Hooray, A Wedding!

Weddings in my family are anything but normal. 

Anything.

This month we had one of the best weddings I've ever been to. And I personally love weddings, so I decided to compile a list while giving you the components of uncle Terrence and aunty Nitya's wedding.

Steps to having the 'MOST FUN' wedding ever:

My uncle Terrence and aunt Nitya had their wedding in Connecticut, fulfilling the first step: 

1. Do not have the wedding close to home. Make it fun with a commute. 

Now, not being able to drive, this is the most fun way to have a wedding because it means that: 

-everyone gets to eat out instead of eating at home

-you get to sightsee nearby

-you get to stay at a hotel

-everyone stays in a single place instead of going home after the wedding ends

-lots of family bonding

    

2. Hotels are fun. But only if they have a swimming pool.

This is definitely one of the important ones. I love staying at hotels for weddings because everyone is just so close together the whole time. And don't have your wedding at a hotel without a swimming pool, you're just wasting money.

  3. Let there be dancing.

The best weddings don't just have dancing, they have DANCING. This means that all men, women and children are on the dance floor until midnight at least. Dancing includes a couple of organized dances and then an open dance floor and DJ for the rest of the night. Terrence and Nitya had both and they were amazing!

  

4. The wedding must go past midnight.

Uncle Terrence and Aunty Nitya's wedding ended at midnight, but we roamed the hotel until 2 am.

 5. Henna is a must.

Unless everyone attending the wedding is wearing white, go for henna. There were a lot of stains, but in the end it was worth it.

  6. Cool wedding entrances? Uh, yes!

This wedding party's entrance was fantastic. Let's just say that the flashing sunglasses made a HUGE impact :)

7. Adorable wedding party

Rohan had this one covered. 

All in all, weddings are an amazing experience for everyone involved. Our family just has a lot of fun with them, the dancing and the ceremony. Can't wait for the next one! (Sonya, we are bringing home the prize for you!)

Europe Trip- Part Four

Dad and I

Arc de Triumph

Paris

Blurry, but you can see the
Eiffel Tower well

We got on the Eurostar from St. Pancras Station and got off at Gar De Nord Station in Paris. There were a whole bunch of creepy people at the station. One drunk guy started talking in French to us and was probably trying to sell us these wilted flowers. Paris was disgusting and dirty and crowded and smelly. Apart from that there were a lot of thieves and scammers and pickpockets and crazy people. My aunt Marisa came to pick us up from the station. Then we walked with her two kids, Isabel and Nathaniel, to an Indian restaurant where we all ate. Then Neil and Kiren decided to go back to aunt Marisa's house in Poissy while my parents and I took the subway to downtown Paris. The subway stations were disgusting and dirty and covered in graffiti. We took the train down to the Arc De Triumph, after getting lost a few times because no one at the station spoke English. We walked down the Champs Elysess and went into the huge Sephora store and took lots of pictures. There was also a HUGE H&M there too. Then we went back to Poissy to my Aunt Marisa's. She lived right next to a high security prison, which was really cool. The prison we where Carlos the Jackall was being held. 

Mom and Dad in Sephora

Macaroons!

Sacre Coer

The next day we woke up and got ready really early. It was drizzling the whole day, which made for a miserable walk to the train station. We took the train to the Sacre Coer, the church for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Next we went to the most adorable macaroon bakery. We bought Pista, Raspberry, Almond and Caramel Sea Salt flavors. I liked the Rasperry the best, but Caramel Sea Salt was pretty close :) We also got lollypops. Then we went to Notre Dame Cathedral. We had to wait in line to get in. Next we went to the main attraction....... The Eiffel Tower!! We didn't go in because tick,lllets were all sold out, but it started raining really hard. I just wanted to take a few pictures and leave by that point. Next we took the bus to see the Louvre. The rain had died down a bit by then, but we still were happy to get in and out of the cold. We walked around a bit before leaving and heading to Illy, a coffee shop. The hot chocolate was literally melted chocolate. It was just pure chocolate with some dots of cream on top. Then we went to a Mc Cafe. And guess what we saw! They were selling the most amazing macaroons and flan. I loved it so much and wished that they had one in the US :(

Eiffel Tower

Illy Hot Chocolate

Frankfurt

View of Frankfurt

We left Paris early Tuesday morning to leave for the area that most touched our hearts. Germany was just a well of memories for us. We arrived at Oma and Jenny's house after a few stops. We had hit 200 km/h on the Autobahn, which was definitely fun for all of us. We relaxed for a bit before heading over to Rolinda Grandma and Princeton Grandpa's house. We saw Priya and planned out the next day before heading back to Oma's. She bought two brand new mattresses just because we were coming. Suffice to say, we all slept very well :) 

Oma and Jenny

The next day we ate croissants and jam before leaving to go to my old kindergarten and visit our old house. My old school was closed already, but we looked around a bit. Then we went to a small mall that mom and dad had been to many times when they lived in Germany. We stopped at the grocery store and bought lots of chocolate! Then we went to Grandma Alphona and Grandpa Sorius's house. Then we made a mad dash to the Ziel Mall where we were going to meet up with some old friends. Priya and Bindu took me around to all the shops and we met up with Aunt Jana, Uncle Stephen and Stena. It felt so good to meet up with everyone again.

Kiren and Stena

View from the living room

 Switzerland

Nithika and I

Soooo cute!

I'm going to tell you first, I loved Switzerland. It was beautiful and relaxing and lots of fun, so I might be a litttlllee bit biased :) We left Germany early Thursday morning, making a stop in the Black Forest on our way to Switzerland. The views were breathtaking, like they were taken straight out of a panoramic postcard. We drove the 5 hours and they went by fast. Finally we reached our little HUGE guesthouse! It was fully furnished with 3 bedrooms. Mom and dad slept in one, Nina, Aunt Dula and Uncle Kandiban slept in the other and all the kids slept in the room with 4 beds (two bunk beds). It was so much fun! The next day we went on a waterfall hike and then went into the town of Interlaken. Today we took a train and then hiked up to another waterfall. Most of our time is spent relaxing, and it feels a lot like a vacation, unlike how the rest of our trip has been!


-------------------------------------------------------------

A special thank you to EVERYONE that we met on our trip. The fact that you all came out to visit when we were there for such a short time makes us all feel so special! We love all of you and hope that you come to visit us soon here in the good ol' USA.

Much love,
Yuna

German Fest 2012

Okay guys. Here goes..

I am sorry again.

But in between studying for my entrance exam, science fair and everything else, this blog post just seemed to get wedged in between everything.

So, in case you were wondering why this post date is the 28th of December, it's because I have more posts to write and I wanted to have them in a timely fashion.

So here it is, the long awaited, German Fest 2012
--------------------

German Fest (or Christkindlmarkt) is held in Chicago every year, and this year we made a big day trip down there to see it.

We decided to take the train there and back and that was loads of fun. I actually didn't have my camera until after we had left the German Fest area, so that should explain the lack of photos of German things.

This is Kiren looking outside from Dad's office on the 39th floor after returning from  Christkindlmarkt in downtown Chicago

The view from the 39th floor.

 Okay, so it wasn't the most entertaining post ever, but it is a blog post!!

Love you all!!

Until next time,
Yuna

Hello From India: Wedding and Communion

Hi! Its been a while since I posted last, but just wait until you hear what we've been doing!

The wedding was loads of fun. It was held at a gorgeous beach hotel that was loads of fun for everyone. Mom and Dad arrived on the morning of the 29th and they are leaving on Tuesday the 17th. We took some family pictures ( yes. The whole family. But I have to admit that we took about 40 pictures but not even one of them had everyone smiling and looking at the camera.) 

After that was Kiren's First Holy Communion. I made a surprise video for her which she loved. She was so happy to see everyone there. Here are some pics:

The kiddos dancing at the Communion.

Summer of Fun: Bucket List

This is my bucket list, or list of things that I want to do. Some of these will be accomplished in the Summer, but others won't.

Bucket List

• Wear a t-shirt that says life and hand out lemons on the street
• Yell 'PIKA PIKA' before someone sneezes
• Learn how to say I love you in 10 languages
• Go snorkling in the Great Barrier Reef
• See my best friend for 10 days in a row
• Go to a wedding and do a dance
• Write and publish a book
• Sit courtside at a Bulls v. Heat playoff game (a must)
• Wear mismatched socks
• Go to a major sporting event
• Throw a huge party and invite every single one of my friends
• Complete my summer of fun!
• Swim with dolphins
• Spend a whole day eating junk food without feeling guilty
• Tell someone the story of my life- without sparing any details
• Send a message in a bottle
• Plan a fake wedding
• Make a motto for myself and follow it
• Sleep under the stars
• Go to Carnival in Rio
• Find a job I love
• Make a bowl of peeled, seedless grapes
• Ski a black diamond
• Make a family tree
• Reflect on my biggest weakness and find ways that is my biggest strength
• Skydive
• Write a thank you letter every day for a whole year
• Own a cupcake bakery
• Learn to do a flip on a trampoline
• Win a contest
• Walk along the Great Wall of China
• Build a real tree house
• Have a huge closet
• Mentor someone
• Make a diffrerence