Wedding Party

Day 6

Tonight was Mohammed's brother's wedding party. I should say, it was one party in a week of raucous gatherings that traditionally precedes the wedding day. Another student here Mark and I were invited to this gig on Sunday after striking up a conversation with a grocer/ice cream vendor in Irbid's suq.

We were a little unsure of the exact name of the building hosting the party so we enlisted the help of some Irbid youth [shabab] to hail a cab and make sure we got off in the right direction. The cabby actually walked us all the way up to the door and introduced us to the party's very informal version of a bouncer (no wedding crashing in Jordan apparently, they run a tight ship).

The room was a 2nd story banquet room in downtown Irbid, holding tables of about 100 or so men and boys related to or close friends of the groom. Mohammed greeted us at the door (a typical 3 cheek kiss exchange) and ushered us over to a table of 20-somethings, where, other than being the only obvious standouts in the party, we fit right in...

We were in suits and fears about being overdressed were allayed by Mohammed and some of the other men in Italian suits. After a whirlwind of introductions, we got down to the usually broken-Arabic conversations about our summer program, studying Arabic in general, traveling around Jordan, and life in the U.S. Between gulps of second-hand cigarette smoke, Mark and I joined the fellas in downing champagne glasses of soda (Seven Up or Pepsi) and plates of cake.

Eventually the groom came down from upstairs--where he had been greeting all the women that the bride had invited--and started making the rounds downstairs. Let me assure you this is no simple nor short process, as many in the room must be given the cheek-smooch greeting before lengthy exchanges of pleasantries are exchanged. Eventually he weaved his way to our table, where I found out first hand he spoke impeccable English (5 or 6 years of IT work in the U.S.) and had an incredibly smooth-shaven face ;-).

We talked our way into the night until things started breaking up around 1130. That leaves about 30 mins of reasonable time to spend on homework. Yalla...