Michele's travels

From New York, I took a train across the "Empire State" to Buffalo, near the Canadian border, in order to get to East Aurora, where my friend Paul (from Luxembourg) was getting married on the weekend to Sara (from East Aurora!). It was a beautiful train journey, which went all along the Hudson River up to Albany, and then cut across the state. Upon arrival, I took a taxi from the train station to get to East Aurora. Turns out this was going to be my worst taxi ride of this trip. The driver, a 60-something fierce Republican first took me to Buffalo Airport, where he dropped off two other passengers, then we nearly got into a fight over the number of miles it was from the train station to East Aurora, but finally, I got to my destination, but I had to listen to his anti-Obama ramblings for about 20 min. East Aurora is your typical small, middle-to-upper-class American town: quaint, with neatly painted white house with huge front and back gardens, and a proud American flag. There was hardly anybody in the streets on this Saturday afternoon, and I was wondering, where are they? On Friday evening, there was a little ice-breaker party with local food, the two families and those friends of the bride & groom who had already arrived. I caught up with SLSB friends (Betti, Robi, Thierry, Danielle) and was getting into the mood for the main event. The next day, we waited 1 hour in a local diner for an American-style breakfast (but it was well worth it!) where we could overhear some conversations of the locals. Here's an extract from one of them. Old Lady: "She was only 16, and they got married." Old Man: "Why, was she pregnant?" Old Lady: "No. But it didn't last anyway." At 3pm was the wedding ceremony, which took place outside, next to a tree, in a park. Very simple, but very amazing. There were readings by friends & family, music by Marc (Paul's brother) and his girlfriend, vows by Sara & Paul and a proper big kiss at the end! Afterwards was the wedding reception, with speeches, at the Roycroft Inn, where almost everyone was staying, followed by dinner and dancing! The DJ did a good job, and almost everyone was dancing. We ended the night with two Luxembourg "party classics": Lacs du Connemara and Sprangprocessioun! The Americans loved it, but must think now that the Luxembourgers are descendant from the Irish. Who knows, maybe we all are? (Ady would probably agree with that ;-)). When it comes to partying, I would definitely say that there are at least some Irish influences there. At 11 pm, the wedding ended, all the Amercians went to bed and all the Luxembourgers gathered in the garden to finish a great night of celebration with the wine leftover from the evening...