Ami and Yochi's wedding

Some days its hard to remember that I am a new immigrant, then something happens to make it glaringly obvious that I am American at heart. Its an interesting mix. Since Yehi is Israeli, and his whole family is here, I often find myself in situations that seem so familiar, yet so different. My brother in law got married last night, and it was a great event. As far as the ceremony and celebration go, it was about as different from our wedding as you can get. We had matching groomsmen and bridesmaids, Ami's brothers wore jeans and whatever new shirt they wanted. We marched down the aisle to "Jersualem of Gold" (no lyrics of course) and Ami and Yochi marched down to Eyal Golan songs. We had 250 people at our wedding, they had close to 700. In the end though, the joy of the wedding reminded me of ours, and it made me so thankful for my dear husband (and for a wedding that was much more my style!)

I still find certain aspects of Israeli weddings strange. Hiring professional dancers to dance on stages dressed up as mermaids for instance... the lack of slow songs I will never understand (especially when half your audience is over 50... do they really want to rock out to that music? maybe israelis are just cooler than americans.). The lack of attention to the actual ceremony, and the focus on the party still bothers me occasionally...

Even with all that, there will always be things that amaze me about Israeli weddings. i find the fireworks (inside and outside) amazing, the pure joy in the dancing, the way Israelis celebrate like this really is the BEST moment they will EVER have in their lives... its inspiring to be a part of that. They really know how to throw their whole hearts and souls into being thankful for the very moment they are in, and I hope that is something I can learn.

After the wedding, religious Jews have a week of party dinners (sheva brachot). We had one tonight with them, and it was nice to be able to celebrate their union in a slightly more personal way. I am happy to have gained a new sister in law, and even happier that the craziness leading up to the wedding is past us. maybe now we can actually figure out some sort of schedule.

things have been going pretty steadily. Ulpan has been a lot of fun, and part of me likes being a student again. I know there is a lot of work ahead of me as far as learning hebrew, but I like the challenge. I have been getting a newspaper once a week called Shaar Lamatchil, which has all the news in hebrew, but written with vowels and in relatively easy grammar and vocab.

The holidays start this week, and it will be my first Yom Kippur ever in Israel, and my first time having my own sukkah to build. I am sad to not be able to spend the holidays with my family, especially since Rosh Hashana also happens to fall on my brothers birthday. At least we have Yehis family here to celebrate with, and most of his siblings will be around.

One of Yehi's brothers (the best man at our wedding) is getting married after sukkot, and things have already been gearing up to get ready for the henna and the wedding. They have been planning decorations, food, outfits and everything else one could possibly think of. My mother-in-law has been teaching me how to make Moroccan style cookies, so I can help her with the preparations. I enjoy baking, so it has been fun. We will be baking for about 600 people for BOTH the wedding and the henna, so there will be a lot of work. at least it enjoyable, and helps me practice my hebrew