I’m gonna seem perfectly normal but I don’t think anyone will be able to fathom how much this trip has changed me.
Picture is blurry because I was backstage with the other groomsmen but I can’t even believe the spectacle that was my brothers wedding. Full scaffolding with complete lighting grid. Concert spotlights around the stage. Fog machines. Cameras on jibs and cranes flying around the stage. It was ridiculous. I don’t think I’ll ever again see a wedding like this.
Technical stuff aside, the way this works is that the actual wedding with the vows and flower girls and all the Western things happened in a church earlier that day but the actual 400 person dinner / reception happened here in this hall. This is where all the ceremonial things happened as well as the speeches from the best man, maid of honor and parents.
It was amazing. The production crew who had been following us around all day managed to cut together the entire wedding day in less than two hours and it was one of the best things I’ve ever seen. Made me feel bad for chirping them for bringing us to very inconvenient places to take photos.
Later, myself and the rest of the groomsmen stormed the stage with the bridesmaids to the tune of “Marry You” by Bruno Mars. It was way too fun. We were told to do something funny or casual on the way in so the bridesmaid and I improv’d on the spot. I smelled the bouquet, looked disgusted, and we tossed pieces of it into the crowd. Can’t get over how fun it was. That song will forever have a special place in my heart.
I’ll tell more stories when I get back to Canada but for now I will just say that it was an amazing night.
i’m currently holed up in a hotel in beijing because there was a delay in my flight that is making me stay an extra day. nobody’s with me because my family is all where the wedding was (chongqing) and it’s hard to communicate with anybody here. i’m annoyed, frustrated and just want to go home. i miss my friends and i’m incredibly burnt out. all that being said, the trip was amazing and awful all at the same times but i’ll re-tell it some other time as i have about 40 minutes left on my laptop battery (lost my charger). i’m just doing a quick post so people know i am alive. i never realized how much i relied on facebook/twitter/youtube until this trip. all three are banned in china and it’s very hard without it. it’s like being cut off from society and from my friends. this hotel sucks - it smells and it’s incredibly sketchy. i’m hungry but i’m afraid to leave my room, i’m bored and have nothing to do, i don’t understand anything on tv and i again, i just want to go home.
bon.c.chan@gmail.com - i wouldn’t mind hearing from a friend right now. i only have 30 minutes though.
“Uh, for the first time today, I woke up, I came to the store, and I feel confident to say to you that if you don’t take this Michael McDonald DVD that you’ve been playing for two years straight off, I’m going to kill everyone in the store and put a bullet in my brain.” — Paul Rudd, The 40 Year Old Virgin
“i remind myself i was lucky to have had any time with him at all. what i’m not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. we all complete. maybe none of us really understand what we’ve lived through, or feel we’ve had enough time.”
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