Yes, lots of updates!!!!!We got married last Thanksgiving!It was amazing. A total hectic high adrenaline trip back home. I had a lovely time with my family. We had loads of fun at the ceremonies although i didnt really favor staying away from my husband and not being able to talk and behave as freely as i wanted to. Traditions and rituals etc seemed to be not too bad since they were a mix of telugu and tamil ones and basically everything was done with a bit of modern relevance. Which was great!!!!I felt terrible leaving home, leaving India and getting back here. This time around i began really thinking, what was i going to do? Go back or not? I am getting used to it here. But i miss the smells,, the colors, the smiles and the family get togethers. What will i do when i get back? What will my husband do? There are no fabs back home. So what else can he do then????We have no answers now but will, sometime in the future. The thing thats great is to know we will find our answers together.
The other real big update is that we decided to spend a week in Europe. Yes, we saved up for it. Like crazy!They say nothing is impossible and in this case it is true. We had no guide, no tour package, no cruise to tell us what next or where we can find stuff. It was a three to four month period of reading on the net and looking for deals that finally paid off. We didnt get our visas the first time, our trip was almost canceled thanks to the BA strike and then the bad weather but we squeezed into the window of lovely winter weather and had a PERFECT time!
We landed in Rome, spent 3 days touring the city and breathing in all of its wonder. Then we took a train to Pisa and then Florence - the heart of the Renaissance. We then took a night train to Paris. It so happened we had first class tickets and we had our own porter that escorted me down the steps and took my bags. He was cute. And then we spent 3 lovely days in Paris. We headed straight to Versailles. It was my wish to go to the Palace. Boy were we glad we did! Then the next day we spent at The Louvre. My dream come true. We had pre downloaded audio tours on our ipods so we smugly walked past the looooong queues for audio guides. Crowds were crazy but it felt more like being back home. We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, walked along the Seine River and spent 3 romantic days in Paris. Our hotel in Paris was gorgeous and it was perfect!Contrary to tripadvisor which had people trashing everything, things were pleasant. Now i know if a corridor smelt of pee, it probably was a little musty. And if a certain place was full of roaches, probably one or two were seen.We had to be on our toes but its like being on guard on the streets of Chennai. We had a lovely time, good food and really unwound from all the wedding travel, pr-wedding hectic week that we both had been through for our own reasons.
So now we are back and have to grit our teeth and give this last leg of grad school a big mighty push. I am still fighting my knee. i find it frustrating not to be able to run. Its a valuable amount of "me" time that i got before. It was a really nice and very personal challenge.I need to get even better shoes for my knock knees and need to strengthen with squats, step routines and much more. But boy will i feel good the day i overcome it. I will i am sure and like anything else it is a matter of time. So for now here is to family, friends and the gorgeous memories we have with all of them. Hope u like the photos
