Wedding #2

Michelle and Marieke were talking the other day and Michelle asked Marieke how much her bag weighed. Marieke replied, "70 liters." This massive misuse of units bothered me quite a lot, so I said, "That's like saying 'I'm 4 days tall." The only exception is that guys are allowed to measure water temperature in units of length.

On Monday Kate and I went to a Buddhist wedding, which was pretty cool. She was wearing a sari and I was in a shirt and tie, but since we were the only white people there, there was a lot of staring at us. All the women wore saris, but I think only immediate family (and me) wore ties. some of the guys wore jeans. There was quite a discrepancy in the level of effort that went into dressing for this. We sat around talking for a while and I think one of the cousins got dispatched as our guide because she was one of about 9 people who spoke english at this wedding. She was nice, and we chatted with her friends and her for most of the time. They played the most random musical selection I've ever heard. They started with every slow song from all of our high school dances and then into some Sri Lankan music, then back to English. Then I hear, "Two trailer park girls go round the outside, round the outside, round the outside." I laughed out loud. The actual ceremony was all in Sinhala, so I had no idea what was going on. About 50 of us packed into a regular sized living room and nobody bothered to turn on a fan. It's ok, it was only 90, they need at least triple digits to get hot here. I was sweating profusely. They did some stuff with leaves and the guy leading kept checking his watch. There was a little staircase that the bride and groom walked down at exactly 11am, so I think that's what all the time checking was about. Also, there were about 15 cell phone rings during the ceremony, 5 by the best man's. I think Craig would have killed me. And not only did the phones ring, people answered them. There seems to be no social norm for cell phones here or even for talking while other people are, it's kinda uncomfortable. Anyway, after we left the living room/oven, we went back out into the sun to chat some more. I noticed that all the men older than 18 or so were at the house down the hill. Eventually, one of the girls asked if I wanted a beer. It was a little after noon, and I didn't want to be rude, so she took me to the other house. Apparently, all the men were down there getting smashed. I had a beer (which are 675 mL here, so it's like 2 and a half beers from home) and they were offering me another. I hadn't eaten much and didn't want to be drunk, so I went up and ate instead. The food was good, but since this is Sir Lanka, we all ate with our hands. I only got a little on me. After that we sat in the sun some more and we wondering when the dancing would start. Not long after, a group of guys, obviously drunk, cleared off a dance floor and started dancing. In true wedding fashion, they were complete with the obligatory "Drunken Uncle". He was hammered and kept trying to dance with Kate. Don't worry, I was a good date and stood to the side taking pictures. We danced and sweated like Mike Tyson at a spelling bee (that's an old one, but I still like it). It was pretty fun and was intensely Sri Lankan, so it was good to have a nice cultural experience. They had a "homecoming" party for the bride and groom 2 days later. We didn't go to that because we had work, but I'm sure it was nice.

I've been in the Intensive Therapy Unit this week, which is pretty interesting. Japanese Encephalitis is some scary shit. Also, leptosporosis. (bacterial infection gotten from rat urine while working in rice paddies) A woman was admitted today with burns over 63% of her body (2nd and 3rd degree) from "suicidal burns from kerosine oil". She looks absolutely awful and is in extreme amounts of pain. The burns happened on November 26th. And she still is in constant pain. I don't even think she's on any analgesics (It's pronounced "ANalgesic", the pills go in your mouth.) They had to wash her today and she screamed the entire time. I think I would have, too.

Yesterday I started hearing this weird echoing noise while Kate was talking. I thought it was her, but no, it's me. I fell asleep for like a half hour listening to music with only the bud in my right ear, but oddly enough, my left ear is hearing weird. I may have a tumor. Anyway, every higher pitched noise sounds robotic. If someone said, "Roger, roger," like the droids from Star Wars, it would sound exactly like the movie. But only my left ear hears that, my right ear hears normally. So, when the nurses at the hospital talk, or the burn victim screams, I hear it normally, and then with a demonic echo attached. It's really weird, but I kinda like it, as long as it goes away soon.

There's a cricket match between England and Sri Lanka that's been going on for the past few weeks. They play 3 matches over a course of 3 weeks because eatch match takes 5 days. That's kinda the only cool thing about cricket, it's always going on during the week. It's like March Madness or the Olympics, except much more boring to watch. It's still cool to see though because in Galle you can sit on the walls of this huge fort and watch the match. Someone said about 9,000 English people came here to see the match. Cricket is actually more boring than baseball, but since it's new, I can stand it enough.

Good luck to everyone who still have finals. And, for everyone who's done, have a rum and coke for me. Dustin, have 9 Long Islands.

-Kurt