Action packed weekend.
It started on Friday morning when we took our neighbor, Emma, to the hospital so that she may undergo surgery to remove a cyst from her right breast. Arthur's uncle performed the surgery and we sponsored the procedure becuase Emma is grossly underpaid at her job in a factory cleaning every day. The three days off of work was enough to make her worry. It was nice to help.
After the hospital we went to Ellen's 9th birthday party. Ellen is Arthur's neice (sister's daughter) and she had invited her entire 3rd grade class to Hekyat Cafe. Hekyat Cafe is a new restaurant where kids get to play and eat. There are clowns and dressed up characters which organize games. It was great to see the kids doing some of the things I grew up on... including the international chicken dance and the hoki-poki. I even learned a new game which Ellen and I played alone the next day. FUN.
We came home from Hekyat Cafe in time to get dressed for a huge wedding. It was a family friend's wedding. One extremely wealthy family marrying their daughter off to another extremely wealthy family. She is 18 years old (just turned 18 in May) and it was arranged... shall I even get into this?
They will be living in the groom's home with his parents. She will be the only "hars" in the home, so the responsibilities will be all hers... cleaning, cooking and taking care of her parents-in-law. The wedding was huge and was held at this new super-duper restaurant they have built off Proshian called Nor Dzoraberd. It is currently the hottest place on Proshian and so it was an esteemed venue for this very showy wedding. The wedding was too formal and too big. I felt like I was at some show sitting in the audience rather than at the wedding with the newleyweds... just a touch away. We hardly got to say hi. Perhaps we could have bumped into them on the dance floor except that she was not allowed to dance much. Traditional weddings call for a traditional bride who is supposed to be amanchkot and hnazand (shy and submissive)... She got to dance a few dances... one slow, one armenian bride dance... and one or two dances at the end of the wedding which was pretty much a mercy allowance for the bride who did not look like she was having the greatest time in the world. I sat depressed about some of the cultural negatives that affect our youth to this day. We did not dance much either. It was more of a string of speeches gloating the patriarchs of the family rather than a celebration of love. We left early and it killed my mood for a while. I found out later that the next day they had guests and the bride was responsible for all the wear and tear of the day after party. THE DAY AFTER? come on!
After the wedding we went to express our condolences to our friends Arthur and Garen who just lost a grandma. Arthur was here from Geneva and his brother from Moscow. In LA when this happened... you wore completely black and went to express sorrow by sitting quietly and being sad... outwardly showing that you are depressed and affecetd by the death. Friday night was much different. Arthur walked in and kissed the entire family and I followed. We sat for a few hours and Arthur made them laugh and brought smiles to their face. We talked about their grandma and stressed the good things... (she got to see her great-grandchild and died in her sleep) but mostly we just lightened up the house. They busied themselves with listening to our funny stories and offering us sweets and tea. Time passed and for a few hours they smiled.
After this long day I came home to change. I took off again to the airport to send David off to America for a few months. We will miss him, but will see him on our upcoming trip to America. After long hugs my friend Edith and I set back for the city. Upon our arrival we noticed that we were only half an hour away from the sunrise. A u-turn had us headed for Monument and we watched the sunrise from the Cascade. BEAUTIFUL.
Since I was already at the Cascade and I work at the Cascade I did not bother to go home but went to the office for a work marathon which led me straight to the middle of Saturday... a sleep deprived, overworked zombie who needed a release. I called my sweet Ellen who reminded me that I had not seen her presents. Off to my sister-in-law's house for more time with Ellen. We looked at all her presents and talked about her birthday party. I made her a hair charm with strings which I am sure is going to be the hottest new topic for the entire female half of the 3rd grade class.
Arthur picked me up from and we left for TSAKHKADZOR. I will leave this for a later log becuase this log is way too long... and I do not want to show Ara up... that is his forte :o). I will continue later as tsakhkadzor is definitely worth a write-up.
It started on Friday morning when we took our neighbor, Emma, to the hospital so that she may undergo surgery to remove a cyst from her right breast. Arthur's uncle performed the surgery and we sponsored the procedure becuase Emma is grossly underpaid at her job in a factory cleaning every day. The three days off of work was enough to make her worry. It was nice to help.
After the hospital we went to Ellen's 9th birthday party. Ellen is Arthur's neice (sister's daughter) and she had invited her entire 3rd grade class to Hekyat Cafe. Hekyat Cafe is a new restaurant where kids get to play and eat. There are clowns and dressed up characters which organize games. It was great to see the kids doing some of the things I grew up on... including the international chicken dance and the hoki-poki. I even learned a new game which Ellen and I played alone the next day. FUN.
We came home from Hekyat Cafe in time to get dressed for a huge wedding. It was a family friend's wedding. One extremely wealthy family marrying their daughter off to another extremely wealthy family. She is 18 years old (just turned 18 in May) and it was arranged... shall I even get into this?
They will be living in the groom's home with his parents. She will be the only "hars" in the home, so the responsibilities will be all hers... cleaning, cooking and taking care of her parents-in-law. The wedding was huge and was held at this new super-duper restaurant they have built off Proshian called Nor Dzoraberd. It is currently the hottest place on Proshian and so it was an esteemed venue for this very showy wedding. The wedding was too formal and too big. I felt like I was at some show sitting in the audience rather than at the wedding with the newleyweds... just a touch away. We hardly got to say hi. Perhaps we could have bumped into them on the dance floor except that she was not allowed to dance much. Traditional weddings call for a traditional bride who is supposed to be amanchkot and hnazand (shy and submissive)... She got to dance a few dances... one slow, one armenian bride dance... and one or two dances at the end of the wedding which was pretty much a mercy allowance for the bride who did not look like she was having the greatest time in the world. I sat depressed about some of the cultural negatives that affect our youth to this day. We did not dance much either. It was more of a string of speeches gloating the patriarchs of the family rather than a celebration of love. We left early and it killed my mood for a while. I found out later that the next day they had guests and the bride was responsible for all the wear and tear of the day after party. THE DAY AFTER? come on!
After the wedding we went to express our condolences to our friends Arthur and Garen who just lost a grandma. Arthur was here from Geneva and his brother from Moscow. In LA when this happened... you wore completely black and went to express sorrow by sitting quietly and being sad... outwardly showing that you are depressed and affecetd by the death. Friday night was much different. Arthur walked in and kissed the entire family and I followed. We sat for a few hours and Arthur made them laugh and brought smiles to their face. We talked about their grandma and stressed the good things... (she got to see her great-grandchild and died in her sleep) but mostly we just lightened up the house. They busied themselves with listening to our funny stories and offering us sweets and tea. Time passed and for a few hours they smiled.
After this long day I came home to change. I took off again to the airport to send David off to America for a few months. We will miss him, but will see him on our upcoming trip to America. After long hugs my friend Edith and I set back for the city. Upon our arrival we noticed that we were only half an hour away from the sunrise. A u-turn had us headed for Monument and we watched the sunrise from the Cascade. BEAUTIFUL.
Since I was already at the Cascade and I work at the Cascade I did not bother to go home but went to the office for a work marathon which led me straight to the middle of Saturday... a sleep deprived, overworked zombie who needed a release. I called my sweet Ellen who reminded me that I had not seen her presents. Off to my sister-in-law's house for more time with Ellen. We looked at all her presents and talked about her birthday party. I made her a hair charm with strings which I am sure is going to be the hottest new topic for the entire female half of the 3rd grade class.
Arthur picked me up from and we left for TSAKHKADZOR. I will leave this for a later log becuase this log is way too long... and I do not want to show Ara up... that is his forte :o). I will continue later as tsakhkadzor is definitely worth a write-up.
posted by Madlene at 11:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home