Israeli Weddings, Cambodians, and The Flight

SO i know it has been a long time since i wrote. Things have been busy and not so busy so i didn't feel it so necessary to update.

My parents got here, it was nice to see them and even thought our time together was short and i had to share them with all kinds of people it was still nice to see them.

Guy and i have been talking every day since i got back. It talk to eachother before bed. There are days that are still harder than others but being able to talk so easily while i have been here and in the same time zone as him is something i am not looking forward to leaving. I have every internet chatting program downloaded to computer and am looking into israeli telephone lines over the internet so it think i am as prepared as possible to return to the states from that stand point.

From another stand point returning is kind of hard. Leaving this country where i have really gotten the hang of living here and entering a new world full of unknowns and decision to make is not as inviteing as one may think. I don't even know where i will be a week from now.....
But i am hanging in there, breathing deep, and trying to stay calm, i think thats all that can be expected of me. I will keep you posted once the powers that be let me in on the plans.

So the past few days and my first encounter with cambodians.
My dads buisness partners from Cambodia (not the tree people the island people) came for the wedding of my dad's buisness partner and very good friend's daughter (did you guys catch all that?). So since my dad's friend was busy giving his daughter away and all that entails we were incharge of showing them a good time in Israel. We took them all over. The first day we took them to this place in the middle of the desert where they grow cherry tomatoes, raise turkeys, keep bees, and make wine. This place wasn't so amazing but it was cool to see how all this can be in the middle and i mean absolutly in the middle of nowhere in the desert. What was cooler was the story of how they got there. The woman that showed us around told us the stroy of how she was a young early 20's idealist she and a few other like her moved out to the Sanai Desert when it still belonged to Israel to start a new living. After the the peace agreement with Eygpt they were moved back in to Israeli teritory. For whatever reasons they still wanted to live by themseves there. There were maybe a few families and they started seeing what they could do for a living, somehow they got to cherry tomatoes, and built greenhoueses and got the government to help build a desalinization(?) plant to remove salt from the only water source they had (a huge saltwater spring under the ground) and now they have grown to about 100 families they bring in workers from thailand and vietnam and they seriousley live there in the middle of nowhere. I don't know if i told the whole story right but i hope you guys got it.

That night we went to what is a Moracan wedding tradition called a Cheena party. Cheena in hebrew means Hena. Basically they have a big party with really sweet pastries and candies and everyone wheres fun traditional marocan clothing and then they put hena in the palm of the bride and guests for luck. it was a lot of fun with everyone danceing to crazy israeli music and just going wild (the open bar helped). Now i have a lovely little orange mark to bring me luck to show or it.

The next day we took the cambodians to the dead sea to float, Masada to see some historical excavation and learn some jewish history, and to a chinese restaurant (They are actually chinese camboadians so they were missing "normal" food) where we met a chinese man who spoke hebrew. (That was very interesting i have never met a hebrew speaking chinese man let a lone a chinese zionist).

The next day was the wedding. Also impressive, so much food and open bar from 12-8 when we finally decided we needed to leave even though the dancing and the drinking was still going. The caremony was simple and short (Israeli). The rabbai sang the whole time and made jokes between the blessings. After that we ate and then because the wedding was on a friday and shabbat starts friday night they needed to close up the play at around 4. So they said we have to close here but if you go to the other side of the fence there is more food and drinks and dancing. The brides friends were absolutly crazy, she was already sitting on the side having a cigerette and her frineds were still dancing to the wee hours of the morning as i understand it.
The place was absolutly gorgeouse and along the beach. We watched a beautiful sunset and had a great time. It was really beautiful and the simple casualness of the israeli wedding lacked in nothing. The bride was absolutly beautiful in her 20's evoking ensamble.

All in all i am glad i stayed to meet the cambodians, be there for the wedding, and spend a little time with my parents.

I am not totally ready to go back yet but what can you do, there comes a time when we all have to face the music and my dad is playing it very loudly right now in the oter room.

So heres to a nice long flight hope i will sleep through, and i will see on the other side of the planet.

see you soon.