White Wedding 5 - It over. It's all over

For roughly 80 hours from Thursday to Sunday, I got to experience a Hindu wedding. From the Garba and religious ceremony/party on Thursday to the reception early into Sunday morning. We laughed, we cried, inappropriate jokes were shared between me and my brother. Dances were danced, songs were sung, rings were exchanged, drinks were consumed and at some point, my brother and sister-in-law became married. For a more in depth recap of the week's events, start here, then proceed to here, here, here and finally here.

Rather than rehash everything again, this post is about what I've learned. So, in no particular order, here's an incomplete list of what I gathered.

The line between religious ceremony and party is not overly clear in some Hindu rituals.

My family exemplifies the fact that white people have no rhythm.

Practitioners of the Hindu faith are extremely friendly.

Practitioners of the Hindu faith know how to throw a party.

Irish Catholics and Hindus together throw really fun parties together.

I don't have the attention span to sit through an entire Hindu wedding.

Indian food is spicy, but good.

I really, really, really can't dance. (Go to the 1:05 mark to see me dancing.)

Thriller is fun and funny in any culture.

Apparently white people look good in Indian clothes (that or our new Indian friends are very polite and had no trouble lying to us.)

The sweet tea at Smoke on the Water in Greenville is fantastic. The unsweet tea at the hotel is whatever you consider the opposite of fantastic.

GPS devices should incorporate music into their directions (Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' when you need to make a U-turn, 'Irreplaceable' by Beyonce when you're supposed to turn left.) It's 2010, why isn't this a standard feature yet?

Making my mom cry is fairly easy at weddings. Predicting the number of times she'll cry in a given hour is a bit more difficult.

Kids who don't like large crowds should not attend a baraat (though my kid did fine until I brought him into the middle of the circle to dance, he looked around for about two minutes and then realized 'holy crap, dad, wtf are you doing to me? Get me out of here.')

Alright friends, it's been a long weekend, thanks to everyone for reading. If you enjoyed it, tell your friends. Thank you, come again.