the last of the epic dates

I stayed up entirely too late on 12/11/12...or 11/12/12 depending on how you write it...I was packing, I was writing, I was fixing problems for my professor.  Ridiculous.

But I literally SAW 12/12/12 12:12:12am.  How cool is that?  Freakin awesome that's what it is.  And so began the last awesome repetitive date until 01/01/01, in 89 years.

I didn't sleep until around 3.  I was trying so hard to get everything absolutely ready for me to leave. Oh- amidst the awesome things that I did that day, I left Cambodia.  Yeah.  Not particularly my favorite thing ever, but it had to happen.  But that wasn't until late at night.

I woke up to wash my sheets and such at 6:30am.  But the power was out.  That's alright.  It gave me time to get ready for...
A traditional Khmer wedding.
It was Vanneth's niece's wedding I think.

I remember going to the Cambodia cultural village thing waaay early in the game and seeing a presentation of a wedding.  Well, this was a real one. 

There were a lot of weddings going on.  It didn't really dawn on me until later.  12/12/12- of course there are tons of weddings.  Having previously been adjacent to a Khmer wedding (set up right outside my house for a few days) I can tell which big tents are weddings.  They're the ones decorated in Pink and Yellow.
People get married in their houses.  In the front room actually.  They have the food/party tent in the street right outside their house.  The tent always has fruit at the entrance.  Fruit from trees.  In this case there were legit Banana branches outside.  But I've seen coconuts used as well.  The branch on one side is painted gold, the other silver.

Before the wedding starts there is a presentation of the dowry from the groom and his parents to the bride's parents.  What happened here is all the guests were given plates of food and send about a block down the road to wait until they could approach.  Basically we waited until the film crew (that's right) and the music was ready.  There was 2 of each type of food and you stood in 2 lines, partnered with your matching food item.  I had pomegranates, so I stood next to Sunny because she did too.
We approached the house, handed the food to the groom's parents in turn, and they set it down before the parents of the bride.
There is lots of bowing going on here.
I think during the food giving thing, the Groom is either there or he comes out during it. But the bride isn't there yet.

So after we walked our little thing, we went into the big tent where they fed us food.  I had an entire dragonfruit- man I'm gonna miss that. When we were done we went and watched the 'exciting part of the rituals'.

Khmer weddings are very loud.  Everything and everyone is using a microphone.  The priest guy, saying his thing, the little instrument group, the singers- everyone.
I asked Pattica why, and he said it was because they wanted all of the ancestors to be able to hear about the wedding.

So they do these ritual things.  They open silver boxes....it's all very small ritual stuff.  Hard to follow.
You know what I did notice?  The groom was smiling THE WHOLE TIME.  He was super excited and you could tell.
The bride DID. NOT.  It was like her face was set in a mask.  I asked Pattica why she wasn't smiling.  He said that you're not supposed to smile during your wedding or else people will think that you planned it on your own.  (That's taboo)  When I pointed out that the groom was smiling he said 'Oh, well of course he is happy, he gets a wife!'
 I don't get it.


 So she is there, miss stone face, and she didn't crack a smile until he finished putting the ring on her finger.  And I caught it on camera.

So then the couple goes and changes into a different outfit.  And the singer/comedians entertain you while you sit and wait.  Then they come out and do the traditional cutting of the hair with these special gold scissors.  Traditionally, girls would not have their hair cut until their wedding and then they'd cut it in order to get rid of all the past bad luck.  They don't actually cut their hair now, they just pantomime it.

There is lots of  Asean music (yes, I spelled it right.  Indochina goes by 'Asean' as well as 'Asian') and more laughing and poking fun at marriage by the singing/laughing couple.  Then we left.  There are more rituals and then a whole lot of dancing, for at least a day.  They give you lucky money in red envelopes as you come and go.  But that was all for me.  We needed to head back and I could get some paperwork for Botevy and go visit CICFO for the last time.   And there you have it.
I rung in 10/10/10 finishing up with the very first Haunted Lagoon at the PCC.
I spent 11/11/11 at an Aborigine seminar.
I was in Cambodia and spent 12/12/12 at a traditional wedding.
It is a good thing there is no 13/13/13 because I'd have to go to the moon to top this.