Attending My First Indian Wedding

For many years, I've been curious about what an Indian wedding would be like and I was excited to finally get to experience it yesterday! Here are the things I learned about Indian weddings...


1) They don't start on time. We were told to arrive by 9:30 but the ceremony did not start until 11:30.

2) Part of the reason why the ceremony started late was because we were served breakfast and chai before going up to the ceremony. Their breakfast food included (and i don't know the official names for them) deep fried battered vegetables and deep fried breaded cheese. 

3) Before entering the ceremony, everyone must have their heads covered and their shoes removed. Men and women take a different set of stairs to go up to the ceremony and they also sit on separate sides of the room.


4) When you enter, you must present a money offering of coins to the front and touch your head to the ground. 

5) The ceremony is about 2 hours long, filled with the reading of passages and song. Everything was in punjabi but thankfully, they had an overhead with the translation.

6) The bride and groom get to wear the coolest outfits ever. The groom has on a traditional indian outfit and he gets to carry around... a sword!!! The bride wears red and gold and is beautifully adorned with jewels... absolutely breathtaking!

7) After the ceremony, you eat again! The whole meal was vegetarian but very delicious! It reminded me of a bento box, but indian style :)


If you are ever invited to an indian wedding, make sure you invest in a sari. My sister-in-law and i thought that since there would be other non-indian attendees, it would be okay for us to wear non-indian attire. We were wrong... everyone including non-indian people were wearing saris so you can imagine how much we stood out... but it was a great time nonetheless :) 

Have you attended an Indian wedding before?

 

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Hi, You're Fat.

I was going to blog about a tea party today but I decided to switch gears instead and write about this topic, inspired after i got many passionate comments on this facebook status update i posted today:

"I love my culture, I do. I just don't understand why we think it's okay to call people fat to their faces. That person might laugh along with you and agree, but you don't know what's really going on inside."

I know this is common in Filipino culture (and probably many other Asian and non-Asian cultures, young and old) where you are greeted this way. Not even a "hello, how are you, you've gotten fatter" it's just straight up "you're so fat!" accompanied with a smile... not knowing the effect of their "casual" words. Many people use excuses like "we are just being brutally honest!" or "it's just our culture" or "it's just the way we were raised!" but...

would you feel comfortable using those excuses to someone who became anorexic because of it? bulimic? depressed? suicidal?

I guess what i'm trying to say is...

Words are powerful, let's use them

to uplift people instead!

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"It's Just Our Culture..."

You know what bothers me? When CULTURE is used as an excuse.

I'm going to arrive an hour later than our agreed meeting time but don't be mad...
it's just our culture.
I'm going to talk to you in a demeaning manner but i'm not trying to be rude... 
it's just our culture.
I'm going to show up to your party without RSVP'ing, it's not inconsideration...
it's just our culture.
I'm going to gossip about you but i don't mean any harm by it...
it's just our culture.
I'm going to tell you you look fat even though I know you have image issues...
it's just our culture.
I'm not allowed to date you because you're (insert race) but don't be offended...
it's just our culture.
I'm going to physically and emotionally abuse you but don't cry...

When have you heard 'culture' used as an excuse? 




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Preparing for the Culture Shock...

To prepare for my trip back to the Philippines in about 2.25 months, i've been talking to several friends who have been there recently to get some tips. You see, I haven't been back to the home land in 11 years!!! I don't know what it looks like anymore, what it smells like, what the authentic food tastes like, what the shopping is like, etc! I definitely don't want to look and sound like a foreigner so I can bargain well at the markets, hehe.

For those of you who don't know, I am originally from the Philippines although I only lived there for 2 years. My family then moved to Hong Kong for 10 years and then we moved to Canada. My first taste of culture shock was when we visited Canada before moving here. I was stunned. Where was everybody? I was used to the streets of Hong Kong which was packed at almost every hour of the day. People would walk shoulder to shoulder and you'd often get elbowed! And what do you mean the mall closes at 6PM? What do you mean the bus arrives every 30 minutes instead of every 5 minutes!? What do you mean people don't wipe boogers on bus and train poles? :P

Where did you experience the biggest culture shock? 

Speaking of cultures, travel, and far away places. Check out what arrived in the mail today all the way from INDONESIA! I ordered two prints from my lovely friend Tiara, one for me and one for my four year old cousin. Tiara's imagination, creativity, and skill radiates through her artwork. Seriously amazing! Check out the rest of her prints HERE! The quality is great, her prices are reasonable and my prints arrived quickly. Thank you Tiara!


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Turning Japanese...

"... I think i'm turning Japanese, I really think so!"

I've always loved cute Japanese things... especially having spent most of my childhood in Hong Kong but it wasn't until I got older that I really got to appreciate more of Japan's food, culture, and people. (Now you know where my brand's inspiration comes from!!!)

Don't laugh... but last Sunday, I actually bought an English-Japanese dictionary and I couldn't wait until I got home to use it so I sat in the car with my fiancee in the shopping mall parking lot and just recited random words. :P



What I find so awesome is that a lot of Japanese words sound like the English word... except with a Japanese spin on it :P Here are some of my favorites:




Ejannz also pointed out today that my full name sounds like "Camera" if you say it with a Japanese accent. Rove it!

What language would you love to learn? 

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