After meeting two wonderful people, separately, for breakfast (Yaffa and Becca), the real wedding celebrations began. I went with Dena to get her hair done and then we got to relax in her beautiful suite at the Har Tzion hotel in Jerusalem. I had never heard of the hotel before, but it is absolutely gorgeous. Dena got her make-up done, and we helped her figure out getting her dress on, and all of the sudden, she was a bride. It was amazing to watch the transformation of her clothing, but since I saw her in the morning, she looked different than normal. I think her body already knew she was a bride.
The wedding itself was soooo beautiful - on a lot of levels. First of all it was in an amazing gardeny area that overlooks the old city. Second of all Juan and Dena both looked unbelievable and so happy, and also the emotions that were flying around this place - after YEARS of this nutty conversion disaster and just so many people that love them. It was just beautiful.
A highlight for me was when Eli and I got caught in the yichud room. I had been asked to bring up the ketuba and the broken glass and whatever else after the chuppah. It seemed like everyone was saying mazal tov to them, so it seemed like Eli and I had a few minutes. Their yichud room was also their room was also where we were putting all the stuff. We thought we had enough time to pee. Both of us. Well, I peed with no problem. But as soon as Eli went in there and closed the door, in marched the video guy, the photographer, the hotel people and JUAN AND DENA!!! They were like, "what are you DOING here?" It was totally awkward!
Post - wedding, I went to Tel Aviv to spend the day with Hagit. We walked all around the city and had an amazing time. I miss her and Ofir so much, and I hadn't seen her since I left New York. Ofir was in miluim so I didn't get to see him, which was very sad.
Shabbat in Jerusalem was an interesting experience for me. I wasn't sure what type of reaction I would have. I was scared I would want it back in my life more than it is now, and who knows, I could really just want to move back to Jerusalem. This was not the case. I really enjoyed shul and the shabbat atmosphere in Jerusalem in general, but I did not feel that I want to "be like this" again. The singing at shira chadasha did overwhelm me, but more than that was just the feeling that I hadn't felt since I was in Israel and 17 where I just realize that everyone around me is Jewish, and that alone was cool enough. I did, however, forget a bit how to daven. I didn't actually FORGET, but I don't have the entire service memorized anymore, which is very weird to me.
Eli and I walked to the tayelet and had a nice sit overlooking the old city before she flew back to NYC.
Motzei shabbat Becca, Anna and I went to see the new outdoor mall in Jerusalem - it's between the downtown area and the old city area, and it was actually, surprisingly nice! We also checked out the new midrachov on Yaffo. Apparently it will all be pedestrian and light rail only in a few years. it does look really different.
Then I went to Juan and Dena's sheva brachot, which was on a beautiful porch with wonderful people.
I have loved being in a city that is so filled with history, neat buildings, and a lot of emotion. I think that that is totally the opposite of Singapore, and I appreciated them here. The character of the place really stuck out to me - coming from Singapore.
One more "totally Israel" story - then I'm off to return back to Singapore.
Friday morning I took a taxi to the bus station, and the taxi driver asked if he could pick up his daughter and drive her to school, with me in the car, with the meter on. I said yes. Weird. Then we got into a big discussion about how the "Arabs own the world." He also said they're all violent, and other bad things. I was saying, "well I'm not sure it's EVERYONE," and "the Arabs in the Palestinian territories have a pretty rough life..." and what not, and it got pretty heated. We were going back and forth, and then I got to the station, I paid, and he said "yom tov! Shabbat Shalom! Bye." and that was it.
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