My Big Fat Thai Wedding

Last week I was invited to a wedding.  It was beautiful and, by far, the best wedding I've been to in Thailand.  The bride is a nurse, thus, the wedding was held at the local hospital and other nurses stopped by during their break.

I had only met the bride once, but she was so excited to have me there that I ended up in what I believe are a majority of her wedding pictures.

With some of her nursing colleagues...

With some of her friends and family...

And then, as if it couldn't get more awkward, people started asking to take pictures just with me - without the bride and groom. 

At first I felt bad about this, but the bride and groom seemed to really be enjoying all the fuss as I posed for what seemed like hundreds of prom photos with people I had never met before. 

However, it didn't really hit me until today, when I was listening to This American Life's program about ex-patriots living in China (thank you El for sharing it with me), that no matter how long I live here, I'm always going to be different and strange.  An outsider.  A novelty, even.  Sometimes that will be celebrated - like at the wedding.  And sometimes it will make me feel like the smallest, most insignificant being on the planet.