American wedding experience

I am writing this post after long time because I am really busy! In this post I will be sharing my American wedding experience. My host brother got married.

For me it all started like 2 weeks before the actual wedding, when I started searching for a nice outfit for the wedding. After a short period of time I found a nice "suit" and I bought it (it was extremely cheap!). For the rest of the family, everything, the preparation and organization for the wedding started like a year ago. They've chosen the date for the wedding a year ago, planing to be in the amazing colorful fall. My host mom was working like all the time, the whole year on the flowers for the wedding.

So the wedding day was coming closer and closer. In the American weddings, the night before the wedding, they have a rehearsal dinner. So the night before the wedding - 18.10.2013 we (usually the parents of the groom) hosted the rehearsal dinner. We had a huge tent in our backyard. We decorated the tent very beautifully with lots of flowers/decorations that my host mom designed. The weather and the colorful fall trees in the background make the event to look completely awesome.

 So around 7 pm all the people that are in the wedding ceremony (the bride, the groom and his friends, the bridesmaids etc) and the family that traveled long way started coming. We had dinner ordered from restaurant, it was so delicious. So basically the rehearsal dinner is not really for rehearsing, but more like a get together for just talking to all the people, relaxing and having fun. Our neighbor had made an amazing pinata too.

The pinata was the castle where the wedding ceremony and the party will occur and at the gate it had a picture of the marrying couple. It was so beautiful but pinatas are for being destroyed, so all the people that were in the ceremony destroyed it (it was tough at the beginning). So after 3-4 hours everyone started going home. The bride and the bridesmaids went together to a house where they spent the night and the groom and his friends in a other house. After everyone was gone, we cleared the tent. This night I was the picture guy! I took loots of great pictures and I had lots of fun as well!

The next day, 19th October was the actual wedding. The day came when all the effort for organizing, and preparing the wedding paid off. We woke up early, finished clearing up the tent from the rehearsal dinner mess and started preparing for the wedding. After everyone got prepared, we went to the place where the wedding was - the amazing Searles Castle. My "job" that day was to record videos of everything important! That day I discovered that I'm very good with recording cameras.

Everything was ready and perfect at the castle. Everything looked completely magical. The castle was amazing, especially the inside of it.

The groom with his friends were in one room of the castle preparing and the bride and the bridesmaids in other room. I guess it was same like on the movies, the man room completely chill and relaxed and the women room panicking. After they all got ready, the groom saw the bride in her wedding dress for the first time. It was very nice moment, the groom was standing in the yard of the castle and the bride tapped him on his shoulder to turn around. After that the other guests came and the ceremony started. It was like on the movies! Everyone was siting and then the wedding officiant came, then the parents of the groom and bride, after them, the groom with his friends came, after the groom the bridesmaids one by one came. Then when the bride with her father started coming, everyone stood up. The father gave blessing to the groom and handed over his daughter. The wedding officiant started the ceremony and after a while, they put the rings that the best man had and they got married!

Something that was special for this wedding ceremony was that the marrying couple have had written letters to each other how they love each other and they put those letters in a box that they will open after 10 years just to remind them how happy and in love they are. After the ceremony, the guests one by one started congratulating the married couple.
And then finally, the party! Next to the place where the ceremony occurred was a wicked huge tent where the party was. It was interesting that we had to solve a small math puzzle in order to find where we sit. Then the people that were in the wedding ceremony made an amazing fun entrance. The bride and the groom had their first dance as married couple. The best men(s) gave the speeches (they were really funny) and the married couple cut their cake. It was really fun and ~live~ party. Everyone was dancing and having so much fun. That party kind a reminded me of the parties in Macedonia.

Everyone was having such a great time and even the 98 and 86 year old grandmas were dancing!
 During the rest of the night they cut their wedding cake, they danced with the parents, the bride of honor and the best mans (there were two best mans in this wedding, the groom's brother and the groom's best friend), the bride threw the bucket from one of the towers of the castle. From all of the american weddings I saw so far (on movies or), this one was definitely the best and most fun one! The plot was kind a similar to the plot of Macedonian wedding but there were lots of differences too, like the american weddings have bridesmaids and the groom has friends, the parties are different because there is different music etc.

 To sum it, I had extremely great time and I will always remember this wedding! I really liked having this kind a busy day(s) with lots of people in our house. I'm so thankful for being hosted by this family because I got this amazing american wedding experience!

AFS Weekend 28-29 September

In this post I will be talking about the amaizing weekend I had with the other AFS - YES/FLEX/SYBL (sponsored programs) students. You must've notice that I use amaizing/awesome/great a lot and its true, I use it a lot and everything is really amaizing/awesome/great!!!

So on Saturday, 28th September I woke up, ate breakfast and went to Tynksborough to catch the bus to Boston. Getting a ticket and the bus ride was a great experience. It is different than Macedonia. Here, in order to get a ticket you need to give somekind ID card (student or driver's licence or so), the busses are so more organized, comfortable and they have Wi-Fi! So after around 30 min I arrived at South Bus Station - Boston!

 The city is amaizing! It is so beautiful! All the skyscrapers, beautiful buildings, organized roads, the under-ocean traffic tunnel... Ouhhhh it is unbelivable! So I met with the clouster coordinator (a volonteering AFS person who is in charge for a clouster-group of exchange students in a certain region), with the other exchange students and with an amaizing, funny AFS volonteer. We went to Rosie's place, a Boston sanctuary for poor and homeless women. We volonteered 3 hours there! We made and served the lunch. I did every possible thing/job to be done! I unloaded groceries, I did laundry, I was prepairing the lunch, I served, I washed dishes, everything!

 You cannot imagine the feeling when the ladies were saying "Thank You!" for helping them by just giving them the one of the things that all people should have - food! I had so much fun and I was feeling full, happy, satisfied of me! Not only by volonteering you help people, you always have fun too, so if you ever have a chance do NOT miss it, you'll see what I was talking about :) ! After that we went to the 09 / 11 ( 11th September 2001 event when the 2 planes crashed to the twin towers in New York) monument near the Logan Airport (Boston's airport).

This is an important day for Boston and the region because the two planes took of from Boston and all the plane staff was from here... We did a very important activity there. All 8 students from all over the world got a part of a connected tangled rope and tried to untangle it.

 After communication and colaboration between we untangle'd the rope. It is same with all other world's conflicts! In order to get over them and achieve peace we just need to communicate and colaborate between, so do your best! And because of this all the sponsored programs and AFS exist! To connect people and to bring peace!
After this, we went to the Scicuate Lighthouse located in Scicuate :D . It was so darn beautiful! The ocean with it's unlimited beauty and unlimited horisont and just next to the ocean the lighthouse!

The lighthouse was built in 1810 with a purpose to lead all the ships, but it wasnt working for all of this 203 years. From period to period of time was broken but what is important now it works! We met amaizing people there! The lighthouse keeper and his daughter, very friendly people!

After that we went to our cluster coordinator's house to overnight. We had some meetings/orientations there, we (practised) presented our countries, we played games and then we went to bed.
The next morning, Sunday 29th September we went to Plymoth, the place where one of the first groups of people - the Pilgrams settled North America. In Plymoth we went to the historical living museum - Plimoth Plantation. It was so amaizing! At one part you have real Native Americans (or Indians) living as they lived in their time and doing all of their chores! And on the other part there were the English people - The Pilgrams who also were living as the actual settlers lived. I was seeing the history with my own eyes! The people that worked were so amaizing actors! They were totaly acting as a Native American/Settler, I couldn't see any difference between what I've knew/studied and what I was seeing! Amaizing!

After the Plimoth plantation we went to the "Mayflower" the original ship with who the settlers came from England to Plymoth. The ship was so beautiful. And again it was left totaly the same as when it came for the first time there and there were actors - settlers in the sheep aswell!

After this historical museums we ate lunch next to the ocean, went some souvenir shopping and then returned to Boston. From Boston I took the bus to my home and after around half hour I was home! It was so fun and exciting weekend! Thanks to the AFS volonteers who organized this!
(Full picture album - Click Here)

American Football - A way to socialize

The American football is one of the ways for American teenagers to get to gether (socialize).

In my town, my school - Chelmsford High School plays a game every friday. The game is either home game or either away game. The first three weeks I've been here all the games were home games. So around 7 clock almost the whole town goes to the CHS's football field. It is so crowded! The parking is so full. This is a very nice tradition where almost all town's residents get together, but the best is for the teenagers. The ticket for a student for the game is 5 bucks. All the teenagers after a week of school, come here just to hang out and relax with their friends. So as all the others, I'm going to the home games with my friends aswell.

Sad to say but the only people who actually pay attention to the game are either the school staff or either some player's sibling/parent. All the other just hang out, laugh, have fun and dont really watch the game. The only moment when everyone cheers and pays attention is when Chelmsford would score point, then everyone goes "Yeaaaaaaahhhh!".

Also every Sunday there is like Patriot's (Massachusetts team) or UMass (Favorited college team) game and me and my host family always watch it and then have dinner. So like every sunday the whole family gathers, all my host siblings who don't leave in the house, my host grandmother and my host parents, we are all together watching the game and having dinner. After so short period of time, like after 2-3 weeks I learnt the game! I understand almost everything of American football thanks to all the games I've watched so far :).

The best football experience I had so far was on September 21st when my host dad took me to the UMasses game at the Gillete stadium (the Patriot's and now UMasses home stadium, IT IS HUGE AND AWESOME!). So my host siblings organized this event, bought the tickets etc. One of the best things that Americans do is "tailgating". 

Tailgating is again socializing way brought by the football. Everyone gathers on the parking lot 2 or more hours before the game starts, and "parties". The party includes food, soda's, music etc.So that saturday morning me, my host dad and a friend that I invited to come went to Gillete stadium, Foxborough. We chose a great place on the parking for tailgating. After a while my host siblings came with their wifes/fiancees and lots friends. The fun began in that moment! We made barbecue, we played catch, we talked...etc.

I was teaching all the people there about Macedonia by answering all of their questions. There were a lot of other people who were tailgating too. After 2 hours of tailgating, the game started. We entered the HUGE stadium which was not full (because it was a college game), but anyways there was awesome athmosphere. We watched the game and it was like on television, a lot of cheerleading (cheerleaders, marching bands, dancers...). There was a marrige proposal scenes too! There were exciting moments at the game! But unfortunately UMass lost and afther the end of the game we want back home.That saturday was awesome experience for me, I had so much fun and im very thankful to my host family for bringing me there!

Everything else in my life is awesome aswell! The school is great, I am doing great, the teachers are fun, the subject are so interesting... To sumarize the style of life here is totally different than the style of life in Macedonia.
Till next post :)
(Full picture album - Click Here)