The Bride
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Yeah, she makes me look better. |
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Chantal's so excited to get me out of
the country (in this case Costa Rica). |
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Will not attend our wedding. | |
Chantal was greeted to the world in December of 1977 by a tuxedo adorned man, her father. Her high society upbringing continued as her father had rented a limousine in which to bring her home to their London home. Her high society life will all come to an end on April 28, 2007.
OK, most of this is true, but maybe not all of it. You'll have to ask Chantal and her parents if you want the whole story. She was in fact born in London, but in less than a year had relocated with her family to Lexington, Massachusetts, where she met Rebecca and had an unfortunate bowl haircut, eerily reminiscent of my own. She remained there for about eight years before returning to London, where she lived until college.
During her London years, Chantal initially attended British school at Godolphin and Latymer, which has such famous alumni as Kate Beckinsale (she's unfortunately already expressed her regrets and will be unable to attend our nuptials). Eventually she transferred to the American School in London, where she met Lauren and Pam, to approximate an American upbringing, though I don't seem to remember many school formals with open bars in Sunnyvale.
Growing up abroad has definitely given Chantal a taste for travel. During college (she earned an American Studies degree from Georgetown), she spent a semester in India. A couple of years after college, she and Kirsten took a three month trip to Southeast Asia and New Zealand. She's even gotten me to visit Chile and Costa Rica. (I, on the other hand, have taken to her to exotic locales like the Gilroy Garlic Festival and a farmer's market two blocks from our apartment.)
I do think that these experiences have given her a genuine appreciation for the challenges faced by those who were not born into fortunate circumstances. After college she spent the best/worst two years of her life as a teacher in Washington, DC through Teach for America (TFA) and followed that up with a couple of years at the education nonprofit, KIPP. She is now working at another educational nonprofit, BUILD (she only works at places with acronyms), in which she's got me involved as a mentor for the past two years. (If you would like a Bling Buckle, I can hook you up.)
The other thing that these world travels have given Chantal is a vast repertoire of accents. In fact she not only can easily slide between English, Australian, Irish, Russian and Indian accents, but each one of them has their own persona. As you might expect, her English accent is uptight and proper, but her best accent might be her Australian, finely honed after years of watching Neighbors. Recently, this accent was given the stamp of approval by an actual Australian, so I expect to we'll see that fun-loving Aussie on the dance floor after a few cocktails.
