I apologize for the lack of posts after Greece – T-Mobile roaming in Cyprus was spotty at best!! I have returned and wanted to get the newlyweds their pictures as soon as possible. Thats about all I have the energy for tonight! The wedding was in 3 parts; the traditional bridal dressing ceremony at Maria’s aunt’s house, the Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony at the church, followed by the reception and dancing. It was truly an incredible event!
Category: Culture
Wedding day
Its quarter to 11 Its quarter to 11 and I think there are few times I’ve ever been this tired. I woke up at 5am, after just under 3 hours of sleep and it has been non stop all day! The traditional Thai ceremony started at 6:30 and lasted 5 hours! Thankfully redbulls were included in my gift bag! The ceremony was incredible, beginning with Monks, then a ceremonial walk where the groom had to “barter” for his wife, ending with each person blessing them with water. I took a TON of pictures, and the services deserve an entry of their own! We then had lunch and hit the hotel to refresh ourselves for the Catholic ceremony. The reception began afterwards as did my MC duties. I didn’t think I had it in me, but I got a ton of positive feedback at the end of the night! Most couldn’t believe I was going strong on 3 hours of sleep! 17 hours after waking up this morning, its time. I can’t imagine my exhaustion not overcoming the jet lag!
Today was incredible! Congratulations to Mike and Krong!!
We are off to Chiang Mai tomorrow, next post will most likely be from there!
Grazyna Auguscik & Paulinho Garcia
One of the best things about living in Chicago is that there is always something going on! A friend told me about Paulinho last week and that he was playing for free at noon at the Chicago Cultural Center. I decided to go check it out – it was fantastic! Brazilian Jazz fused with folk and contemporary! Can’t imagine a better way to spend my lunch hour! As it turns out, the Cultural Center has “LunchBreak” events almost every day of the week! “Classical Mondays” “Music Without Borders” – I’ve been working here for almost a year, and I feel like I’m just discovering the city!
The Hall of Hungry Ghosts
Mom and Teresa have been working hard on “The Hall of Hungry Ghosts“ for over two years now! Their efforts bear fruit next week – catch the world premiere at the Next Theatre in Evanston!
EU Day at the Mid-America Club
It’s been almost a week that I’ve been wanting to post these pictures! After returning from New York I attended “European Union Day” with Aita on the 80th floor of the Aon Center in the Mid-America Club. They picked May 9th as the Schuman Declaration had been signed 50 years earlier and marked the first steps towards the European Union. The event itself was a bit stuffy, with long winded speeches and, thankfully, copious amounts of wine! We took advantage of the spectacular views offered and had a few glasses. Wanted to share the view with the rest of you!
It had been foggy and quite humid all day. When getting off the ‘L’ at Addison a full platform and the cheers of thousands of fans greeted me. I just had to take a pic!
YTC Durango 2006 Highlights Video
Just noticed this on the Youth Technology Corps homepage! This video was directed, shot and edited by the high school kids on our trip during the trip! They did a fantastic job and it totally brings me back! Should give you guys a bit better of a feel for what we did on the trip as well as donating the computers!
Transference
Katty and I decided to do something different this weekend. After having spent most of the day Saturday watching football games – I was dying to get out of the house on Sunday! We decided that going to the theater would be the perfect outing. As it was already later in the day, we had to find something that was in the afternoon – and after some searching we settled on a play called “Transference” at the Mercury Theater – just around the corner from my apartment. I had read the first few lines of a review (my first mistake, I should have read the whole thing):
I arrived at the theater to purchase the tickets, and when the man behind the counter said “That’ll be $82” I was taken aback, but decided that it was something that we had decided to do – so what did it matter what it costs? Its theater! “Acting!” It must be entertaining!
After having seen the play, I can officially retract that statement. This play had to be one of the worst I have seen! It had this low-brow, stupid humor – it was just dumb. I didn’t feel enlightened or even happier upon leaving – I just couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that they can still sell tickets to the show! A family of three left the theater less than 10 minutes after the show started – at about the time the main character, a lawyer, got on all fours and starting barking and acting like a dog (plastic toy in mouth and all). I’m not sure what kept Katty and I in out seats – sadistic curiosity? hoping for a payoff at the end? wanting to get our money’s worth? We were to satiate none of these desires while watching “Transference” – we have now learned our lesson; do more homework when deciding on what show to see!
Just saw this review on the Sun Times – “But be advised: If you happen to be a Baby Boomer, this is the kind of stuff your parents used to like.”
Indeed!
Oops!
T-Mobile
Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana performed by the Grant Park Orchestra on Wednesday
We are off to Millennium Park once again tonight! Hopefully the sky holds up as they did for us on Wednesday! Things have been crazy this week, as seems to be happening on a regular basis now! The race weekend was a blast! I have posted some pictures for those that are interested in seeing them. Watching 40 year old cars wring it out at ~170mph was quite a sight! I’ll see if I can fill in some more information about the cars that I have pictured in the future. Maybe Andy, the SpeedGeek will show us what he knows!
I also got a new toy recently! Wintec WBT-100 4-in-1 GPS… sounds exciting doesn’t it? Well, it actually logs GPS data as well as sending it out to my PDA – so I can track things such as my CTA ride to work this morning!
While looking at the overlay on Google Earth I noticed that they have updated pictures of Chicago! Here is a shot of where I’m headed now!
Those with a keen eye will notice my GPS tracking wasn’t very accurate! Hopefully it won’t be big deal with Jane!)
June is almost over?!
June, how could you go by so quickly!? I didn’t even feel like I got to know you in the short time we had spent together! So much has happened, and now you plan on leaving just like that?! As a parting gift I shall pay tribute to the times that we spent together… I hope that I get along with July just as well!
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