Videos from the Wedding Ceremony

!!!!الف مبروك Elf Mabruk! Congratulations!!

Brent and I have continued to enjoy our time in Alexandria.

We made a trip to the Citadel and then walked along the Corniche and saw all the boats in the harbor and took pictures in front of the Alexandria library. We've also been hitting up some great restaurants including Muhammad Ahmad in the center of the city, which is a great place to grab quick falafal and ful. We also tried one of the cafes at the very nice Four Seasons hotel, which was expensive by Egyptian standards, but not too bad overall. The food was delicious. We also ate at an "American Style" steakhouse. A lot of restaurants have a set Iftar (the meal in the evening breaking the fast) menu, so that is what we ate at the steakhouse. We had salad and hummus, some great cream of chicken soup, kamar ah-deen (a Ramadan drink made from apricots- really sweet), a nice steak, and for dessert- jello and rice pudding. It wasn't quite like home, but it was good.

We also had dinner at my Rina's (my language partner) house. Rina, her mother Mary, her sister Fiby, and Fiby's fiance, Mina, were all very happy to meet Brent and it was a nice break for me since they spoke mostly English. Fiby is trying to practice her English since her and Mina are moving to Qatar where he has a job with a German engineering firm, after they get married.

Brent and I attened Fiby and Mina's wedding last night. It was absolutely wonderful and very interesting!

We arrived at the church at 7:30 and the wedding was supposed to start at 8:00pm. When we arrived, there was already a ceremony going on, so we went into the church and it was definitely a different couple. Apparently there was a wedding right before Fiby and Mina's. So we stepped outside and waited. The wedding then finally started at about 9:00pm. Fiby arrived in a car and met Mina on the steps of the church and the bride and groom walked in together and all the guests followed.

The bride and groom stood at the front of the church with like 6 priests who were reciting and chanting in Arabic. It was a little hard to understand so I'm not sure exactly what was going on. But there was an exchanging of the rings and they each were crowned with gold crowns at one point and there was a gold cape drapped around the groom. At the end the bride and groom walked out and the guests followed, congratulating them on the chuch steps.

After the ceremony we hung around as guests began to clear out and two younger guys approached us and asked if we were German- either if we worked with Mina at his firm or were from the German school in the area. We replied that we were American and I was Rina's language partner and it turns out one of them was Rina's cousin, also from America. His Dad would come by later and remark that he managed to find the only other English speakers in the bunch. Since we didn't have a ride they offered to drive us to the reception.

The reception was awesome! Dance party/club/wedding reception. When we entered Fiby and Mina were sitting on a chair in the center of a stage at the front of the room and then they had their first dance- on a platform that rose up and was lit. Then it was time for all the couples to dance and Rina pulled Brent and I on to the dance floor. Afterwards things just got crazy. The DJ started playing some American techno music who's lyrics include "Sex, Sex, Sex on the beach!" (yeah, pretty sure no one understood the song) and all of the young people got up and started dancing. Of course all of the Arab men were kicking my butt at hip shaking. It's amazing how Arab men can dance, and they are not shy about it. Very unlike most American men. There was also dancing with sticks- a video of which I've included here. At one point one of the guys put one end of the stick against his stomach and the other against Brent's so it was being held up between them and then was showing him how to dance. Another time one of the other guys was showing Brent how to pop his hip. It was most entertaining.

The entire time, during the wedding ceremony and the reception there was an army of photographers and video cameras running around the bride and groom. It was like paparazzi. Brent and I can be proud that our terrible attempt at dancing was caught on camera.

After loads of dancing, at about 2am, it was time for dinner. The meal was amazing. TONS of delicious food, and we were all plenty hungry by then. After dinner there was the cutting of the wedding cake- with a sword of course!! Fiby and Mina actually appeared out of this rotating platform in the wall with a multilayered cake with sparkelers on it. Awesome. Something a little different- the guests don't eat the wedding cake. We're not actually sure what happens to it.

Finally, it was time to see the bride and groom off. Since we didn't have a ride home, Rina arranged for some family friends to take us home, so we were part of the 5 car convey escorting the car with the bride and groom back to their apartment. The entire time we were honking and yelling out the windows. When we finally arrived at the apartment, everyone got out of the cars and continued to honk and yell and do that crazy yell that Arab women do. All at 4am. People were peering out of their apartments and shops looking at us. But no one seemed mad- after all, this is an exteremly common occurance. I can't tell you how many wedding's we've heard drive by here. Finally, everyone went home after that.

Fiby's mom was talking to us when we were over for dinner about how weddings here are becoming more and more expensive because of traditions brought over from America. With all of the effort put in to the reception, I can see why things are so expensive. The bride's dress was also bought from America. It was interesting to see the infusion of American wedding culture.

In the ride home, Rina's friend asked me- is this how it is with the celebrities (in America)? So apparently that is the standard for weddings here. I now understand why talking about weddings is such a large part of Arab culture!