Wedding Crashers – Part 6

Friday night I met up with Paul and we attended the rehearsal dinner for AF and his wife-to-be A and then headed out to a local establishment to close out the evening.  We had the whole law school group and their significant others there which was a lot of fun.

Paul really enjoyed the rehearsal dinner food :)

Paul, AN, and AB

the band is back together!

Day 17

Wedding #3 was on Saturday.  We had stayed the night at J’s place since she’s going to school in the same town.  That morning we went out for a late breakfast, napped, and met up with the wedding party and family at Carolina Ale House to watch some football and grab some lunch.  I know Paul definitely misses watching football and basketball with his friends.  I don’t think I would have guessed that I would miss that, but I have especially missed our lazy Sunday afternoons where after church we would grab brunch with friends and then just relax around the house watching football games.  I try to stay up late and watch at least one game with Paul each week out here, but usually by the 2nd quarter I am sleeping on the couch.

Then the boys got dressed up and headed out for pre-ceremony photos.  C, J, and I got ready for the wedding and then headed over to the church.  It was  nice ceremony and fun to see all of the group together again.  I really liked the bridesmaids dresses and was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t too much of that Carolina blue in the wedding colors ;)

AF-AB Wedding Party

Don't they look hansome

The girls got to join the wedding party on the bus to take the group over to the reception and then we partied the night away.

Celebrate good times, come on!

Day 18

Sunday afternoon we said our goodbyes and headed back to my parents’ home.  We had a few things to sort through and take care of while we were there and then it was time to start the Packing Challenge.  I had bought quite a few things that I haven’t been able to find out here.  Space wasn’t an issue, but I was afraid that weight would be since we had to take a domestic flight to Chicago to take our Etihad flight back to AUH.  I was told on the phone that we wouldn’t get any extra allowance for travelling to the middle east with another airline, but we lucked out when we got to the  airport where they didn’t charge us and checked our bags all the way though :)

Day 19

Monday morning Paul and I joined my mom in yoga class to stretch out before the long journey ahead.  We did our final packing and my mom took us to the airport.  I am not going to lie and say that we couldn’t wait to be back in the UAE, but I do think that we were ready to come back.  I don’t think I would have been ready 1 week earlier.

Day 20

We lucked out again on our Etihad flight and had the 3 row aisle to ourselves.  Unfortunately I couldn’t keep my self awake on the first half of the flight, so I wasn’t able to try to adjust my sleeping timetable to UAE time.  When we arrived it was a very interesting feeling.  Instead of the new, bewildered, excited, tired, adventurous feeling that I had when I first landed in the UAE after moving here, I had a feeling a familiarity.  The humidity felt familiar.  The smell of the air felt familiar.  The accent of the taxi driver was familiar.  We walked into our apartment it was our house.  Still not home, but it wasn’t foreign anymore either.