Primo's Wedding

Part 2 of maybe this crazy day (the first part was the SAT II)

Got on OroGuayas, a transportation company that has cars run from Guayaquil to Machala (I think to the whole province of El Oro) and vice versa. I arrived in Machala and hailed a taxi to the house. Everyone was rushing because we were all going to the wedding of my cousin. I didn't even have time to take a shower! I just threw on some dress clothes and applied some deodorant (that always works, doesn't it?). Got to the house of my cousin (sister to the groom) and saw a ton of family.

Something weird happened at this point. I saw there the Rotarian Roberto Gallegos, who had recently begun taking me to the Rotary club meetings because he lives in Puerto Bolívar, too. I knew him from the meetings and he was at the Banana Queen thing (see pictures above - he's in the last two photos). Well, I asked my cousin why he was here at the wedding, expecting him to be a friend or something, and he turned out to be my uncle! How crazy. That seems to always be happening. It's funny because Johnny here is my cousin (in a distant way). Johnny's dad's sister's daughter is my sister-in-law. Wow, is that crazy or what. So much family!

Back to the wedding. The groom was Roberto, my cousin, and the bride was Meng Yuan (who we call Mong), a girl from Taiwan. They met in the US, and they speak English to each other! Right now they live in Guayaquil and Mong is learning to speak Spanish. Her family came to the wedding. They didn't speak Spanish, and only a few spoke English. It was really cool to see these two families come together and to think how I came to be there in the mix. My father did the toast. We dined and listened to the live music. Here, everyone knows ALL the songs, not even kidding. They all know the songs, sing along, and dance, especially the adults! I asked Johnny how everyone knows the songs, and he said it's because they don't have many good songs, so that when there is a good song, they play it so much that everyone knows it. So all the people were singing along. After the live stuff, a DJ played some stuff, including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones and "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon! I was singing and dancing my little heart out on those.

I left with my brother Andrés and sister-in-law Paola. On the way home we stopped at San Viernes, a little store and burger joint. My brothers had been telling me about these burgers, so finally I got to go. My bro ordered me "la completa" which was a burger with cheese, tomato, crumbled chips, ham, mayo, and fried egg (I think that's everything). It was so delicious. I might even venture to say that it was the best hamburger that I've ever had. It was funny because when we got our ticket, we were number 1039 or something, and they were calling like 99 and 105. Andrés was joking that it was going to take until Monday, and I corrected him, saying probably not until Wednesday. That was pretty funny. The burger was humongous! When we finally got home, I just laid in my bed, expecting a heart attack.