Arpi and Nick!

Drove to airport. Flew to Manchester, VT where I was met by Zari. We drove ~1.5 hours to her parents house in Quechee, VT, jamming to the most excellent playlist. It's always fun with Zazoo. She's agreed to come out to sports weekend next year. I was just getting a group to play on a Watervliet team, but I think if Chris Le, Zari, Sadine and I all play, we'll stand a good chance at doing well and having an underdog moment!! Either way, it'll be a lot of fun. Zari loves sports too, though. 

We arrived at the church in Montreal at 10:45am. The dress rehearsal was at 11. I actually got to be a stand-in bridesmaid with the Chicago girls. Fun! Haha. Afterwards was a rehearsal party luncheon. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Zari and the groomsmen at the friends table. I feel like Arpi and Nick are some of those people where a friend of theirs is a friend of mine. They're always sincere, fun, thoughtful, and real people. Very easy to have a good time with! 

That night was a cocktail party. Ah-mazing. Once again, loved Arpi's cousins and high school friends. We ended the night with taking over the hotel stereo in the part we were at and dancing for an hour. Also cool was henna + pinkie. It looked like everyone was walking around with a yalanchi in the place of a finger. 

Next day = wedding day! The service was at 2:30. The power was out in the church, so it was very old school feeling. And beautiful. Der Yeprem gave a great sermon. Vintage Arpi and Nick.

Cocktail hour=outdoors. The Montreal priest got up at one point and told a story about how it was forecast to rain (80% chance) all week. When he asked Arpi about it, Arpi somewhat facetiously said "if Jesus loves me, it won't rain." He loves her! It held off until the reception, and was beautiful during the outdoor component. Arpi was an environmental studies minor, so she loves the outdoors. 

I won't go into the speeches. Just they were the funniest and best ones I've ever heard. Arda, Krikor, the best man, the priest, Arpi's dad, Nick's mom. Shoot! They just fit them. They weren't precanned, generic wedding speeches. The best part was that everything that they said was true! My table was lots of fun, too. Yay, friends tables!!

Of course after that was lots and lots of dancing! Armenian dancing! American dancing! Canadian dancing! 

Just kidding. That's the same. 

ahahaha. I will get in my big rocking chair for a moment of story time. So for about ten minutes, this little girl wouldn't leave me alone. I told her that we could dance THREE(!) dances together before I danced with my friends. She was cute, and none of my friends were up and dancing yet! We had some fun! Well, during the second one, an older man motioned for me to approach. I did. He said "you are very goot wit kids. I hav son who is very shy. Can you get him to dance?" He looked older, but I thought "maybe his son is 10 or something. SCIENCE THESE DAYS" "How old is your son, sir?" "twenty-one." WHAAAAAAAA!! I told him that I was already engaged for 3 dances, but maybe after. Aka a bit creeped out and sidled away. 

The best part was after Mrs. Paylan and this man were then sneakily chatting in a corner. I LOVE the Paylans. I LOVE my family. I wouldn't trade them for anything! But if they wanted to trade me, being with the Paylan's would lessen the blow. The first time I left from poon, Mrs. Paylan turned to Arpi and asked "what about Joyce and Krikor?" Now, as much as I'd love to be related to Arpi, Kreeks and I are different in enough ways, and Arpi told her mom that (which I appreciate). But apparently, Mrs. Paylan hasn't given up hope of having me in the family. Turns out it was her brother, who she introduced me to, and grabbed her shy nephew to dance. 

Poor dear. He was shy. After like 10 seconds he was sitting back down. But ahahaha. It was so funny! I think Mrs. Paylan was a bit mortified (she apologized and gave me hugs), but I knew it was nothing that I had done, so mostly I just found it funny. She wanted to be my aunty. Ahahaha. Okay. I'm going to stop laughing. Just, TWENTY ONE! Not 6! How does being good with kids come into play with dancing with a guy! Seriously, I guess with family-oriented Armenians, being good with kids raises your social capital. 

Monday morning I left in the am with Zari's 3 crazy aunts, as they were driving right past Manchester. It was such a fun time! I got back to Manchester airport, and was basically the ONLY person traveling from there. My connection left at 10pm for Detroit. The cool thing about that was I saw fireworks going off at 10pm there, and then went back an hour (time zones), so that I also saw fireworks going off all over St. Louis as we were landing. 

Friends! I particularly enjoyed getting to know Stephanie, who's the other girl in a blue dress. We've met at poon paregentan, but never been able to talk after! Chicago girls are just great and close-knit! I definitely felt like the baby of this group (all a few years older) but it was a great time!

I went around taking photos with Nicole's camera. Many are now people's facebook profile pictures. This is the best man's response to "you're in a hot air balloon."

Someone gave me a photo-challenge after awhile. Zari and I were to look like we were going to prom!

Mrs. Paylan and Arpi.  

Kreeks and birds (at the biodome)

All things said and done, it's be an insanely packed, but insanely good, semester. I'm looking forward to lots of reflection and quiet time going home though. I need to take in the last year, to process weaknesses that I need to work on, and to reevaluate what's important in life, and how to keep it important. I'm excited to pursue some projects, become active again, and hang out with the fam and friends around. 

Hooray for summer, sickle cell camp, St. Nersess, and just plain ole relaxing! It'll be a good mix of all the ingredients of summer! That starts at 11pm tomorrow.



P.S. Good song!
P.P.S. Skidmore was a great academic match though (aka the professors were amazing and always available for some extra challenge), and I did appreciate that. And it reaffirmed how important being inclusive is to me. So that was good!