The Wedding (and more)

To be honest, it seems like such a long time ago already! It feels as if time is accelerating all the time here.
Maartje and I got an email announcing Polina’s wedding only a couple of weeks before the big day (29 July) and, yes we were a bit surprised. But of course that did not stop us from having lots of fun in preparing- even before Polina and Samat arrived in Toronto (thanks to the library of Toronto where you can also get magazines, such as Brides). Just to get things clear: neither Maartje nor I is really into bridal gowns, but for Polina we were of course very much willing to get into it. And so we did! As she did not manage to find a dress in Germany, she needed to buy one in Toronto. With very little time. We ‘wasted’ nearly the entire day looking for a dress that was not bridal- more something like a bride’s maid dress. But at 4 o’clock a lady from a bridal shop forced her to wear a plain white dress. And then everything changed! After a long evening (and night) of deliberation, Polina decided to go and buy a white mermaid-style dress with little blue beads on the top. And she looked beautiful in it!! Although Maartje and I both preferred this one, we wanted her to make the choice by herself- I hope she forgave us! The rest of the week was filled with all kinds of wedding preparations for all of us- a bachelorette, the gifts, the bra, the shoes, the earrings, the programme for the wedding day... Let me put it this way: if you ever want a last-minute wedding: you can hire us!
For the bachelorette we (the girl, Polina, Maartje, Coralie, Sabrina, Cecile and Valentina) first went to a Russian sauna, where I got seriously whipped with some branches with leaves by a friend of Polina’s, we practiced funny faces in the whirlpool and generally just relaxed. After that we had dinner in our garden and the NOHA-guys were allowed to join us: Nicola, Toni and Rory, who flew in from New York for the wedding. After dinner we rushed downtown to El Convento Rico- a very spectacular club- for a salsa class. And we had lots of fun! The bride was rather wise and decided to go home early, but as we had invited our Toronto-friends too, there was no way for us to go home early. But we sure had a great party! Dancing all night and taking funny pictures... And in the end sleeping less than three hours before we had to wake the bride up (she was staying in our house, that was all of a sudden turned into Bridal HQ), get her breakfast, do her hair, steam her veil and get her into her dress. (This is not something Maartje and I could recommend for your wedding...) Before we knew it we found ourselves all dressed up in a limo, drinking champagne at 10 o’clock in the morning!! The ceremony in city hall was not very long, but it looked very movie-like to me with the vows and the rings and everything. After that we had a short picnic in the park, kidnapped the bride according to true Kyrhiz tradition and then went on a boat tour to the Toronto Islands. There the couple (and poor Maartje and the best man as well) had to take pictures, while we had some time to relax (close our eyes for a minute). When we got back ashore we went for dinner in a French restaurant (too bad they only had Edith Piaf) and after that I went to a subway station to pick Martijn up!  Taking the subway in your fancy dress with your bouquet (although I was NOT a brides’ maid) is definitely an experience! Martijn looked a bit puzzled too when I got off the subway... ;)
All in all it was a nice day, but I was really tired afterwards. Whereas Martijn and I could have left for our holiday on Sunday, we decided to take it slow and only leave on Monday. Well, actually we had a very relaxed attitude all week. The first day we ended up in a small provincial park called Seven Miles Lake- a nice place to camp for a night, make a fire and have a swim in the lake in the morning. On Tuesday we drove to Algonquin Provincial Park. Absolutely beautiful!!!!! We went walking (or hiking) on the beaver tour (learnt a lot!), climbed some of the cliffs for beautiful views and went kayaking on our last morning. We were very lucky not to go the day before as there was a major thunderstorm- with lots of rain (like in the rainy season in Kenya, but then longer) and, as it turned out, a lot of damage all around the province. On Thursday night and Friday night we camped in a small provincial park again, between Ottawa and Montreal. On Friday we spent the whole day in Montreal, enjoying the old part of the city and the European, yet North-American feel of it. The Notre Dame is really too much inside, but it is so much better than the buildings they dare to call cathedrals in Toronto. Really great city, Montreal. And the next day we visited Ottawa on the way back. The Parliament Hill and all the Victorian buildings were nice, and so were some of the street theatre performances we ran into- but I did not really get a thing for the city (please Sabrina do not kill me!). But the best thing about the whole holiday was of course spending it with Martijn! I must admit that by now I would like to stay in the Netherlands for a bit, stay around.... Well, I will be back in two weeks already!
Before that, we still have a lot of work to do for the research- although it turned out that there is no academic debate on humanitarian issues (my subject) I will still have to write something for the publication. But we are on a roll, so I am sure that we will make it in the end!
That was a long story, eh? Hope you enjoyed reading it anyway! ;)

Hanneke