long overdue and anti-climactic!

well, the pictures/video of my middle eastern night o' fun are yet to be received, but it's been a week! so i thought i would record what i remember of the deep dive into america's underground middle eastern culture...

- this began when our coworker, a middle eastern caseworker (florida is her name) at interfaith refugee ministries (soon to be called "refugee one"... i'll save my opinions on that for later) invited us out to a middle eastern club for food and dancing.

- the night began at the time i usually am going to bed. marta, myself and the other intern jason had low expectations with much anticipation of awkwardness. i was especially excited/terrified because dancing and club are not activities i do often around other people.

- we find out this club is actually a greek restaurant owned by an egyptian.

- we go in, meet florida, order drinks (and i ordered some tiramisu... yum!) and realize that we are the minority with our northern european heritage.

- the band gets up and starts to play. it is not music i would usually think of dancing to! the lead singer is a very broad, beefy man whom florida tell us is very wealthy and does this as a hobby.

- then florida's brother comes in. florida has told us beforehand that he is a regular at this restaurant and even has his own table reserved. also, in their culture, you live at home until you are married. so florida (30-something) and her 43-year old brother (and another sister) are still at home.

i'm not sure what to expect.

- he comes in with his crew and they are al dressed in dress pants, button down shirts... very snazzy and very intimidating... then he came over, hugged and kissed florida, asked how we were doing and i felt like i'd been accepted into the protection of a mobster. it was awesome! several times i told florida that it was like we were sitting behind the mob. she laughed and laughed.

- then, a bit later. the belly dancer comes out.

now, i wasn't sure what to expect,
or where to look,
or what this would be like!

- overall, it was quite anticlimactic. according to florida, she wasn't even that good. she danced as the guy sang. i tried to imagine what it would be like to wear a bra decorated with long fringe. what i did appreciate about it is that she was not this super skinny or sexy woman... she had a very ordinary shape, wasn't even that thin... and yet she danced away in front of everyone.

- following this, other tables started ordering hookah (flavored tobacco). one of florida's friends ordered it. now, this is something i've always wanted to try, but was skeptical about. so, i tried it. again, a bit anti-climactic LOL. AND i never could do it right, much to the amusement of florida and her friends. they kept trying to tell me how, but i could never inhale just right.

- after this, no one had started dancing yet. then, a guy from another table got up, took his cloth napkin, tied it into a knot and started swinging it around. he then grabbed the hand of a woman at his table and she grabbed someone else, and so on... and they all got up on the dance floor and started doing the same dance in a circle. florida informed us that they were lebanese and this is a dance they do to start off parties. love it!!

- eventually we all got onto the floor and danced together like a long human snake. if i had been drunk or high (LOLOL) i'm sure this would've been quite magical. instead, it was sweaty, a bit awkward and very fun.

- after a few group dances, everyone separated out and danced with each other. what i appreciated was that it was so clean!! there was no grinding, "sex with clothes on" dancing. just clean and fun (though there was some shoulder shimmying :)).

- later on the belly dancer came out again and did her thing. at one point, a man threw this huge wad of dollar bills at her and the singer. apparently this is normal as they all went on doing their thing.

and that, was the middle eastern experience :). it is sort of an underground gathering because the restaurant it is hosted in has an entirely different feel by day.

- but my night was not done as i got a taste of chicago mass transit after 1:30am. what was amazing to me is that it felt like 7pm because there were so many people out and about! what was different was that everyone who was out was in some altered state due to drinking, etc. it was sort of like a crazy playland. on the train, the girl behind me kept telling me she loved my hair and wanted to twirl it. then some very smelly guys got on and sat next to me and proceeded to ask me if i loved america. later on the girl called me apple pie and said she would miss me as i left. it seemed very surreal.

and then, i took a taxi the rest of the way home and went to bed.

the. end.