March, 2008: What a month!

One cure for the winter blues is to head to South Africa for a while, where the sun is hot and strong and shining... as it was in Cape Town where I co-led a week-long training for Maersk then spent a few nights with this incredible view of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for fifteen years. Whoa.

More than anyplace I've been, Cape Town reminded me of home. As in Florida home. I wasn't expecting to go all the way to Africa to be reminded of home... but Cape Town has the wealth and the beautiful, white, long, sandy beaches. It has the yachts and the shopping.

One thing you don't so much see in Sarasota, though, is the gospel choir bustin' it up like they did this particular Sunday afternoon in posh Camp's Bay. I ate Thai food while they sang... not Sarasota-like at all. (The little dude watching down front in his wetsuit was cute as a button.)
Yes, I know it's not all like this. One day I went (accompanied) into the Townships. No one really knows how many hundreds of thousands of people live in the shantytowns -- many had well-built homes demolished under Apartheid when a whole district of Cape Town, District Six, was bulldozed and they were forcibly relocated... more and more people arrive from other, less thriving African nations every day. The mass of humanity in these places is overwhelming. I didn't feel comfortable taking photos, so I found this one on the Web.

In some of the communities, families have built regular brick homes. In others, just a few spiggots and outhouses serve tens of thousands of people. They rig up the electricity (see the wires in the photos?). Everyone we saw, even in these places, had cell phones. Every place we went had a TV, too, and I saw at least three young men with giant new televisions still in boxes balanced on their heads -- heading home on a Saturday with their prized purchases.

Truth be told, I fell in love with South Africa this month. I can't wait to go back and drive the Garden Route, go on Safari up near Krueger National Park, go to the winelands, see the penguins and head all the way to the very tip of the continent. One of my husband's best friends lives in Johannesburg, so we'll for sure head back there soon.

Yes, that's right -- go to Cape Town is not all I did this month... We got married! In Italy! It was amazing and more than we hoped for or expected.

It's funny... you say you're getting married, and people do strange things in their heads. We seem, across cultures, to have so many ideas and expectations and assumptions about what it means and how it should go.

Stefan and I weren't thinking about all that stuff. We talked about it. Neither of us cared about having a big wedding -- we each already had. We wanted to be married to each other. We wanted to do it in a beautiful place. We love Italy, so that seemed to make sense. And we go on a marvelous ski trip there -- it is one of Stefan's favorite weeks of the year.

There's a lot that complicated it, and we didn't know for sure if we'd be able to get married til just a few days before we did, but here's how it went...

I bought the outfit on Ralph Lauren.com. On sale for half off. I love a good deal and I don't hem. The pants fit fine, thank goodness. Here we are outside the town hall at sunset, just before the ceremony. You can click to see it bigger, Mema. :-)

We didn't know what we were agreeing to 'til the very day of the thing and I was a little worried. I didn't know... in Italy do they say, "I agree to love, honor and obey... til death do us part?" Because if they do, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work for me! :-)

Well, turns out in Italy you agree to three wonderful, sensible things:

1. You agree to collaborate, the word in Italian is collaborazione... you'll support and be supported, grow and nurture, etc. You'll collaborate. That we're both looking forward to. Check.
2. This one's funny -- you actually have to agree that you'll decide together what your address will be. One person cannot force another to move or live somewhere they don't want to. Good idea, seems pretty basic. Check.
3. This one's lovely. It says that if there are children, you'll agree to raise them taking into consideration each individual child's personal abilities and interests, natural gifts and talents. What a genius thing to have to agree to! We don't know yet if this will apply, but in theory we're totally in agreement. Check!


So we LOVED what we were agreeing to, we signed the papers -- we were married in grand Italian fashion! The mayor put on quite a show!

And then to the snowmobiles! We had made no plans for a reception before we arrived for our ski week.

We found out then that one of Stefan's favorite lunch spots on the mountain is open one night a week for a candlelight dinner... and you get there by snowmobile! We wined, dined and danced to typical Tyrolean music and food. Stefan, as you can see from his pose down at the very bottom with the many desserts, was a very happy man! If we had known it was going to be so great, we would have invited more people... but we had no idea.I was soooooo glad my Mom and my Aunt Patsy came!

If you'd like, you can see a slideshow of photographs at : http://www.flickr.com/photos/xpatadventures/sets/72157604258344627/show/

So that's been my March... it's been a hell of a month! The adventure continues!