I may go to school with Israelis, work with Anglos, be related to Charedis, and live amongst Mizrachim, but believe it or not, I don’t hang too much with the Ethiopian crowd. That is – until tonight.
A coworker got married in Petach Tikva and it was a crazy experience for a few reasons:
1. This may sound weird, but it’s been a while since I felt like a total outsider. Yeah, yeah, I feel like an outsider to some extent everyday, but man, not like this. Not according to the colour of my skin and either of the languages I speak. It was an incredible feeling, which is probably only because it doesn’t happen often.
2. Amharic is such a cool-sounding language. And the music is awesome. And the dancing wild. Why? Because the older generation has got the beats down so well, the movements – quick but delicate – and the younger generation has to try and keep up with that. I watched a little dance-off between these two guys, one old and one young, and the young guy was in awe of his elder’s moves and it was gorgeous.
3. I love how emotional yet free-spirited (most) Israeli weddings are in general. How formulated are American weddings? How completely organized and ‘carried out’? Everyone seemed so relaxed here. Like it was actually a happy occasion. Especially the chatan. And the music. And the dance. This is the way it looks:
But, alas, no matter what kind of moves were underway, there were still those who don’t move out of the way; for what would an Israeli wedding be without the obnoxious in-your-face photographer?
Whadya got: