Back in Malaysia -- and a Wedding

Spent Friday in the office catching up on some valuable email and rote tasks that had gone neglected for a few days. Today was different, though. The four of us drove up to a Forest Preserve for the company's annual Family Day. It was an adventure hunt set in a cool forest. We took some great pictures, but for some reason they didn't store on our digital camera. Waaaahh. We had a great Malaysian breakfast of rice, spicy curry/chili, and peanuts with dried fish (tiny ones -- like guppies!!). I was the only one who downed the tiny dried fish. Not much different than potato chips really.

Then, it was on to a wedding -- our first Malaysian wedding to witness. The wedding was held at the parent's home -- just across the street from our new house. The scene was amazing. The whole street was shut down. Tents had been set up down the whole street -- spanning the width of it. Police had been brought in to direct traffic down alternate streets. Convenience shuttles were driving guests from their distant parking spaces to the wedding. We were just about the only foreigners, but we didn't feel out of place at all. Everyone was COMPLETELY warm and inviting. (Of course the temp was warm as well -- mid to upper 80's with lots of humidity).

We were treated to a delicious Malaysian feast, then we awaited the guests of honor -- the bride and groom. Here are some pictures from the event. Enjoy!!

Guest await the arrival of the bride and groom. This is a picture taken right on our new street:


The bride and groom arrive, and lead the parade up the street!


Relatives and friends celebrate in various ways:


The whole procession was heralded with drums and singing!


You know it's a cool time when children are dancing in the street!


A young boy awaits more festivities:


As you can see, this was an unforgettable event. I hope these photos help you envision what the day was like. As for tonight, we plan to go out for some good ol' American food. Endless dishes of fish, seafood, rice, noodles, and chicken has led us to crave burgers and pizza. (Are we out of our minds?) We hope to stop by the Hard Rock or Planet Hollywood tonight.

P.S. We did officially take occupancy of our new house today. However, we still have to wait for our household goods to arrive, which still isn't for another 2-3 weeks! We will probably move in during the first week of August. It was fun to get two piles of keys handed to us. Would you believe that the pile consisted of 30 keys and 2 remotes?? Whoa. It's gonna take a month just to figure out how to open the right doors!

greg

p.s. I'm not sure I'll be able to write from Korea next week, but hopefully I'll be able to craft another post by Thursday or so.