My First Israeli Wedding

So I went to my first Israeli wedding on Tuesday and it was so freaking great !

I've only been to four weddings in my life, two of which were before I was 10 years old and the other two were religious ceremonies where men and women had to sit separately. I guess you could say this is the first wedding that I went to that I remember and could actually dance with some male cuties !

I went to the affair (what a fancy word) with my friend Yiftach and had been planning my outfit for the past week. As an American, I wanted to wear a pretty dress and heels. But people kept telling me that weddings here are super casual. People wear jeans, and that's considered appropriate apparel.

So I settled on a black dress with high white wedges. The wedding was in Beit Lechem Galil (not Beit Lechem, Beit Lechem) which is a moshav in the north. The place was really, really beautiful. Everything was outside, including the chupa (marriage ceremony).

Funny differences between American and Israeli weddings (besides the fashion):

- In America, after the groom steps on the glass (signifying the couple is now married), the two kiss and everyone is happy and enjoys a lovely, classy exit.
  In Israel, after the groom steps on the glass, a loud, obnoxious song by Baha Men "Who Let the Dogs Out" beings playing and all old people under the chupa rush to find refuge from the dancing newleyweds.

- In America, dogs don't roam around the wedding party
  In Israel, all moshav dogs come and start eating whatever food fell on the floor and take dancers (such as myself) by surprise when they feel some fur while dancing.

Obviously this isn't all Israeli weddings, just the one on a moshav that I went to this week. It was amazing though, and I loved every moment of it.

Yom Kippur

Another Yom Kippur come and gone, and now I don't have to worry about not eating for another year! (or few months, considering tisha ba'av and stuff)

So my Yom Kippur in Israel was not so bad, and I went to Shul a lot more than I expected to. Considering my Kibbutz is so entirely chiloni (secular) and that during the week I get no spiritual/religious stimulation watsoever, I was not expecting anything too great today.

But they hired a Rabbi who came to spend the "chag" on the kibbutz, and had services last night, all day today, and tonight until they blew the shofar (signifying that the fast is over).

Israelis are pretty funny. Usually no one really cares about religion, but today and yesterday the shul was PACKED. literally not enough seats, barely any room to move, all the machzors (prayer books) were taken, etc.

But tomorrow, they're probably going to go back to not doing anything religious. Which is fine (I hope I'm not making a value judgement here) but it was nice to have that bit of tradition I'm used to for the day.

HI DAN ISRAEL!

Happy New Year!

So I spent my first Rosh Hashannah (Jewish new year) in Israel this past week. I went up north (well actually its the center of Israel but from here, the south, central is north) to Even Yehudah and spent the chag with my family.

My sister is also in Israel now so she came, too. We spent Wed- Saturday at my cousins house eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping. Now that I'm back on the kibbutz I'm so used to just sleeping that waking up for ulpan is posing a big(ger) problem (than usual) !

All the girls in my garin are getting our manilas today. Manilias are pretty much all the jobs that we're being offered to do in the army. I'm really nervous to open mine because my kaba (iq score) is low because they gave me the damn test in Hebrew. So I'm fully expecting shitty jobs like being a secretary.

Which is not why I came to Israel. I'm nervous, and pishy.

Lots of stuff to update on.. but I'm a bit distracted right now because I'm listening to a shiur (lesson) by this Rabbi about Rosh Hashannah (the Jewish new year thats coming up this week). The kibbutz I'm living on is so secular, and I'm used to much more - and to be honest, I really miss being (more) observant. So I do little things like listen to Rabbi's teachings. DON'T WORRY MOM I WILL NOT FLIP OUT AND WEAR ONLY SKIRTS

I like boys too much :)

So I just had a wonderful weekend up north in Yokenam Moshava at my friend Yiftach's house. I know Yiftach from last summer when he was part of the Israeli mishlachat (delegation) to Ramah Canada- the camp I was working at. He was on my staff and we became good friends very quickly.

I went up north and stayed at his (beautiful) house. I went with my friend and roommate Talia, which made the 4 hour journey much easier. The weekend was so much fun- Yiftach celebrated his 22 birthday on Saturday and although he technically lives on a moshava (much different than a kibbutz- more privatized, etc.), the social life between he and his friends on the moshava are much like that found on a kibbutz. In other words, all his friends were chill and fun and we all had a great time hanging out all weekend.

Not to mention we went to a beautiful beach twice!

One very interesting thing that happened while we were up there: someone was making a toast to Yiftach in honor of his birthday. Had the toast been in the US, I really believe that the speech would have been quite lighthearted and silly. If not, I'm not sure it would have compared to what these boys said.

In the middle of a party, while everyone was laughing and talking and getting drunker and drunker, the boys all raised their glasses and made a toast that Gilad Shalit (the Israeli soldier that has been held captive in Gaza for the past 5 years) should come home.

Imagine that! I've yet to see a group of American (drunk) teenagers taking the time to toast to the soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan. Then again, I don't drink so I wouldn't really have seen any toast at all.

Time to sleep, I'm super tired.