm rooms are pretty small.  I think my allergies must have just about driven her crazy in that close of quarters.  

I'm one of those people who never just sneezes once.  Usually I will sneeze about 7-8 times in a row, but rarely less than 3 in a row.  

At first people say "bless you," when you sneeze.  If you sneeze a second time they usually smile and say "bless you," again.  By the third sneeze most people will chuckle as they say "bless you," a third time.  

Multiple sneezers leave their friends and strangers wondering...How many times do I have to say "bless you?"  

Lindsey's solution was to say "bless you," once.  Then the second sneeze she said "bless you...for the rest of the day."  

I shared this with Stephen and our marriage is better for it.  

What do you think...how many times are you willing to say "bless you."

Katie Mariah

I just got an email from my friend from OSU, Katie.  It was so good to hear from her.  She has had an exciting year back in the USA.  She is an incredibly talented writer and musician.  This year her music has really taken off.  I posted some kind of widget on the side of my blog with ten of her songs.  On her blog she has a couple of music videos and shares about her experiences in the music business.  It is just crazy for me to see her in a really professional music video. She performs a lot around Oklahoma and Texas so I am looking forward to seeing her live when I get home.  

Here is the link to her blog if you are interested:

http://katiemariahmusic.typepad.com

One thing I really miss here in India is radio music.  Our cars have radios but all the stations are in Hindi and after a full year the songs all still sound the same...very annoying.  Brittan is really good about making fun cds for us to keep in the cars but day after day the same 18 songs start to get a little old.  I  can't wait to cruise along in the beautiful gold saturn listening to all the new songs on the radio!!  

Wimbledon

On our way home from India we fly through London and darn it, we are going to have a pretty long layover - a 3 day layover!!  I am so excited.  I've never been to London.  I searched and searched and finally found us a great hotel for really cheap (London standards anyway.)  As I was looking up hotel information I found some other exciting news.  The few days that we will be there fall right in the middle of Wimbledon.  At first this was bad news because it meant that the hotel prices would spike but after booking our hotel it is just exciting.  I mean, what are the chances that we would get to be in town during the biggest tennis tourney of the whole world??  You would think that it would be impossible to go but after doing some research it turns out that each day they reserve over 6,000 tickets for day-of sale.  The first 1,500 are expensive and for the center court- where the most important match is played each day but the 4,500 after that are only 7 British Pounds.  Now that is do-able.  We will be there during the round where there are 16 players left in the tournament so if we get to go we will without a doubt be seeing the most famous tennis stars!!  How fun!

Furniture is so fun!!

I am starting to get excited about setting up our furniture in Ft. Worth. I do not even know where we are going to be living but I do know what our couch looks like. I love it. It is so comfortable and looks good with pretty much anything. Stephen actually found it when we were engaged...and it is perfect. This year our home was furnished which is amazing but it will be fun to replace the items we sold or threw away before moving to India once we get home. Hopefully there will be some good garage sales or craigslist items in July and August!! Please pray for us to find a great place to live this first semester while we learn the area.

When the Lights go out!!

Most homes in the southern US didn't have electricity until the 1930's. It seems to me like we have had it forever and that it is a necessity for life.

The electricity in India is still limited today because of the huge population. This means that without notice the government exercises the power to turn off entire neighborhoods power for many hours at a time. This means no lights in the entire neighborhood, no traffic lights and no water purifiers.

When my mom and dad were visiting they took us out to eat at TGIFridays. We were about to order when the power shut out in the mall. No one in the restaurant even skipped a beat but mom and dad were very surprised. Within a couple of minutes the power came back on and mom said, "you know that is not normal, right?"

During the summer months power cuts are very bad. It makes sense because more energy is used daily in order to keep places cool. I am learning to love the power cuts. Every time I try to remember that families have only had power for the past 100 years. I also try to remember all of the families in India that do not have power at all. Because I can't always keep a good attitude by thinking of these first two I have one other solution. I pretend we are living in the 1800's. This makes it like a game for me instead of a miserable experience.

So last night we had a long power cut starting around 6:30. Stephen and I had dinner by candlelight. Then we used out flashlight to go upstairs and set up a bunch of candles on our balcony to read. We read out there for about an hour. It was nice. We came inside and hung out for a little bit longer and then went to bed. I bet it was a lot easier to go to bed when it got dark back in the day. No internet or tv to distract you or light to continue working on a project. I think that must of been nice.

When we were on the balcony I was looking around our neighborhood. All of the houses were so dark. Then I noticed a candle in our friends house across the street. It is amazing how much the light stood out in the complete darkness. Usually when you light a candle it is for the scent but not when the power is out. When the power is out you can see the light like never before. It makes you able to function and makes the dark much less scary. It just reminded me of the illustration used throughout scripture of Jesus being the light of the world and of believers being a light in the darkness. Sometimes India can feel so incredibly dark. Like all of the power is out in the neighborhood and you can't even see one light around you. But Jesus is moving here and when there is light it shines even more brightly. I was encouraged and challenged by that candle across the street last night. God is so good to remind us of His purposes and truths in the strangest ways.

Carroms...ever heard of it???

Carroms is a very fun game.  We have a carroms table on the bottom floor of our house.  A few of the guys have been into it for several months but Brittan and I have just recently gotten excited about it.  I will try to explain it.  You are either shooting for white or black.  You are trying to flick them into one of the holes in the four corners of the board using a cue.  Think pool, except the cue ball is more like a checker and the pool stick is replaced by your finger.  We are getting pretty good at the game and have been playing a lot lately.  

Three funny things about carroms - 

1.  We looked into buying another one and it would cost 400 rs (8 dollars.) but after talking about it we decided that we would rather just buy one in the states instead of having to ship it home.  Guess how much it cost to buy one in the USA??  200 dollars.  Can you believe that?  How can you hike up the price that much?  That is ridiculous.  

2.  We got a lot of practice the other night by candlelight because our power was out.  No worries it was only 115 degrees, without air-conditioning.  Wow!

3.  When Stephen and I were here on our summer team and the first stint was here Dagan and Pace decided to try to get a carroms board sent to their house in Conway.  They ended up running out of time and had to just give the board and some money to their Indian friend to ship.  I am pretty confident that they never saw the board or the money again.