(CH)ICAGO ABROAD: B-MORE...COMING TO AMERICA

"I shall find my wife in Baltimore" Actually, Eddie Murphy's character said "QUEENS" in his hit comedy Coming to America, but I decided to take creative license on this one. This past weekend, the wife and I took to Jet setting and landed in beautiful and adventurous Baltimore for her grad school friend's wedding. The agenda had us leaving on a Thursday and returning Monday a.m, roughly 17 hours in the air and little less than 48 hours of "wedding it up and shopping"

Yes, shopping. My wife had some serious shopping bubbling up in her. WE DO NOT BUY anything in Switzerland, except for the absolute necessities, water, chocolate, cheese, bratwurst and fruit. So when the wife said that she was looking forward to helping me with finding some jeans, what she really meant was "I don't like the jeans that you have and I want to get you some new ones" AND "I'm going to shop until I drop, so try to keep up!!!"

For the record, I absolutely loved my wedding, loved it, loved it. All your favorite people in one place at one time to basically tell you how much they love you and how great you and your bride are (mostly the bride in my case). The only thing I wish I could have done at my wedding was get married and also be a guest but these damn cloning laws won't permit that just yet. In Nascar racing, they use the term "getting loose in the corners" and when we go to weddings, we love to get loose in the corners. Loose in the corners basically means that when you're entering a turn or in a turn and that your car is sliding up or down and for obvious reasons this is dangerous. But it can also be a good thing too, being too tight can be bad as well. But at our wedding, about 90% of the population was loose in the corners. They didn't hit the wall but they came damn close. And my wife says my analogies are crazy.

We landed in Washington Dulles right at rush hour, picked up our rental and spent the next 2.5 hours fighting traffic to Baltimore. It would not have been as bad if there wasn't an accident. The traffic didn't scare me, the accident didn't scare but my wife's navigating was a bit scary. My wife gets a bit anxious when she's really close to seeing family and friends. Needless to say she was ready to see all her old grad school friends. As my mother always says, "You're my precious cargo, so please take care of yourself". We hit the hotel, freshened up, and changed clothes all under 20 minutes and then we were off to the rehearsal dinner. I'll say this, we didn't end up going to bed until 8am Zurich time, so we were up until 2am EST. At that point, after a 9 hour flight, we were just running on fumes and good old american bravado, swagger, and nostalgia.

But in the process, we enjoyed ourselves, ordered a few pizzas, I had promised the Groom's mother that I would dance with her at the wedding reception and consumed enough Sangria and Whiskey to make both Spain and Kentucky very proud. Mixed cocktails or anything more complicated than a beer is at least $20 over here in Zurich. I was just excited to spend less than $10 for anything.

The next day we were up bright and early and at the mall on Baltimore's harbor at 930am. So the plan was to shop, then nap, and then get our wedding on. The mall didn't open until 10am but did I mention how anxious my wife is when it comes to something she wants. They gave me a trophy for being the best husband in the world....

Best in the World...

Along the way in Baltimore, we found some hidden treasures....

Whoaa not that one..

Basilica

The wedding and the reception were awesome. The wedding was held at a church affiliated with the high school the Groom attended and the reception was at the Peabody Library, one of the best reception locations I've had the privilege of seeing. The library looked like it was straight out of a Harry Potter novel. More than 30 years ago, the same priest married the Groom's mother and father as well.

My pictures don't do the reception area justice...

There were one of kind books in this library that were 200 years old. In a related but unrelated story, at our wedding we had different candy at our rehearsal dinner including lemonheads and gummy bears. Let's just say, that the groom, loose in the corners, tried to confiscate all the gummy bears at our post rehearsal party party. He was not only successful, but the people in charge, my wife, mother-in-law, and the resort management team thought it was me that stole the gummy bears. I love gummy bears but why would I steal gummy bears from my own wedding? Is it even stealing if I take them....anyways. So I tried to return the favor by removing a 200 year old book...with absolutely no success.

3am post reception party, Groom with his "Ball and Chain" prop

Ok, ok,ok, this is getting quite long but I have one more story until the next time. At the reception, at our table, somehow we got on the topic of the movie Coming to America. I guess the Groom quotes lines from the movie every 20 minutes. Our table was pretty diverse. My wife and I were one of three interracial couples at the table, a crazy mix of Brazilian, African-American, Jamaican and English/Welsh folk. Actually, the same race couples were in the minority but like I said we were talking about the movie and one person from South Africa said "What do you mean you did an expose on that movie?" The guy, let's call him "Eric" said, "yeah it was Black History month and in grade school we had to write about a movie or person that influenced american culture and I chose that movie, it is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen"

It was like synchronized laughing, because we all laughed for at least 10 minutes. One of the funniest things I've heard in my life. Still makes me laugh today.

Yet another great trip and we can't wait to be Coming to American in July! Yep, you guessed it, another wedding.

It's 80 degrees here in Zurich....I'll leave you with this image of me blogging in Zurich Zentrum...